Cogs in Time Anthology (The Steamworks Series) Read Online Free Page B

smiled, his skin deteriorated and hanging loosely on his face, unlike the last time she had seen him. She ordered her body to move, but exhaustion rendered her motionless. She could feel the cold seeping through her dress, the moisture in the air making her breath puff. Before she could will her body otherwise, her eyelids drooped.
    Amelia heard the sound of a steam engine derailing. That can’t be right. There isn’t a stop anywhere near here, she thought. Fighting the exhaustion, her eyes snapped open to find the guardian approaching her once more, the grotesque attacker nowhere to be found. He reached down, palm open, as she whimpered. He laid his hand on her forehead, and images flashed inside Amelia’s head, as if watching a picture show.
     
    ****
     
    Amelia laughed with other women, standing before the hearth, a glass of champagne in her hand. She had become a bit tipsy, and was bidding her farewells to the other partygoers. The Victrola played a soft melody, and her fiancée waited patiently by the door, smiling. Amelia hugged the last woman, her bodice catching on the jewels from the other woman’s corset, as they laughed. She gave one last wave before joining hands with her fiancée, and leaving through the large mahogany door.
    They laughed as he held her hand to help her balance while holding up her skirts as she descended the stairs. Amelia turned to him and placed a gentle kiss on his full lips before they headed in the direction of her home. His large hands had warmed her smaller ones, and they talked of their upcoming nuptials as they walked. His large green eyes sparkled as he gazed down at her from his six-foot-seven-inch height.
    Lost in conversation, they never heard the man approach from behind. Turning the corner, the couple encountered four more gentlemen waiting on the street, blocking their progress.
    “Excuse me sirs, but let us pass,” her fiancée ordered in his deep baritone voice.
    The men laughed as one, as a pack of hyenas might sound in the wild.
    Amelia turned with a worried look at her man, and finally caught a glimpse of the giant behind them, right before he reached around and drew a blade across her fiancée’s neck.
    Blood unlike anything Amelia had ever seen spurted from the wound, as he immediately went down, losing his comforting grip on her hand to grasp his throat. Gurgles erupted from his open mouth as his eyes widened and rolled in his head. Amelia screamed, fleeing for her life down the road opposite of the attackers. She ran until she couldn’t breathe, finally turning down another road before being snatched backwards by the laces on her bodice.
    Amelia fell, smacking her head. She watched as her fiancée’s murderer walked in front of her to leer down, running a blade over his tongue, the blood and saliva dripping on to her dress. She screamed as he raised his arm and slashed downward, slicing her from sternum to hip. A scream unlike any she had ever uttered emerged from her lips before she died.
     
    ****
     
    Amelia’s eyes snapped open as she gazed at the silver-eyed guardian, and tears dripped from her eyes to splash on the stone. She stood, her limbs finally obeying her commands, and choked on her words. “But you saved me! I saw you save me!”
    “You saw what you wanted to see,” the stranger finally spoke. “You died in the alley, but your spirit was not yet ready to embrace the reality. Your mind created a different scenario.”
    “Then explain to me how I am talking to you and walking around,” Amelia challenged, more confused than ever.
    “You are in-between. Your soul must make the choice to move on to the next life, to be reborn.” He spoke as if he were explaining weather patterns to her. He tilted his head towards the clock tower, which prepared to strike twelve. “You have only minutes. The clock counts down the time you have to move on to your next life.”
    Amelia glanced at the hands, still moving in the opposite direction, and realized