Harvest Song Read online

  HARVEST SONG

  An Otherworld Novel

  -Book 20-

  YASMINE GALENORN

  A Nightqueen Enterprises LLC Publication

  Published by Yasmine Galenorn

  PO Box 2037, Kirkland WA 98083-2037

  HARVEST SONG

  An Otherworld Novel

  Copyright © 2018 by Yasmine Galenorn

  First Electronic Printing: 2018 Nightqueen Enterprises LLC

  First Print Edition: 2018 Nightqueen Enterprises

  Cover Art & Design: Earthly Charms

  Editor: Elizabeth Flynn

  Map Design: Yasmine Galenorn

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED No part of this book may be reproduced or distributed in any format, be it print or electronic or audio, without permission. Please prevent piracy by purchasing only authorized versions of this book.

  This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, or places is entirely coincidental and not to be construed as representative or an endorsement of any living/ existing group, person, place, or business.

  A Nightqueen Enterprises LLC Publication

  Published in the United States of America

  Table of Contents

  Cover Page

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Table of Contents

  Acknowledgments

  Welcome to Otherworld

  Map

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Playlist

  Cast of Characters

  Glossary

  Biography

  Acknowledgments

  This is book twenty in the Otherworld Series, with one left to go. Delilah has come a long way from that timid, naïve young woman. She’s come into her own, and now, she’s about to take another jump.

  I’m so grateful to my readers who’ve followed me this far. To those who have remained glued to the adventures of the sisters—thank you for the love you’ve given this world of mine, and for understanding my desire to offer you new worlds in which to explore.

  Thanks also go to my husband, Samwise, who has been my biggest supporter as I’ve shifted my career to the indie side. And thanks to my friends who have cheered me on—especially Jo and Carol. Thank you to my assistants Jenn and Andria for all their help. And thank you to my fellow authors in my UF group, who have helped me learn what I needed to learn in order to take my career into my own hands.

  A most reverent nod to my spiritual guardians—Mielikki, Tapio, Ukko, Rauni, and the Lady Brighid. They guide my life, and my heart.

  And of course, love and scritches to my fuzzy brigade—Caly, Brighid, Morgana, and little boy Apple. I would be lost without my cats.

  Bright Blessings, and I hope you enjoy Delilah’s final book. For more information about all my work, please see my website at Galenorn.com and sign up for my newsletter.

  Brightest Blessings,

  ~The Painted Panther~

  ~Yasmine Galenorn~

  Welcome to Otherworld

  We're the D’Artigo sisters: savvy half-human, half-Fae agents of the Otherworld Intelligence Agency. My sister Camille is the Queen of Dusk and Twilight. Menolly is now a vampire princess. And me? I’m Delilah, a two-faced werecat and the Autumn Lord’s only living Death Maiden. Even as Trytian’s father maintains the Daemon front raging against him, Shadow Wing is seeking greater power by draining his own armies of their lives. His necromancer Telazhar is dead, but the Demon Lord has found a new threat to move against us, putting my fiancé, Shade, in the most dangerous situation of his life…

  Shadow Wing sends Yerghan the Blade after us. The warrior led the battle alongside Telazhar during the Scorching Wars, and was banished to the Sub-Realms along with the ancient necromancer. Now, his new mission: to kill my sisters and me. When Yerghan attacks my home, Shade finds himself fighting for his life. Deep in a coma, he’s lost in the Land of Wandering Souls. My sisters and I must journey there to find him and bring him back. But in order to do so, we must face our darkest fears, or forever risk losing my love among the mists of limbo.

  Map of Otherworld

  Chapter 1

  “YOU HAVE TO be kidding me.” I stared at the dress that the sales associate was holding up.

  A nightmare in tulle and ruching, the gown must have had twenty yards of billowing material draped in folds and layers with a train that spilled out, begging to trip me up. The color was a soft eggshell and the neckline had been contorted into a weird, asymmetrical shape.

  “Did the designer drop acid or X or whatever the drug of the month is?” I asked. My question was met with an icy silence. “This is the third dress you’ve brought out that is light years away from what I asked. Have you heard a word I said?”

  The woman’s silence extended into a long, offended stare.

  Camille snorted, and Menolly pressed her lips together, trying not to laugh. Iris glared at me, with an expression that I recognized as her Will you behave look.

  I let out a long sigh. “Let me try this again. I don’t want a white dress, or any shade of white, cream, ecru, eggshell, ivory, or any variant thereof. I’m not Cinderella. I don’t want a ball gown, or a princess gown. I don’t want a mermaid gown, or anything that looks like a cupcake. I asked you to show me something streamlined. Just a nice long dress that doesn’t poof, fluff, or spill out. I want a pretty, simple gown in a lovely shade of green, or something that suits my coloring.” I had explained this in detail to three different shopkeepers. Each time, we had gone through the same rigmarole, with the same result.

  The sales associate let out a little huff. “I’m sorry, miss, but I don’t think I can help you. We don’t sell green wedding dresses. I suggest you might want to try a department store. Or look into buying a prom dress. Or you might find something appropriate at a thrift store.” Her snotty tone ruffled my fur, but Camille grabbed my hand, squeezing tightly before I could respond.

