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    Oracle, Clockwork Heart Tale No. 3: The Uncollected Anthology, #11
    Oracle, Clockwork Heart Tale No. 3: The Uncollected Anthology, #11
    Oracle, Clockwork Heart Tale No. 3: The Uncollected Anthology, #11
    Ebook71 pages1 hour

    Oracle, Clockwork Heart Tale No. 3: The Uncollected Anthology, #11

    By Leslie Claire Walker

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    About this ebook

    Love. Sorcery. Freedom.

    To save the people she loves, Erynn consented to carry within herself the soul of the cruel man who once enslaved them—Sebastian, London’s criminal mastermind and soul-dealing sorcerer. Day by day, she wonders whether she will become as evil as he was—and whether her friends will be forced to kill her to keep that evil from destroying them all.

    Now, Sebastian’s restless soul wakes her in the darkest hours of night. He compels her to search the dungeons beneath her home to uncover a secret so explosive it may turn her against her friends.

    Erynn’s discovery may leave her with no choice but to trust Sebastian with the shreds of her life and her clockwork heart. She and Sebastian both understand that the consequences of such trust could be deadly.

    In fact, they’re counting on it.

    Oracle is a standalone novella, and the third story in Leslie Claire Walker’s series, The Clockwork Heart Tales.

    Sorcery. Alchemy. Necromancy. Friends and enemies who have lost everything but the fire of magic that burns within.

    Join Erynn’s journey of courage, strength, and heart. Bewitching love awaits…

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLeslie Claire Walker
    Release dateJan 29, 2017
    ISBN9781386859499
    Oracle, Clockwork Heart Tale No. 3: The Uncollected Anthology, #11
    Author

    Leslie Claire Walker

    Leslie grew up among the lush bayous of southeast Texas and currently lives in the spectacularly green Pacific Northwest with ornery cats, two harps, and too many fantasy novels to count. She takes her inspiration from the dark beauty of the city, the power of myth, and music ranging from Celtic harp to heavy metal. Even in the darkest of her tales, a spark lights the way. Leslie Claire Walker is the author of the young adult contemporary fantasy series The Faery Chronicles, including the novels HUNT, DEMON, and FAERY. Her urban fantasy series, The Soul Forge, launched in in 2016 with NIGHT AWAKENS.

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      Book preview

      Oracle, Clockwork Heart Tale No. 3 - Leslie Claire Walker

      ORACLE

      BY

      LESLIE CLAIRE WALKER

      THE FAERY CHRONICLES

      Novels

      Hunt

      Demon

      Faery

      Short Story Collections

      Faery Tales, Volume 1

      Faery Tales, Volume 2

      THE SOUL FORGE SERIES

      Novels

      Night Awakens

      Night Rises

      Night Falls

      (Coming 2017)

      NEW RELEASES

      Don’t miss a new release—subscribe to Leslie Claire Walker’s newsletter.

      ORACLE

      THE HEELS OF MY BOOTS clocked on the wooden steps as I descended the narrow staircase to the dungeons. I could feel the weight of the house and the night above me, pressing down, making it hard to breathe. What inhalations I managed didn’t fill my lungs, and my exhalations frosted the air. The white-painted wall on my left wept in the late April chill. I knew exactly how it felt: Uncertain. Anxious.

      I white-knuckled the iron handle of the gas lantern I carried. A dark brown curl fell from the mass of hair I’d pinned at the crown of my head. It brushed my cheek like a ghostly finger. With my free hand, I tucked the strand behind my ear. Then I smoothed the front of the long, black leather coat that I’d buttoned over my white silk shirt and black trousers. The shape and weight of the blade in the front pocket of my coat, along with the square of cloth I kept with it, reassured me. I reached for the oak stair rail on my right and held on for dear life.

      One foot in front of the other. Walking toward my doom.

      Of course, doom mean something different to normal people than it did to me as a thief formerly enslaved to the most dangerous sorcerer in London. This had been his house, dungeons and all. I didn’t yet know all of the secrets Sebastian had kept inside his evil heart, or what sort of magic he might’ve imbued into seemingly inanimate objects during his time as master here.

      I carried one of those objects within me—the clockwork heart whose gears clicked and whirred inside my chest. Even though it had been crafted of steel and magic, it still knew how to love.

      My lover, James, lay in our bed upstairs, warm and strong, dreaming a dream that had brought a smile to his careworn face. His black hair had surrendered to the pillow, sticking up in six different places. He smelled of cigar smoke and good whiskey and lovemaking.

      I hadn’t wanted to leave him there. And he didn’t know that I’d gone, because I hadn’t awakened him. I didn’t trust him not to panic if I told him that Sebastian’s soul, which I carried inside, compelled me into the dungeons at two o’clock in the morning. It would have been an entirely appropriate reaction.

      The hairs at the nape of my neck rose. I froze. I listened for footsteps in my wake. I heard nothing. No one. I took another step. It creaked under my weight, the sound drawing my nerves tighter.

      I could feel Sebastian’s soul within me, laughing.

      Bastard.

      Sebastian seduced both James and me—James with the promise of a full belly and a roof over his head, me with honeyed promises of love.

      We’d stolen for him, everything from trinkets to unsuspecting women and men. Sebastian had used the trinkets in the usual way. He’d had the souls of the people separated from their bodies and sent onward to whatever heaven or hell they’d been destined for, or he’d sold them to other sorcerers. Their bodies, he’d kept for his lucrative trade with those wealthy enough to afford his most powerful magic: he had the wherewithal to transfer their souls from aging bodies into young ones. With his help, and for the right price, his customers could live forever.

      Sebastian had possessed everything he’d ever wanted—except me. When I’d refused to give him my heart, he’d had me beaten. When that hadn’t worked, he’d had me killed. He’d transferred my soul from body to body. He’d tried to break me and failed.

      Eventually, he’d simply taken the human heart I wouldn’t give him and replaced it with magicked metal and gears. When he discovered that I’d fallen in love with James, he’d taken James’s life, leaving us nothing left to lose.

      I’d made a deal with the devil—an alliance with Sebastian’s necromancer—to turn the tables on him. We’d torn his soul from his body and installed James’s instead. So James lived, albeit wearing Sebastian’s face.

      Sebastian should’ve died. Instead, his spirit had hung on to everyone and everything he’d imbued with his magic. In that way, he could still influence. He could still kill. To prevent that, I’d taken Sebastian’s spirit into myself.

      And here I was now, taking the stairs into the warrens beneath the house in the middle of the night with nothing but a lantern to light my way, compelled by the soul of the man I hated more than anything in the world. I didn’t even know exactly where in the dungeons I was headed, or why.

      Doom.

      As I stepped onto the landing, the torch set into a sconce in the wall flared to bright, sorcerous life. The firelight revealed the packed earth floor and gray brick walls, mortared and spelled to keep evil contained. It also revealed something—someone—else.

      It took everything I had to swallow the shriek that clawed its way up my throat.

      On the other side of the landing, Lark leaned against the brick. Lark the necromancer. The devil.

      She’d

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