by Dan Willis
“This isn’t just a rune, Alex,” Moriarty said. “It’s a pledge, literally the oath we Immortals all take. It guides us and sometimes compels us to work for the good of humanity, but not to interfere in the world’s development.”
“Paschal broke his oath,” Alex guessed. “When he did, the rune bound him with his own power.”
“He took the oath willingly,” Moriarty said, rebuttoning his shirt. “That’s how the rune gained the power to damn him.”
Alex had to admit, it was an elegant solution. Randolph didn’t have access to his magic, because his magic was bound up in the rune.
“What if he decides one day that he’s following his oath?” Alex asked. “Wouldn’t that release his power?”
“A man can try to lie to himself, Alex, but deep down he always knows the truth. If Paschal ever regains his power, it will be because he’s genuinely changed.”
Alex thought about that for a moment, then pushed the whole mess to the back of his mind.
“I’m guessing you didn’t come here just to tell me about Randolph and your oaths,” he said.
“No,” Moriarty admitted. He reached into his shirt pocket and withdrew a pair of thick green spectacles. “Catch,” he said, tossing them to Alex. “These will help you read the Monograph much easier.”
“I thought you took an oath not to interfere,” Alex said, holding the spectacles up so he could look through them.
“I’m doing no such thing,” Moriarty said, pulling his vault key from his trouser pocket. “You found the hidden text all on your own, all I’m doing is giving you the ability to read it faster. That doesn’t fundamentally change anything.”
“Exactly how fast do I need to read the new text?” Alex asked as Moriarty pressed his vault key against the back wall of Alex’s vault.
“Well, it did take you quite a bit longer than I’d anticipated to find that text,” he said as his vault door appeared. He pulled it open and Alex once again had a view of his incredible vault. Through the opening he could see a stuffed mammoth and the bones of a dinosaur. Shelves and shelves of books occupied the back wall and there was a sitting area that was clearly for entertaining.
“Time is short, Alex,” he went on as he stepped inside his vault. “Events that will affect the whole world are already in motion, and you are not prepared.”
“You want to give me a hint?” Alex asked.
Moriarty smiled at him as he pulled his vault door closed.
“Get prepared,” he said, and then the door to his vault faded away, leaving the gray stone wall of Alex’s vault in its place.
“Great,” Alex said.
THE END
You Know the Drill.
Thanks so much for reading my book, it really means a lot to me. This is the part where I ask you to please leave this book a review over on Amazon. It really helps me out since Amazon favors books with lots of reviews. That means I can share these books with more people, and that keeps me writing more books.
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And Look for Alex’s continuing adventures in Capital Murder: Arcane Casebook #7.
Also by Dan Willis
Arcane Casebook Series:
Dead Letter - Prequel
Private Detective Alex Lockerby needs a break and it materializes in the form of an ambitious, up-and-coming beat cop, Danny Pack. Alex and Danny team up to unravel a tale murder, jealousy, and revenge stretching back over 30 years. It’s a tale that powerful forces don't want to come to light. Now the cop and the private detective must work fast and watch each other's backs if they hope to catch a killer and live to tell about it.
Dead Letter is the prequel novella to the Arcane Casebook series.
Get Dead Letter Free
In Plain Sight - Book 1
In 1933, an unwitting thief steals a vial of deadly plague, accidentally releasing it in at a soup kitchen in Manhattan. The police, the FBI, and New York’s ‘council of Sorcerers’ fear the incident is a trial run for something much deadlier. Detective Alex Lockerby, himself under suspicion because of ties to the priest who ran the kitchen, has a book of spells, a pack of matches, and four days to find out where the plague came from, or the authorities will hang the crime squarely on him.
Get In Plain Sight
Ghost of a Chance - Book 2
When a bizarre string of locked-room murders terrorize New York, the police have no leads, no suspects, and only one place to turn. Now private detective Alex Lockerby will need every magical trick in his book to catch a killer who can walk through walls and leaves no trace. With the Ghost killer seemingly able to murder at will and the tabloids, the public, and Alex’s clients demanding results, Alex will need a miracle to keep himself, his clients, and his reputation alive.
Get Ghost of a Chance
The Long Chain - Book 3
In a city the size of New York, things go missing all the time. When New York is blanketed in an unnatural fog, Alex finds himself on the trail of a missing scientist, a stolen military secret, and a merciless killer leaving a trail of bodies in their wake. Now Alex must unravel a tangled web of science, murder, and missing memories before the clues vanish into the ever-present fog.
The Long Chain
Mind Games - Book 4
When wealthy socialites hire him to track down their wayward daughter, finding her is easy, but that’s just the beginning of Alex’s problems. As he’s trying to deal with the no-longer-missing heiress and her family, Alex gets another case from a desperate young man who wants Alex to prove his wife is innocent of murder. As Alex investigates he becomes convinced that both of his clients are being manipulated by someone with a bigger agenda.
Mind Games
Limelight - Book 5
When a madman starts robbing banks the really old fashioned way, by blowing holes in them with magical explosives, the police want Alex to catch him before he kills and robs again. There are two problems with that, however, first as far as Alex knows there’s no such thing as a blasting rune, and second his friend Danny Pak is up for a promotion and that’s not Danny’s case.
Limelight
Dragons of the Confederacy Series:
A steampunk Civil War story with NYT Bestseller, Tracy Hickman
Lincoln’s Wizard
Washington has fallen! Legions of 'grays' -- dead soldiers reanimated on the battlefield and pressed back into service of the Southern Cause -- have pushed the lines as far north as the Ohio River. Lincoln has moved the government of the United States to New York City. He needs to stop the juggernaught of the Southern undead 'abominations' or the North will ultimately fall. But Allan Pinkerton, his head of security, has a plan...
Get Lincoln’s Wizard
The Georgia Alchemist
With Air Marshall Sherman’s fleet on the run and the Union lines failing, Pinkerton’s agents, Hattie Lawton and Braxton Wright make their way into the heart of the south. Pursued by the Confederacy’s best agents, time is running out for Hattie and Braxton to locate the man whose twisted genius brings dead soldiers back to fight and find a way to stop the inexorable tide that threatens to engulf the Union.
Forthcoming: 2020
Other books:
The Flux Engine
In a Steampunk Wild West, fifteen-year-old John Porter wants nothing more than to find his missing family. Unfortunately a legendary lawman, a talented thief, and a homicidal madman have other plans, and now John will need his wits, his pistol, and a lot of luck if he’s going to survive.
Get The Flux Engine
About the Author
Dan Willis wrote for the long-running DragonLance series. He is the author of the Arcane Casebook series and the Dragons of the Confederacy series.
For more information:
www.danwillisauthor.com
[email protected]