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  The Order

  The Hayle Coven Destinies: Book Six

  Patti Larsen

  Smashwords Edition

  Copyright 2015 by Patti Larsen

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  Purely Paranormal Press

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  Cover art (copyright) by Valerie Bellamy. All rights reserved.

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  Edited by Annetta Ribken, freelance Goddess. You can find her at http://www.wordwebbing.com/

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  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Amazon.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

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  Chapter One

  Their laughter made me smile, the first time I’d felt like smiling in a long time, it seemed. Infectious, delicious, the exuberant excitement of a brother and sister at play without a care in the world.

  If only. Though, for now it was easy for my son to forget his role in the end of the Universe as we knew it. As the Gateway, whatever that would ultimately mean for him and the rest of us, my son spent far too much time sad and quiet, doing his best to keep his chin up, his shoulders back. So much weight for a boy to carry, a weight I knew well and could do little to help him bear. I had my own burdens.

  The last few days, though, felt different. Our takeover of the Gate cavern—a place I thought long lost to us with the death of my darling Liam—had given my children a refuge from the world, a space that welcomed us with intelligence and love. Shielded us from the outside in ways I could only be grateful for and refused to question. I now knew why this place remained despite Liam’s loss. He’d stayed behind, left his soul here for us, in case we would need him again.

  I dabbed at a tear in the corner of my eye and held still as Gabriel peeked around the edge of the bookcase in the Gate archive room, cheeks bright and flushed, hazel eyes sparking green. His tousled, blond curls glinted with red in the low light, reminding me with poignant hurt just how much I’d lost the day Fate took my husband away.

  I envied them, Gabriel and Ethie, as his sister dashed from the darkness of a shadowed enclosure, leaping for her brother like a tiger ready to take down her prey. Gabriel snorted a giggle and spun, running back the way he’d come, into the endless distance of the stacks of the archive. I listened to the two of them howl their glee, my daughter’s frowning face no longer a thundercloud of judgment and hurt. At least at the moment. Her anger at me would return, I had no doubt.

  I’d earned it.

  For now, I simply sat with Liam’s computer in my lap, staring after them with my lips aching from the unaccustomed expression, wishing he was here to see.

  And unable to let go of the possibility maybe—why was I torturing myself exactly?—just maybe, he might be able to. Magic was funny stuff, wasn’t it? And hadn’t I just discovered his soul remained behind here, or a piece of it, anyway, in the archive where he learned he was Gatekeeper to the Sidhe realm? Hadn’t that dear, precious spirit connected me to Alison in the void, granting me answers I so desperately needed? In effect, saving me as he’d always tried so hard to do.

  Wasn’t it my turn to do the same for him?

  Why had it taken me this long to realize Liam was exactly who I needed after all? I shivered at the thought of him, knowing how Quaid and I turned out, though my darling Sidhe Gatekeeper would never judge me. Things would have been so different, wouldn’t they, if Liam had lived? No Gateway, for one. The Universe intact. Dark Brother without a way to cross from his side to this one, the threat of his powerful soldiers, The Order, vanished with the hurt and loss and death of the past… how long?

  Dear elements, had it only been eight months since Zoe Helios crash landed in my back yard and signaled the end of my happily ever after?

  I looked down at Liam’s computer in my lap, slowly lifted the lid. This was torture, exquisite and demanding. I should have changed the image on the screensaver, should have erased it so I could focus on the task at hand instead of staring for endless amounts of time at the smiling, beautiful couple holding each other, barely twenty-one and fresh and, though they had gone through a great deal, so in love. Was I ever that young?

  I traced one finger down Liam’s cheek, smiling back at him, a soft splash of moisture landing and spreading over the keyboard. I wiped it away hastily, dashed at the tears on my cheeks, unbidden as always when it came to Liam. I’d fought so hard to keep inside all the hurt I’d gathered to me over the years. Being here, knowing how close he was to me, how near he had been… the frustration that I’d lost him again was almost unbearable.

