Last Oracle

Helena Davies just wants a job that will get her out of her parents' basement. Abernathy's Bookstore is disorganized, out of the way, and smells funny, but it pays well and promises to be interesting. She has no idea how interesting. By the end of the first day, Helena has a dead boss in the basement, an unexpected promotion, and the news that she is now a part of an endless war against creatures from another reality. As Abernathy's newest custodian, Helena is responsible for its secrets, including the most important one: Abernathy's isn't just a bookstore. It's the world's only living oracle, producing prophecies to help fight the war against alien invaders bent on draining this world of its magic. Helena's job is to find books to answer questions put to the oracle by the Wardens, fighters in the Long War. It seems simple enough, but Helena's new job is anything but. Without training, without any knowledge of the magical world, and facing the hostility of those who'd wanted someone else to be Abernathy's custodian, Helena must navigate the treacherous waters of her new world and find a place for herself within it. But there's still a murderer on the loose, someone who intended to control Abernathy's by killing its custodian-and Helena might be next on his list.

As the custodian of the oracular bookstore Abernathy's, Helena has faced several challenges in learning her new role. But when the store begins giving out false prophecies, Helena comes up against her greatest challenge yet: how can she fix Abernathy's when she doesn't truly know how it works? Armed only with a few special talents and her desire to protect her magical charge, and with the assistance of her best friend Viv, her reluctant assistant Judy, and the enigmatic and handsome Malcolm Campbell, Helena navigates the treacherous depths of the magical world, where secret enemies lurk behind illusions capable of fooling even the most powerful of magical entities. Helena is the only one who can see past those illusions, but will her abilities prove strong enough to save the oracle?

With two threats to the Oracular bookstore, “Abernathy's”, behind her, Helena finally feels secure in her role as custodian. But when a new danger rises, it threatens not the store, but the magic of Portland. As tensions between the factions grow, and monsters terrorize the city, the conflict tests Helena's neutrality and requires her to solve the mystery, before she becomes the next victim.

For over seventy years, the use of familiars-monsters bound by magic to fight beside humans in the Long War-divided magery into two factions. Now, the monsters strike back. As Helena prepares for the Conference of Neutralities, reports of familiars breaking their bonds to attack and kill their masters raise tensions between the factions to an unprecedented high. Faced with the challenge of keeping her relationship with Malcolm Campbell secret from more than a hundred of her fellow custodians, Helena must also protect herself from rogue familiars-and they're closer than she thinks.

Helena Davies knows all about keeping secrets. Now her secrets will come to light. Helena's encounter with a terrible creature whose kind are bent on destroying the world revealed a terrible truth: a cabal of rogue humans works with those monsters, intent on gaining power. Charged to remain silent while her superiors prepare to attack the traitors, Helena fears trusting her friends, her colleagues, even her secret lover Malcolm Campbell. Any of them might betray her. When an unexpected attack by the hidden enemy devastates magi around the world, it draws Helena deeper into the web of conspiracy. With Malcolm suffering his own loss, and friends betraying friends, Helena confronts the reality that no secret can last forever.

With a successful challenge to the Accords behind her, and her relationship with Malcolm Campbell made public, Helena Davies' life seems perfect. Then the attacks begin. As the enemy magi known as the Mercy wreak havoc on Warden strongholds, Helena and the oracular bookstore Abernathy's play their role in guiding the Wardens. But the oracle knows a deadly secret, one Helena struggles to interpret while the enemy draws nearer. And the one question she needs the answer to is the one question the oracle will not answer: Who are the weavers?

With the Mercy's attacks on the Wardens neutralized, Helena prepares for her upcoming wedding to Malcolm Campbell. But when Helena steps into the oracle's space and finds herself somewhere unfamiliar, the mystery threatens to destroy the Wardens' tentative peace. Having no explanation for the oracle's strange behavior, Helena reaches out to a new ally she hopes can answer her questions. Is the oracle trying to communicate with her? Is it under attack again? Or is Helena traveling through time?

Helena and the oracular bookstore Abernathy's stopped an attack by the alien invaders' human allies and destroyed their attempt at a second oracle, giving the Wardens much-needed victories. Now, after months of fighting a defensive war, the Wardens plan a direct assault on the enemy stronghold. But as the battle approaches, Abernathy's has other plans. The oracle directs Helena to contact four ordinary people with extraordinary talents whose abilities will change the course of the war. Convincing them to join the fight challenges Helena's persuasive powers to the extreme. If she fails, it will mean the deaths of thousands-including those Helena loves most.

Helena has come far from the day she became custodian of Abernathy's, the world's only living oracle. Now, she faces her greatest challenge yet: the oracle's prediction that it, and she, will end. As monstrous invaders strike city after city, leaving death and destruction behind, the Wardens scramble to defend humanity. Weakened by infighting, they turn to Abernathy's for guidance and strength. But the oracle's cryptic guidance may no longer be enough. With time running out, and her allies falling one after another, Helena faces the terrifying possibility that saving the world will mean her death.