Page 18 of Truth Revealed

“I think the next time was in the alley—when Truth and Misery were fighting off those guys.” She almost laughed at the memory. “One slipped on a banana peel, one got ice dumped over him and fell, and the other was taken out by a rogue flowerpot.”

“And?” he prompted patiently.

“And I was freaking out. We were outnumbered, and I was afraid Misery or Truth would get hurt, and then one of them grabbed me, and my chest hurt, and then it just… stopped.”

“Your chest hurt?”

Blinking open her eyes, she cocked her head to the side while he met her gaze. “Yeah. It’s how I know something’s going to happen.”

“And does something always happen?”

“No. In the warehouse, with Pandora, I felt it, but when I tried to… I guess, open myself up to it? Nothing happened. It wouldn’t come out.”

“There’s a fine line between chaos and control.”

Daria narrowed her eyes on her dad. That just didn’t sound right.

“You’re skeptical. I get that. But think about it. Chaos comes in many different forms, but controlled chaos is the most powerful,” he explained.

“That doesn’t make sense. If something is controlled, that means there’s a pattern, and if there’s a pattern, it leaves room for interruptions. Whereas chaos itself, it has no beginning, no end. No way to interrupt it,” she argued.

“One would think. But chaos is simpler to handle than most assume.”

Daria couldn’t help it, but her lips twitched. “This isn’t some weird sex euphemism for yourself, is it?”

“You use humor as a shield. You’re aware of this, I hope.”

She glared at him across the space between them. The marble was warming underneath her, but it certainly wasn’t getting any softer.

“Whatever,” she muttered, sounding very adult-like. “Are we going to sit here all day?”

“Absolutely not. I just thought you’d like to rest a bit before I kicked your ass.”

Daria rolled her eyes. “It’s just yoga. It can’t be that bad.”

It was that bad. A few hours later, every part of Daria was basically a noodle. Her legs, arms, hell, her entire body felt stretched out, she imagined herself walking like Mr. Fantastic, with her stretchy limbs dragging behind her. But she had to admit, it felt kind of nice.

And yeah, she hated to admit it, but she did feel the zen. Her mind was mostly clear, her body relaxed, and as she fell backwards into the sofa in Chaos’ mansion-realm-thing, she sighed.

“Okay, I admit it. I was wrong.”

“It helps, doesn’t it?” he asked, very smug-like.

“I don’t know about it helping any kind of chaos, but I do feel nice.”

“Your pattern with chaos seems to lie in your emotions—surprise. That doesn’t mean you need to control your emotions, or be dramatic and try to shut all emotions off. Trust me,” he said with a sideways glance. “Been there, done that, got the shirt. Instead, you’re just going to have to figure out how to interlace the chaos into your emotions, without letting it overwhelm.”

Jee, thanks for clearing that up, Dad. “Okay, I just have one question.”

“Go for it.”

“Just what did you have to do to get that shirt?” Daria teased with a laugh, pointing to the crop top he was wearing.

Chaos just smirked. “More like who.”

“Ohhh kay. Nope, I don’t need to hear about your sex life.” Even though she’d kind of walked right into that response. “I’d like a shower and a change of clothes, and maybe even sleep before I—”

Daria coughed as she was enveloped in the gold sparkles and gray smoke, but it cleared just as fast as it had materialized. Waving it out of her face, she laughed to herself as she stared at the familiar surroundings of her living room. “—meet Allegra for brunch.”