  I slammed shut the computer and set it aside, rising to the sound of my children’s giggles in the distance. If there was any way to bring him out of the Gate space where his soul had resided I would find it. Selfish, of course. Not to save him, or not just to save him, but to have him by my side during the darkest time of my life.

  I needed him, plain and simple. Anyone who told me he wasn’t enough—strong enough, powerful enough—could go to hell and stay there.

  Never mind Gram informed me the piece of him he’d left behind was burned up, gone. I’d believed her at the time. But being here the past few days, living in this space that felt so much like him, I was beginning to doubt her. And allowed maybe more hope than was healthy for my already shattered heart.

  Whatever the truth, good or bad, I’d find it. Liam deserved the best from me.

  My feet carried me out of the archive and into the passage, down the hall to the Gate room itself. Knees bending of their own accord, I sank to the ground, looking up at the stunning carved form of the route between my world and the Sidhe realm. How simple it seemed to me now, though at the time of its discovery I was in awe of the power of the Gate. But over a decade of regular travel through the veil between worlds—including time spent as a drach—had left this place unremarkable in some ways.

  And incredibly precious in others.

  If what Gram said was true, that Liam was gone at last, so be it. I just couldn’t bring myself to believe it. The fact he’d stayed at all, remaining stuck here for all this time, was a miracle. And I believed in miracles these days. I had to. They were the only things keeping me from crumpling to the floor and weeping in desperate loss.

  There was no doubt in my mind I had bigger things to worry about than this. Giant, huge, Universe ending things. The practical part of me demanded I stand up, exit the Gate cavern’s protective space and get the hell back to it already before the entirety of creation imploded on itself.

  But.

  This was Liam we were talking about. And true love had to come first. Didn't it? Without love, what was the use in saving the Universe at all?

  I refused to regret Quaid or my marriage to him. We’d created Ethie, after all, our gorgeous if stubborn and distinctly Hayle daughter. Despite our differences I still had fond memories of the quiet time we’d managed, that short and delightfully dull eight years between one disaster and the next. But it was clearer to me now than ever before the magic my mother and Batsheva Moromond embedded in us as infants was the only thing that held us together all that time. Severing it as I did left me empty and sad, but relieved, too.

  Free. I liked freedom. I had so little of it.

  Liam’s loss gnawed at me as I let my mind wander. Not fo
r the first time I reached out with my power, seeking him again. His touch was the most familiar thing in the world, should have been easy to locate for my not-inconsiderable magic. I had the strength of the Universe behind me it seemed at times and yet, tears returning as failure won, I clenched my teeth against the frustration of my inability to find one lost, dear soul. Refusing to believe, at last, Gram had been right.

  Refusing.

  I exhaled finally, angry, sorrowful, turning my face from the Gate. My gaze dropped, eyes falling to the black ribbon wound around my wrist. It twitched, sympathetic, the end stirring to stroke my skin.

  “Help me,” I whispered to it. “Please, I ask so little. Help me find him.”

  It tried, I’ll give it that. It joined its power to mine, enough the suspicion I had about its origins added an extra layer of surety. Its power felt different, more like sorcery than drach magic. Max’s supposition it came from the Dark Universe seemed to be correct, though it had never once threatened or tried to harm me. To the contrary. It had saved me a few times so far, including two ill-conceived attempts to reach the vampires in the void space between the edges of the veil.

  The slender, pulsing ribbon of the drach soul I wore tried its best yet again, as it had since the moment Andre Dumont’s dying vengeance against his former ally landed this treasure in my possession. I wondered at times what Liander Belaisle, the previous leader of the Brotherhood and now pawn of Dark Brother in our Universe, would have accomplished with the ribbon in his grasp. I’d never know. To take possession, he’d have to pry it from my cold, dead wrist.