  “You’re right,” Camille said, brushing past the saleswoman. “And since you obviously can’t satisfy our needs, then we’ll find a store that will be happy to accept our money. If you’ll excuse us, we’ll be on our way,” she said, her voice dripping with icicles. She motioned for us to follow her.

  Grateful that it wasn’t me on the other end of my sister the ice queen’s shade, I grabbed my purse and slung it over my shoulder, following her out. We were almost to the car, Camille still fuming, when I happened to glance down the street. There, a few doors down and still open, was a little vintage shop tucked between a tattoo parlor on one side and a used bookstore on the other. In the window, a mannequin was draped in a vision that took my breath away, a long gown in a rich green, no less.

  “Wait!” I dashed toward the shop, the others following me.

  The dress in the window was an elegant sleeveless A-line with a fitted bodice. The shoulders were beaded with delicate pearls, and a sheer chiffon overlay stretched across the upper chest. Gathered at the waist, the skirt flowed into soft layers to the floor, with flower appliqués spaced over the top layer that were the same dark silvery-green as the rest of the dress. It was everything I was looking for. Elegant simplicity, and as green as the forest. Praying to Bast that it fit me, I started toward the door before they could close, my sisters and Iris right on my heels.

  “Pardon me, Your Majesty, Princess Menolly, Miss Iris, and Miss Delilah, but we have to ch
eck it out first.” A man caught up to us, darting around us. One of Camille’s bodyguards, he and the other four men who were tailing us did a good job of giving us the illusion of autonomy, but the fact was, anywhere Camille went, they were always in tow. She groaned, but waved them on.

  Inside, the clerk looked worried as the guards entered, but after Jal, the head of Camille’s personal retinue, spoke with her, she brightened up and beckoned for us to come inside.

  The clerk was smiling as she saw us. She curtsied clumsily. “I’m honored to have you in my shop, Your Majesty. May I help you with something?”

  Camille inclined her head, smiling. “Actually, my sister has a question.” She motioned to me in what felt like a gesture that had been finely tuned for public use. I flashed her a bittersweet smile. Her life really wasn’t her own, anymore.

  I gestured to the mannequin in the window. “That dress—the green one. Do you think it would fit me?” I turned to Camille. “They always say you’ll know the right dress when you see it. This is the right dress.”

  A soft smile played on her lips. “I know, Kitten. I can see it in your eyes.”

  The clerk peeled it off the mannequin. “You’re in luck. I was going to change the window display tomorrow and this would have come down. Here we go.” She glanced at the tag, then with a critical eye, scanned my figure. “I think it should fit you. Would you like to try it on?”

  I nodded, surprised that I cared so much. Shade had been after me for the past two months to get it together and help him make some sort of plans for our wedding. I had told him whatever he wanted was fine with me, but he refused to let me off the hook. “You’re not going to leave it all up to me,” he had said. “I’m not taking the blame if you aren’t happy with your wedding.”

  I wasn’t the planning type. I would have been happy getting married in the living room with only my sisters, Iris, and Hanna there. But a month ago, something had happened that had thrown my laissez-faire attitude out the window. Now I was scrambling to make up for my procrastination.

  A month ago, during August, I had traveled with Camille to Otherworld in order to find the last Keraastar Knight. Shortly before that, Greta had shown up. Greta was the leader of the Death Maidens, and she had trained me. This time, she had brought with her a message I hadn’t expected.

  SIX WEEKS BEFORE the trip to Otherworld:

  I was sitting on the bed, clipping my toenails, when I felt a shift in the room. I slowly straightened up, glancing around. Shade was out. He was down at Iris’s, helping Bruce to fix up their greenhouse.

  I was feeling on edge. There had been too many unwanted surprises lately, so much so that I felt like I was constantly on high alert. Every noise, every nuance had become an instant alarm. Anything that shifted the energy had raised a red flag until we checked it out.

  The constant vigilance was tiring, especially since Camille and Menolly had moved out right before the Summer Solstice. Everything about the past few months had felt off-kilter as I learned how to live in a house that had suddenly emptied out. Oh, Shade was still with me, yes, and Rozurial was still living out in the studio. Maggie and Hanna were with us. But the rooms seemed to echo with the absence of life.

  Over in the corner, a figure began to form in a haze of mist. I reached for my dagger, but then relaxed when I recognized the familiar face.

  The woman had long hair that waved past her shoulders, the coppery red strands the same color as Menolly’s. On her forehead, she bore the same mark that I did—the silhouette of a black scythe, gleaming like obsidian. Her arms were a vision in vivid black and orange, covered with tattoos of autumn leaves and vines that twined their way up to her shoulders. Again, they were the same as the tattoos on my arms. The leaves burned with color, vibrant and alive. The woman wore a sheer robe the color of twilight over a long gown, and a wreath of autumn leaves wound around her head.

  “Greta, I’m surprised to see you. Is anything wrong?”

  It had been a while since I had talked to Greta. She was as corporeal as I was, yet she was long dead. She was my trainer, and had become a friend in the process. She lived in Haseofon—the home of the Autumn Lord’s Death Maidens.

