A Taste of the Divine

PREVIEW:CHAPTER 2

A note to the reader:

This is a preview of my full length novel, A Taste of the Divine. It can be found for preorder on all platforms as of 3/15, and will be released on 4/30/2024.

Chapter 2

The doorway created by the smoke pillar deposits me into a large hallway that looks nothing like the room I have just exited. The light, off-white walls meet a gold flecked marbled floor and balls of soft light float across the air above me, illuminating the long hall with a glow that is almost… comforting. I slowly step forward, repeating the directions to the Chaos Demon’s office over and over in my mind. The aforementioned fork in the hall appears and my steps speed up as

I take the right corridor, anxiety over getting this cleared up mixing with my fear of meeting this “Pep”. I’m not sure what to expect from a Chaos Demon. Then again, I never expected any part of Hell to look like a luxury hotel, nor for its inhabitants to have office space. So, maybe I should just let go of any preconceived notions all together.

Reaching the third door on the left, I halt my steps and raise my hand to knock on the priceless looking wood, which has been painstakingly carved with images of snakes and hundreds of symbols I don’t recognize. Before my knuckles can make contact, the heavy door swings open and I’m hit with the scent of fresh cut grass and orange blossoms.

“Come in, Lillian.” The voice is calm, almost soft.

I step through the threshold and enter a space much larger than should be possible. It’s not an office at all, but rather a small meadow, complete with a willow tree and a trickling creek running through it. Once inside, I notice that there are no real walls – instead, the space is surrounded by a smoky mist, reflecting the light from the floating balls above and casting pastel rainbows throughout the entire room. The marbled floor gives way to lush grass sprinkled with white clover and small, yellow daisies. At the peak of a tiny, grass covered hill sits a man, his legs crossed in front of him. His face is made of sharp angles – high cheekbones, a long, pointed chin, and a thin, straight nose. His eyes remain closed while his chest moves steadily up and down, his thin lips only parting to exhale slowly. His linen shirt matches his wide legged pants and sits unbuttoned, exposing the caramel skin and lean muscles that shape his torso. The light fabric blows slightly in the gentle breeze that moves through the peaceful meadow, tussling his short, chestnut shaded curls.

Just as I start to wonder if I’ve entered the wrong room, his eyes snap open and he says my name. “Lillian Carmichael.”

I freeze, his golden eyes causing my breath to catch in my throat as he stares at me through black, vertical pupils. The sound of my name slithers from his mouth, his breathy voice wrapping around me, constricting my ability to move.

“It seems that there’s a bit of a mess to clean up, and you are at the center of it.”

The slender man – demon – stands from his cross-legged position, his movement as smooth and graceful as the serpents carved into his door. He glides across the meadow, his strange eyes fixated on my face. I try not to visibly shake as he circles around, a light whoosh of air passing by my ear as he sniffs.

“Do you know what lives within the heart of chaos, Lillian?” His fingers are cold as they drift across my cheek from behind. He drags them down my neck and along my spine. “Fear. Anxiety. Panic. It’s absolutely decadent.” There’s a hiss, and I squeeze my eyes shut over the sensation of his tongue trailing along the shell of my ear, the forked tip against my skin as light and fluttering as the butterflies that bounce over the flowers at my feet.

The feeling of his bony fingers trailing my spine and his hissing tongue at my ear dash any hope I had gathered during my walk to this room. I had truly begun to believe that I would find help, that I was going to be saved from an eternity in Hell, but as his words slither into my ears and his whispering voice continues to suffocate me, I worry that this fear is some type of punishment instead.

And that it’s only the beginning.

What on Earth could I have possibly done to deserve this? I squeeze my shut eyes even tighter, not wanting to give into the tears that threaten to escape, not wanting to admit that I’ve already broken so quickly. I don’t remember dying, but it can’t have been worse than this. I press my hands to my stomach, begging it not to dry heave as the understanding of the phrase a fate worse than death slices through my mind, shredding every other thought to pieces.

“Pep, her soul is not ours to feed on. Not officially.”

A feminine voice snaps me out of my fear and I can feel Apep step away from me. The sensation of invisible coils constricting my chest loosens and I can suddenly take a full breath. Forcing myself to breathe slowly, to absorb the combination of fresh scents in the air around me, I open my eyes and turn towards the voice. Apep moves into my line of sight, approaching the woman who stands within the threshold of the door.

He shrugs casually. “It was only a taste to learn what it is I am dealing with. You know I like to be thorough.”

The woman glares at Apep before slowly turning to me. She wears a long black cloak, the hood draped across her shoulders, hands held against her waist, hidden by the large, hanging fabric of her sleeves. Her face is sharp and dominating with the kind of bold cheekbones and straight nose that women pay thousands of dollars for. Her ghostly pale complexion is made even more haunting by her pitch-black eyes and hair that cascades around her shoulders, such a dark shade of brown that it nearly blends with the black fabric of her cloak. She gives me a small nod but offers nothing more about who she is or why she’s here.