  Despite its attempt, and mine, our joined power twining through and around the magic of the Gate, diving deeply into the magic that created the barrier between my world and the Sidhe, we found nothing. Not a scrap, a hint, a breath of Liam. At last the ribbon settled on my skin and sighed.

  I stroked it gently, sadly. “Thank you.”

  It twitched in its own frustration before falling still.

  Another failure. But I wasn’t giving up. Not on Liam, not ever again. There was a way and I would find it. Because he would never have given up on me.

  I didn’t have time to further beat myself to an internal pulp of regret and guilt. Not when the air of the chamber whispered behind me and an accustomed power touched mine.

  Anger rose against her as I felt my jaw tighten on its own in response to her arrival. The last time I’d seen her she’d betrayed me. I didn’t get up, didn’t even look at her as Fate waited for my attention.

  “Zoe,” I said, voice rough. “I was wondering when you’d show up.”

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  Chapter Two

  Now, don’t take my tone the wrong way. Part of me was happy to see Zoe Helios, the new Fate on our plane. She’d saved my coven from the Brotherhood with her fiery warning back before my life went to hell. And I liked her, I really did. More so when she was just an Oracle, mind you. This new Zoe was a pain in my ass, to be honest. But the fact she was here, in the Gate cavern, could mean answers I was dying for.

  Or more riddles from Creator via the Helios girl’s mouth. We’d see which I was about to endure.

  Angry and suspicious? Who, me?

  “It’s good to see you here, Syd,” Zoe said, as if she’d been here all along and hadn’t just met me eight months ago. It was weird to remember she’d been watching me her whole life, had once been convinced by her grandmother and Liander Belaisle I was the bad guy. How much of my life did she really know about? I’d never had the chance to ask. And, frankly, I didn’t care at the moment.

  I turned slowly, looked up at her. It was easy to forget she was barely twenty, that her fresh face and dark brown eyes, olive skin and flowing brown hair meant one so young in physical form. She radiated power, especially now, Creator’s Fate her master. Even when we’d met, the night she’d become the Phoenix—I still had to find out what that meant, added it to my tiresome list of After The Disaster stuff to remember to ask—she’d been a force to reckon with. One I was grateful to have on my side.

  And had been all along. Until she and Trill Zornov paired up to betray me and hand over the foot of Creator’s statue to my mortal enemy.

  Friends like that, who needed a nemesis?

  She must have known where my head was, because she sighed and shrugged, apologetic without being soft. “There is so much beyond your knowledge,” she said, Creator’s multilayered voice whispering out over Zoe’s words. “Things you can’t know yet, Syd. I beg you, do what you do best and trust I have the rest well in hand.”

  Couldn’t argue with the maker of everything. Then again… when had I ever taken anything on face value, even from the Creator of the Universe?

  “Whatever,” I said, turning away again, irritation piqued, fully aware it was probably a terrible idea to treat Creator and her Fate like they were pissing me off but far too broken and world weary to give a crap. “What do you want, Zoe?”

  Her soft footfalls announced her motion, the sigh of her clothing and movement from the corner of my eye telling me she wasn’t going anywhere any time soon. She folded her legs beneath her, sitting beside me, hands in her lap. At least she didn’t try to touch me. I don’t think I could have handled any kind of offer of kindness or familiarity from her at the moment.

  “While there are details of which you must remain ignorant,” she said, voice soft and quavering slightly, as though Zoe disagreed with Creator’s decision, “there are others you must now be aware of.”

  “Should I thank you for the dribs and drabs?” Okay, I was being unfair. And an idiot and all the terrible names I’d called myself over the years. But, damn it.

  Just, damn it all.

  “It’s time for him to come to you.” Zoe’s hands twitched on her legs as my heart leaped from my chest and lay pounding on the ground at my feet. At least, that’s what it felt like. Shocking to find it still inside me, beating away.

  Liam. She had to mean Liam. I could have hugged her in that instant, forgiven her anything, but Zoe wasn’t done.