  “I know. We’ve been giving you time to acclimate to your newest changes.”

  I had figured as much. Nine months ago, both Shade and I had faced turning points in our lives. A devil-wraith had siphoned off a number of Shade’s abilities. He was half–shadow dragon, half-Stradolan—a shadow walker. The Stradolan were the descendants of the children of the Autumn Lord and Grandmother Coyote. As a race, they were elemental in nature, only taking physical form if they were half-breeds. And the only race they could interbreed with were the shadow dragons. The children were born sterile, but in physical form. The father was always Stradolan, the mother always shadow dragon.

  When the devil-wraith attacked us in the middle of the night, it leeched away Shade’s Stradolan powers. The loss had proved to be a major adjustment, and though he still struggled with it, he was doing better than I had expected.

  As for me, in that same timeframe, I had found myself suddenly able to see ghosts. The spirits were everywhere, at times disorienting me to the point of nausea. Greta had told me that it was all part of my transition as I settled into my Death Maiden self, but the ability had manifested so swiftly that I had ended up spending two weeks in Haseofon, learning how to harness my control of it. While I couldn’t exactly turn it off, I no longer felt like I was walking in two worlds at once.

  “Then what’s happened? What’s wrong?” I realized as I spoke that, for the most part, I expected to hear bad news from any new messenger.

  She held up her hand, smiling. “Nothing’s wrong, but I bring you a message from the Autumn Lord.”

  I blinked. Usually, when Hi’ran wanted to talk to me, he came to me himself. Greta must have seen the look on my face, because she smiled again.

  “This is his busy time of year, you know. He bade me bring you this.” She held out her hand. In her palm, she was holding a carnelian heart.

  I accepted it, turning it over in my fingers. The stone was warm, pulsing with a spark that I recognized as Hi’ran’s energy. I wrapped my fingers around it, closing my eyes. The energy reverberated through me, into my core, as I felt something deep inside me quiver and awaken. His voice reverberated throughout every cell of my body.

  It’s time, he said. It’s time to begin.

  I paused as the realization of what he was talking about swept over me. When I had first been claimed by the Autumn Lord, it was with the understanding that I, as his only living Death Maiden, would one day bear his child, by proxy. And now, Hi’ran was calling in my promise. Wide-eyed and a little frightened, I looked up at Greta. Her expression told me that she knew what I was thinking.

  “But…how…? I’m on a birth control method that lasts several years at a time. I just renewed it a year ago when I was in Otherworld.”

  Greta smiled. “Do you think Himself wouldn’t be able to negate that? He’s one of the Harvestmen, an Elemental Lord of the Autumn. But I have answers to some questions he anticipated you might ask. You and Shade must go through two ceremonies. The first is a ceremony joining your hearts. The second, a darker ritual, will prepare the way for the Autumn Lord to mingle his essence with Shade’s semen, which is sterile. This will quicken it, and allow him to impregnate you. I will be your priestess when it’s time for the second ritual.”

  My stomach lurched as I realized this was for real. It had all seemed academic before, sometime far off in the future, like old age or retirement. Apparently, the future was closer than I had realized.

  I bit my lip. “Well, we’re planning to get married on the autumn equinox.”

  “That’s perfect for the joining of hearts,” she said. “You must both undergo a purification ceremony afterward, shortly before the second ritual. The wedding will seal your hearts together. The second ritual we will perform on Samhain, and then, well, nat
ure will take its course.”

  I sucked in a deep breath and scooched back on the bed, crossing my legs. Her words reverberated through me. “Who should be our priestess for our wedding? Does it matter? I had my heart set on asking Camille to perform the ceremony.”

  Greta reached out to lay her hand on my shoulder. “You may ask your sister, if you wish. Whoever officiates at your heart-joining should be someone you trust and love.” She settled down beside me on the bed. “You do realize what a great honor this is? I would love to be in your place, but I only came to him after I was dead. Delilah, the Autumn Lord would not have chosen you for this task if he didn’t foresee you being happy in the role, happy with the outcome. He’s a harsh taskmaster at times, but unlike some of the other Elemental Lords, and unlike many of the gods, he does care for those who live within the mortal realm. He may not always extend mercy, but he does have compassion. And he truly cares for those who bear his yoke.”

  I straightened my shoulders, nodding. “I know. I’ve thought about this a lot over the past four years since he claimed me. While I’m frightened, the truth is that I have always wanted children, and I’ve always known they’d be different, if only because of my own heritage.”

  “And Shade?” she asked, probing softly. “You love him?”

  I ducked my head, blushing. “Shade? He’s become my heart. He’s my touchstone and rock, he’s my anchor when I feel adrift. He’s also taught me a lot about owning up to my responsibilities. He’s the man I never realized I needed, until he showed up in my life.”

  As I spoke, the words resonated through me. I usually didn’t wear my heart on my sleeve. Cats generally preferred to keep their emotions under control, expressed only to those who were closest to them. The concept of relationships had been foreign to me when I came over Earthside with my sisters. A relationship was an affair that other people entered, but one I didn’t believe I would ever understand.