I almost don’t care. In fact, I’m ready to stomp over and hug her for interrupting whatever Apep’s plans were, despite the fact that she terrifies me almost as much as he does.

She turns back to Apep and raises her flawless brows. “I’m here to retrieve her. Luc has been informed of the situation and asked that she be brought directly to him.”

Rolling his eyes, the slender demon crosses his arms against his chest. “And how does he expect me to begin sorting this out without her? I need to search the soul to find her tether — to find where the confusion lies, and if that tether does in fact lead her here.” He swivels his head towards me, his slitted eyes raking up and down almost hungrily. “To find if she, in fact, does belong to us.”

“And if that confusion does not lie within her soul? What then?” Her voice is calm, like a lullaby drifting through tree branches on a starry night.

Apep’s head whips back towards her. “That’s not possible.”

She moves her face slightly, looking past Apep to me, but only for a quick second before hardening and returning to meet Apep’s challenging stare. “Take it up with Luc. I was sent to retrieve her, and that’s what I’m here to do. Not argue with you over a single mortal soul. You are welcome to join us at the Estate if you’d like to speak with him about it now.” She turns back to me and nods her head towards the door. “Lillian,” she coaxes, her tone indicating that I should follow her.

Which I will happily do if that means getting away from Apep. Hopefully wherever this Luc is, it’s far from here.

Unless he’s worse.

Apep drops his defensive stance and saunters away from the door and back into the meadow. A serpentine grin creeps across his face and his thin, slitted tongue darts over his teeth as he approaches me. “I suppose I can wait until he gives me his own assessment.”

Not wanting to give him the opportunity to get any closer to me, I sidestep around him and toward the cloaked woman in the doorway. I’m not sure what compels me to do it, but just before I reach her, I turn back towards the demon behind me. Maybe it’s her presence making me feel like he won’t touch me again while she’s here, but the fear subsides just enough, and I’m left with too much curiosity to ignore.

I meet his eyes and tilt my head. “You’re a demon of chaos, yet…” I trail off as I gesture to the space around us.

Apep places his hands into the pockets of his linen pants and takes a slow look around him before setting his amber gaze back upon me. “To be intimate with chaos, one must also be intimate with peace. To control one is to control the other.” He shrugs and a small, less threatening smile graces his lips. “And, though I may be a master of creating chaos, though I may revel in it and feed off the essence that leaks from the souls caught in my storm, that does not mean that I like to live in it.”

Right. I nod and turn back toward the cloaked stranger, following her out the door. She leads me in the direction I came from. Once we get to the end of the corridor, she pulls a hand free from the sleeves against her waist and waves a black tipped finger through the air. A pillar of smoke appears, and she steps through, not even looking back to make sure I follow. As I enter the portal of smoke, the same cool, tingling sensation as the first one caresses my skin until the smoke clears and I find myself standing in open air upon a perfectly manicured patch of grass. The bright green color is in stark contrast to the black, rocky mountains that surround us on all sides. The air around me feels light and crisp and a cool breeze brushes over my cheeks as if to blow away the lingering sensations of Apep’s touch.

“Thank you,” I say before she can continue leading me to wherever we are going. “I was sure he was going to crush me and eat my bones.”

“No need to thank me, I’m simply doing my job.” The statement is blunt and there is not a hint of sympathy anywhere within her smooth voice, nor to be seen on her porcelain features. With that, she faces forward and nods her head for me to follow.

When I look up in the direction she is moving, I am greeted by a staircase made of black stone. The stairs lead up to the entrance of a sprawling architectural masterpiece made of the same dark stone.

A flawless replica of a Gothic Cathedral, the towering walls are covered in countless windows filled with stained glass, the jewel tones and intricate patterns shining colorfully in the bright sun. Gargoyles with twisted faces and horrifying wings decorate the pointed rooftops and a large black bell hangs in a tower on the left. The air that blows through the unfamiliar trees and bushes that line the perimeter is crisp and almost chilly, despite the bright blue and clear sky above.

Suddenly, two of the gargoyles, which I could have sworn were made of stone, stand from their crouched positions on the roof and jump down, not even bothering to use their large, sinewy wings to soften their landing. The two monsters approach, dressed in armor of black scales and worn leather, with their dark wings peeking over their shoulders. Their hands rest upon the hilts of their swords at their hips.

A new wave of fear drops from my chest and collides against my stomach as I take in the scene around me. “Um, who exactly is Luc?”

The woman starts towards the stairs. “The king.”