It was an accident. I really didn’t mean to do it. You can blame it on me trying to put realistic details into my scenes. You can blame it on me trying to make sure readers can go back to Out of the Shadows after they read Book III and see all the little clues I sprinkled throughout the novel. Basically you can blame it on me.

Here’s what happened: In my short story, “The White Rider”, which was just published in an urban fantasy anthology called Realms of Imagination by Dark Oak Press, I give enough clues away regarding the identity of the main human villain in The Elysian Chronicles: Book 3.

It’s not like I can take the words back so I figured I would show a bit of what I did. To prevent a total spoiler, here are two excerpts in Realms of Imagination where I give the clues away:

Mr. Olcott placed his hand on a in the far corner of the room. “The secrets you see behind this threshold must not be spoken of, Mr. O’Reilly.” He pulled the bookcase and it opened like a door. A musty, damp smell filled the air. Mr. Olcott pointed above the door frame at a strange mark carved into the wood. I stepped closer to look at it. It was a symbol depicting a flame inside an upside-down triangle surrounded by a circle.

“The symbol of the Brethren,” said Mr. Olcott. “When you see this, you know you have a friend close by.”

I also mention the symbol at the end of the story:

My hands shook as I stroked the old tomcat. The memory of that night still pained me. The white rider told me more, but I won’t repeat it here. I buried his words inside my heart for the time I know I will need them the most. Two hooded figures walked past the alley. I gave the tomcat a final scratch under his chin and followed the men at a distance. They knocked on the door of an old building and entered. Few people would ever notice the small, obscure marking of a circle and a triangle surrounding a flame etched on the top of that door.

I mention this same symbol in Out of the Shadows. If you can find the description, you will find the villain, and you will realize that Book 3 is going in a direction you never expected….

Be sure to click here for more Elysian Chronicles Fun Facts!

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Fantasy, steampunk, and paranormal novelist M. B. Weston is the author of The Elysian Chronicles, a fantasy series about guardian angel warfare and treason. Weston is also the hose of The Final Cut In Movies radio show that airs on TMV Cafe Monday nights at 8:00 EST. For more information on M. B. Weston, visit www.mbweston.com. To receive notification of M. B. Weston’s book releases click here to subscribe to Dark Oak Press & Media’s e-newsletter.