The Oracle: A Dark and Steamy Viking Inspired Fantasy (Stories from the Realm Book 4)

A woman transported to a magical world, the man who swore in blood to protect her, and the twisted secret that threatens to destroy them both...

Instead of her routine morning jog before work as a contract attorney, Emily Gazer runs straight into a magical land to escape a black-eyed stalker.

Thrust into an ancient world that threatens her life at every turn, Emily finds her only chance of survival lies in a handsome young warrior named Olen.

Despite their attraction, Emily learns Olen and the other men of the tribe are forbidden to take her as a wife. Bound by an ancient oath, Olen has no choice but to take the priestess to his king to use in a forthcoming war.

When an outsider challenges Olen for the right to marry Emily, though, he breaks his vows to keep her with his tribe... but that's only the beginning of their nightmare.

My death rushed toward me.

I sensed him in my center like some air bubble I couldn’t burp away. Only hovering in the most uncomfortable place under my breastbone, making it hard to take a decent breath.

Kind of like the hot, gnawing calm right before a storm that demolishes everything in its path, some unseen force sat on my shoulders.

Ripping me from this world one cell at a time, Fate unzipped the fabric of reality, unleashing the first dose of devilry within me.

Like a hundred eyes staring down at me, prickly bumps rose on my skin to warn me my life would end soon.

I came out of the darkness of the treetops lining the worn dirt path I took every day before work and made my first step into the sunlight. But not even seeing it rising through the misty morning calmed my nerves.

As if they understood the warmth of the bright orange orb burning off the fog would never touch them again, every hair on my body stood on end.

Beyond the leafless tree that had given me nightmares since the first time I ran under its dead branches, a man obscured by blackness came toward me. Instantly twisting into knots of nausea, my stomach sent out the first warning. Still, I wouldn’t listen.

A split second later, beads of sweat dripped into my eyes, and I wiped them away with my forearm.

My curious soul headed straight for him anyway until a child screaming at the back of my mind finally urged me to turn around. So, I made for the trail leading toward the awkwardly placed natural waterfall at the edge of the city park.

Like a tuning fork striking a doorway, the ground beneath me hummed with such intensity I had to stretch out my jaw to dull the vibration itching the back of my throat.

I tried to shake the buzz from my fingertips as I approached the grassy stretch before the falls until I caught shoes closing in behind me.

Every nerve in my body went on full alarm as the heel of my sneaker touched down on the soft grass. But just as I lifted my foot to escape to the safety of the ranger’s station, the earth beneath me turned to mush under my soles.

As if the ticking clock of my existence was counting down to zero, each thump of my heart grew slower until all the world around me stopped completely.

Like two warbled arms of water, the falls reached out to me, and no matter which way I turned, the pool of the magical elixir followed me.

Stuck inside some room of wobbly air and colors, the pool grabbed me from all directions, sealing me off from my would-be attacker.

The liquefied remains of the park made contact with my skin, and a white light swallowed me, sucking all the air from my lungs.

Like shooting down some never-ending water slide, I hugged myself tight as time and space rushed by.

In a second or a lifetime, I’m not sure, the universe unfolded before me from creation to end, as if I should understand why it was doing so.

Unable to speak or breathe, I demanded my brain to wake up from this crazy dream.

But as quickly as it began, the illusion ended when the hard stone and winter chill in the air built up around me like earth-toned blocks clicking together.

Snatched from one cruel world and tossed into another, I only found myself pulled into a nightmare I would never escape.

The bright light dimmed little by little as my heart rate leveled out again, and a dense forest replaced the grassy field I’d been jogging in. Still, the familiar waterfall that sent me to my doom wiggled its way back to where it should.

Only a babbling brook with a stag arching his dark brown eye at me for disturbing his drink remained where the new playground stood only seconds ago.

The deer’s ears perked up, and the monster behind me reflected in its eyes, sending a waft of black across my face as its breath blew my hair forward.

Instantly sickened by the foulest stench I had ever encountered, I flinched when the little girl’s voice inside me begged me to move.

The heat of its snarl on my skin was like a gunshot going off, and I dashed for the trees on the other side of the stream.

Running faster than I ever hoped to imagine I could, I maneuvered around the trees and rocks in my way. Yet, the stinky breath and growls got closer until the rotting flesh of its fingers gripped my tank top, slowing me.

But when my foot met the dirt road, a cold rush of air drifted across my face as a blur of something whirred past me. A thump made me gasp, and I saw the creature slumped to the ground when I dared to peek over my shoulder.

The ax blade that barely missed me lay deep in its chest, and I froze in place until a whiff of musk and vanilla made me breathe again.

Like the pale sky poking through the trees above us, crystal blue eyes bore into mine as the tattoo-covered stranger moved around me.

The instant his throaty foreign tongue made its way into the world, my knees rattled inside my skin as they fought to keep me upright. “Caithfimid dul.”

The sole of his worn-out brown leather boot dug into the monster’s belly, and with a jerk, the white-haired young man freed his ax. “Bogann siad i ngrúpaí.”

An inch at a time, his gaze moved down my body and up again as he pulled his furry coat free of his arms.

The tip of his nose came to my neck, and for reasons I can’t explain, I tilted my chin away for him to sniff me as he covered me with it.

The hatchet slid into the leather straps crossing his chest, and before I could stop him, he had me slung over his shoulder.

Swaying with every step he took, I stared at the ground moving under me as he carried me away. And that was when I understood that the old life I loved so much was over forever.