by
What if you could suddenly foresee disaster and the end of civilization?
In Seattle, an unremarkable earthquake ripples through the city on a sunny April day, barely registering for most residents. Yet, for five individuals, it becomes a seismic turning point, forever altering their lives. Somehow that fateful quake unleashed an extraordinary gift: the ability to peer into the future. What they witness in their visions is nothing short of apocalyptic—a civilization in ruins, ravaged by destruction and lawlessness. As resources dwindle, humanity descends into chaos, turning on itself in a desperate struggle for survival.
With this grim foresight, the five new oracles, among them a cheerful and charismatic physics teacher, a brilliant neurodivergent six-year-old, a struggling artist, a deeply religious retired nurse, and a nervous real estate agent plagued by anxiety, must somehow awaken others to the impending catastrophe and guide them to safety. Time becomes their greatest adversary. Only by joining forces and acting swiftly can they hope to save themselves and those trapped within the confines of the city.
The first book in Gordon Bonnet's “Arc of the Oracles” trilogy, “In the Midst of Lions" is an enthralling tale that intertwines ordinary lives with extraordinary circumstances. Can these five individuals defy the grim prophecies they bear witness to and inspire others to follow them to safety? As the clock ticks away, the answers lie in their unity, resilience, and unwavering determination to reshape destiny.
Cover Artists:
Genres:
Tropes: Band of Misfits, Fellowship, Reluctant Hero
Word Count: 118,235
Setting: Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.
Languages Available: English
Series Type: Same Universe / Various Characters
Tropes: Band of Misfits, Fellowship, Reluctant Hero
Word Count: 118,235
Setting: Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.
Languages Available: English
Series Type: Same Universe / Various Characters
Handsome boy. Nice, too. A pity he’s going to die so soon.
The thought came without warning, and with none of the tentativeness of the typical anxiety-laden worries everyone has. In fact, it was completely devoid of emotion. Or, more accurately, the emotion came afterward. She knew, knew without doubt, that Brian Nehring was going to be dead in a few short weeks. It felt as dispassionate as a newspaper headline about a total stranger, and as certain. The flood of sadness that came afterward was like times she’d received unexpected bad news.
Only here, it wasn’t news about something that had already happened. It was news about the future.
“I’m losing my mind,” Mary Hansard said under her breath. She looked back toward Brian, who was chatting and laughing with a girl—Leah something? Mary recognized her, but hadn’t taught her before—and then it happened again.
READ MORELeah Chambers. Her name is Leah Chambers. And she’s going to die, too.
Mary clutched her papers to her chest, turning away from the pair and heading at a jog toward her car. She had to sit down or she was going to faint.
She unlocked and opened the door and collapsed behind the steering wheel, tossing the stack of papers into the passenger seat and increasing their disarray. She looked at the loose pile, worksheets on kinetic and potential energy from her physics classes.
How appropriate. Entropy. She could expend energy to stack the papers back up, reorganize them by class as they had been when she left the building, but it was no good. Things were falling apart, everything spiraling into chaos. You could try to slow it down, decrease the disorder locally and temporarily, but eventually you were bound to lose.
Entropy always wins.
COLLAPSE