  “When you meet him,” she said, the reality of what she told me sinking in and killing off the joy in my soul, destroying yet again any hope I might have Liam was returning to me with those near incomprehensible words, “you will know him.” Zoe’s brown eyes glistened with tears. I barely heard her through the shattered shock of loss yet again. Wait, him? Who him? “You must trust him.” Her arms rose, hands fluttering ineffectually a moment before she seemed to collapse inward, shoulders sagging. “He’s not only vital to your fate but is exactly who you have been looking for.”

  That made zero sense and I was fully prepared to throttle her for more information. But before I could reach out and smack her a good one, she leaped to her feet and backed away.

  I glared up at her through slitted eyes, hating her all over again. Yes, hate. Strong word, that. But with the residue of Liam’s hope still clinging to me hate had a place to settle and grow.

  “You suck,” I snarled. “You just suck, Zoe. Creator. All of you, all of it.” I drew a breath to pull in my rage, feeding on my anger, eating me up inside until I found myself on my feet, too, fists clenched at my side. “Unless you have specific, important and helpful things to tell me, you can get your scrawny Oracle ass out of my Gate cavern and keep your Fate freak show to yourself.”

  Zoe flinched from me, hands rising to form a barrier between us. Was I that scary, even to her? I couldn’t hurt her. I knew that. She was Fate, for the element’s sake. And Creator sometimes. But no, it wasn’t physical harm she feared, was it? I could see it in her face at last, registered her despair, her hurt.

  It was her heart I stabbed over and over with my words.

  Well. So be it.

  “There is an order,” she whispered. “And you, despite your power, remain inside it with the rest of us.”

  More riddles, though oddly her words helped calm me. No help from her, not really. Okay then. Business as usual.

  Zoe shook her head, hair swinging, fac
e scrunched as if she wanted to say more. But even as her mouth opened to speak, a tear trickling down her cheek, she vanished. Creator’s doing? Or her own? Didn’t know. Tried not to care. Failed.

  Yeah. I didn’t do hate very well.

  Unless your name was Liander Belaisle.

  I sank back down to the cool stone floor, feeling it warm beneath me. Reflexively, needing to wipe away the memory of the last few minutes, I ran my palms briskly up and down my thighs, skin whispering over denim.

  I needed a clear head and Zoe’s visit wasn’t exactly conducive. Sure, I’d take the time to ponder what she said when I was more settled, less pissed off. Maybe I’d talk to Sass about it, or Gram. Max, even. The drach leader’s calm would help me sort out my feelings. I missed being drach at times like this, missed the absolute level and cool emotionless state I’d lived for six months while my drach heritage allowed me the rest I needed.

  Thanks for the reminder. My demon’s snarky prod was fed with fire of her own.

  You know better than to take it personally, Shaylee snapped at her, the Sidhe princess inside me shouldering aside my demon’s flames with a burst of green earth energy.

  Syd, my vampire sent. We need to talk about what Zoe just said.

  In a bit. I shrugged both shoulders, shaking off the anger, their internal dialogue, as much of my own stress as possible. I’d had an idea with Shaylee’s defense, her earth power quivering through me and into the stone under me, travelling toward the Gate where it zinged in tiny sparks at the base of the carved, wooden structure between planes. I want to try something first.

  The fate of the Universe is more important. My vampire sounded contrite even as she spoke and, instead of being angry, I found sadness replacing my rage.

  I know, I sent in return, feeling the three souls inside me hug me as I sagged into sorrow. But I need to know.

  They continued to support me when I tapped into the power of the Gate and called out to Cian. Funny it had never occurred to me before, not once, to try to talk to the Gate maker. I knew about him, had known for years, since meeting Liam and discovering the reason for the Gate. The fact the Seelie lord had divided his soul into pieces to create the Gates from this plane to the Sidhe realm meant his consciousness had to be in there somewhere. My son confirmed it when he left his own body and entered the veil through the Gate not so long ago.