Chaos — Patti Larsen

Who knew finding her role in Creation was only the beginning…?

Mistress of Monsters

A diminutive girl with half her chest missing and feet made of charred bobbed a deep curtsy. I murmured welcome, cringing as she smiled, porcelain skin cracking with deep ridges and weeping blood.

Kindness and patience, my mistress. Seth's voice in my head made me jump, deep and calm. She might have been hideous and likely someone's nightmare, but she had feelings, too. I sensed her excitement, her delight and anxiety at meeting me in person through the aura of her emotional field as it brushed against mine. I flinched from her feelings, pulled myself in tight so I didn't have to take on the further pressure of being her hero or something equally trite.

They'd waited so long. How could I shatter their expectations by showing them I wasn't the magnificent and all-powerful mistress they longed for?

Eve has taken on the persona of Chaos, mistress of the Mist realm. But doing so hasn't ended her troubles. If anything, she's created new disasters for herself. When her deposed mother, Isis, does her best to prove Eve is a danger to Creation, she must fight off powerful forces as ancient as her own magic during an uphill battle of distrust and outright aggression while continuing to evolve into the power she's become.