"Pitiful." I laugh aloud. "You thought you were just so goddamn smart. You thought you were gonna grab this world by the balls and ride it to power. And you could've. You're strong, stupidly brave, and a natural born killer and had I not arrived you probably would've been more. But I did. You met me...and from then your fate was sealed." I allow my laugh to trail off as I dig the heel of my cleats into his thick fingers. They squirm and wretch under the pressure, clawing at the ground like the legs of a spider, and I push harder in response.
I suck in a breath of intense pleasure as he begins to shriek and howl, I inhale his screams.
The second you met me, your fate was sealed.
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Imagine the world as we know it at a close. What happens when the curtain falls on civilization, order, and infrastructure?
The answer is simple. Thus descends a blanket of darkness. And the things that squirmed helplessly in the light before, will thrive in that darkness: Chaos, sex, insanity, death, love, and war.
Jack is one of them. She has always known the civilized world to be a cage. Something that restricted her from her wildest urges and full potential. She didn't realize the value of what she had. In just a few days her, and everyone else's, life is flipped upside down. Chaos descends over the world like a swarm of locusts and all that she loves is ripped away.
In the wake of destruction, Jack is left to fend for herself in an unknown world.
But alone she doesn't stay. In her mind, she has always known chaos, and her willingness to do what's necessary makes her strong. Action and death flocks to her. In the ashes of civilization, she will become a God.
But she's not the only survivor: Green, Rico, Fish, King, Danny, Crow, Gaiya, Josie, Brice, Viktor, Artur, Harvey, C.J, Heals, and more. These and many more are names you will come to know. Pray for their survival, pine for their love, root for their deaths.
Bathe in their blood.
18+
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An outcast rogue must break a curse put on his fate, or die on his nineteenth birthday. To survive, he'll need the sword of a maiden, the aid of an immortal, and the power of forbidden magic that could cost him the only girl he ever loved.
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*** THE JACK OF SOULS won a Silver IPPY this year!
*** THE JACK OF SOULS won 1st place in the PNWA Competition in Fantasy! *
*** THE JACK OF SOULS won 1st place in the Southwest Writers competition! *
*** A "Featured Book" on Wattpad! *
*** Now a "Staff Pick" on Kickstarter! *
*** Available on Amazon in paper, hardback, and ebook ! *
*** My contract with Kindle Select won't allow me to post more than 3 chapters here, but...
*** Sign up for my newsletter on stephenmerlino.com for alerts when it's free on Amazon! *
MY INSPIRATION
I wrote this out of pure love of trickster rogues; I love the wit over brawn motif -- Odysseus over Achilles, Raven over Eagle -- so I like to play with it in my stories. In JOS I set the rogue and con-artist Harric against a foil of warriors in a land threatened by magic and civil war.
Whenever possible I turn familiar tropes on their heads: instead of a handsome young Lancelot, I cast a broken-down ex-champion addicted to pain-killing herbs; instead of a dashing Squire Brian, the old knight reluctantly takes an ambitious young woman as squire. Similarly, I re-imagine the standard medieval milieu by infusing aspects of two of my favorite historical periods, Elizabethan England, and The American Frontier. Both eras boast a kind of nationalistic arrogance that borders on hubris, and a magnificent spirit of resourcefulness and re-invention that is fun to play with.
SERIES
The Jack of Souls is first in a series. I am posting parts of the sequel here now (The Knave of Souls), to help me refine the story.