WiP Wednesday: The Tree and the Egg

 

This week I'm editing the final three books of The Major Arcana series set in my Tarot Elves Arcana Glen universe. 

Try as I did to keep each book completely independent, as I delve more deeply into the series and the world, the connections between books grow closer together. The underlying "side" plot about the mystery of who killed the original Guardians and the Elven War loom larger in the stories as the conclusion of the series.

October's book, The Tower & the Star, will show the reader a glimpse into Winterdom, the land of the Jotun (Ice Giants), the Storm Dragons (also called the Silver or White Dragons), and the Azir (the Winter Elves). 

November's book, Judgment & the World, features a character I've become quite fond of -- Raziel Ranaci, a Fallen Angel, who betrayed the Seraph Michael in The Magician & the Fool and who has appeared in the tales of several more couples since January. 

The last book in the series will be The Tree & the Egg. There are only Twenty-Two Major Arcana, and since there are two Guardians in each book, that would bring the series to eleven novels. Not only is that an odd number for a series, I felt it wouldn't do justice to the last couple if I also had to wrap up the whole series in their story. 

So I let Raziel and his mystery true love have their own novel to themselves and added a final book to revisit all the characters as they come face to face with the Dark Triad and their plot to take over the entire Tree of Worlds. 

I would love to share a scene I'm editing, but I'm wary of giving spoilers. So instead...

Here's a scene with Raziel from Death & the Detective:

***

Miles had just left his apartment when a dark-winged angel flew down and landed between him and his car. 

“Miles Malone,” intoned the dark angel. “I am here to kill you.”

“It’s really not a good time,” said Miles. “Maybe we could postpone until tomorrow? I have a big date tonight.”

“I don’t know how you survived my last attempt to kill you,” continued the dark angel. “But this time, there will be no loose ends. I won’t do it here. I don’t want to make a mess where it will upset the humans.”

“And that’s very considerate of you,” said Miles, “But…”

The dark angel rushed at him, clawing him into the air as would a great raptor, and then vanishing into a tear in space-time.

For a moment there was a horrifying moment of pure nothing, and then space and time seem to tear open once again, with whiff of sulfur, and the raven-winged angel dropped Miles on the snowy, rocky ground of a mountain slope. Bitter wind howled, instantly stealing the warmth from Miles’s body.

“Did you take me to the fabled world of eternal winter?” Miles asked, looking around the bleak snowy night landscape. “Or to hell itself?”

“You’re still in the Rocky Mountains,” said the angel.

It was then that Miles noticed a yellow bulldozer at the edge of the field. He realized he was on the edge of the construction site on Devil’s Peak.

Miles lifted himself off his knees and stood on his feet to look his enemy in the face. That face was handsome and haunted and somewhat familiar, although much gaunter than the last photo that Miles had seen online. 

And all of the angel’s chakras were lit up like search lights. 

The dark angel was holding two staves in one hand and supported some kind of wriggling animal in the crook of his other arm; it was a huge, tusked, horned pig. 

“Judge Renaci?” Miles ventured. “Or should I call you Raziel? How about Raz? Why do you want to kill me? And why are you holding a pig?”

Raziel set the pig down.

“My name doesn’t matter,” rasped Raziel. “I’ve lost the right to any name.”

Raziel threw Miles a staff and kept the other for himself. “I cannot kill an unarmed man. You can fight for your life.”

“Yeah, wasn’t I armed with a gun last time? I shot you point at point-blank range six times and then you shot of fireball at me. I don’t think a stick is going to do me much good.”

“I’m very sorry to slay you,” Raziel said—and he did sound really bummed about it. “But if I don’t kill you, they will kill the pig.”

The pig snorted and started poking at the dirt with its snout.

“I vote for the pig,” said Miles.

The dark angel smiled sardonically. “And you would probably be right to do so. The pig was not a very good man, even when he was a man.”

The pig honked indignantly.

“You know it’s true, Vass,” said Raziel. “But he’s still my only friend, and I will not see him killed, even if I must debase my own soul to protect him.”

The pig ran to Raziel and butted his head against his shin. Raziel kicked him away. “Not now, Vass.”

“Yeah,” said Miles. “I can see you two are real close. So, have you been planning my murder for a long time, or did you just wing it?”

The angel bowed to him and waited for Miles to halfheartedly bow in return.

Then the angel shouted, “Fight!” 

And launched himself at Miles. 

Miles had fought criminals before. He was trained in several martial arts as well as regular police tactics, and he kept himself physically fit. But fighting the dark angel was like taking on a fireball inside a hurricane.

Miles stumbled backwards, using his agility to stay out of the way of his enemy’s weapon as best he could. Raziel twirled his staff supernaturally fast, yet he took slow steps toward Miles.

“I’m going to do several things to your body to ensure that you die this time,” Raziel explained remorsefully. “I’m going to chop off your head, and probably dice the rest of your limbs into small pieces. Then I might smash the pieces, to ensure the bones are broken. I might continue to pulverize them into a foamy mush. Then I’ll most likely burn the whole pottage, in the interest of tidying up, really, because there should be no chance of you not thoroughly dying by that point.

“But don’t worry, because before I do any of that, I will deliver one quick swift blow that will kill you instantly and painlessly, so you won’t suffer any longer than necessary.”

The dark angel’s confidence was insulting, but Miles would take any advantage he could.

“So what’s your favorite font?” asked Miles. “Let me guess, it’s a seraph font.” 

Raziel stalked closer, whirling his staff. “You should focus on your defense, not on your jokes.”

“I was hoping you’d die laughing,” said Miles, “But maybe you don’t get my humor… you’re just an obtuse angel.”

The pig rolled over on its back, snorting and kicking its hooved feet in the air.

“Really?” Raziel demanded, apparently addressing the pig. “You’ve not helping.”

Miles took advantage of Raziel’s distraction to shove the butt of his staff upwards into Raziel’s throat.

Against any human, it would have been a killing blow. 

But Raziel disappeared in a blast of dark smoke that stank like rotten eggs and reappeared behind Miles, delivering two sharp blows to his tailbone and knees. Paralyzed by agony, Miles toppled to the ice hardened ground. 

Raziel strolled in a circle around Miles.

“Just tell me one thing before you kill me, Raz,” grated Miles, his teeth clenched against the pain. “You can be honest with me since I’m about to die. Did you massacre the Guardians? You have enough magic that you could’ve done it, don’t you? And I don’t know what your damage is, but you obviously have a lot of issues...”

“Look on the bright side, Miles,” the dark angel smiled grimly. “When you leave this place, you’re going someplace better. When I leave here, I’m going someplace worse. Whatever punishment you might wish upon me for doing this to you, know that it will surely happen.”

“I’d rather...”

Raziel smashed his staff into Miles’s head.

***

That's a scene from Death & the Detective, which you can read right now.

And if you're curious about the pig, another recurring character, he was cursed in The Lawyer & the Leprechaun and has his own redemption story in The Demon & the Dryad.