It's 1918, and Matty returns home to the family farm from the trenches only to find his brother Arthur dying of an unknown illness. The local doctor thinks cancer, but Matty becomes convinced it's connected to the mysterious books his brother left strewn around the house. Rob knows something other than just Arthur's death is bothering Matty. He's know him for years and been in love with him just as long. And when he finds something that looks like a gate, a glowing, terrifying doorway to the unknown, it all starts to fall in to place. Matty's looking sicker and sicker in the same way Arthur did. What is Rob prepared to sacrifice to cure him? The answer is in the esoteric books ... and with the mysterious Lin of the Frem, who lives beyond the gate to nowhere. It's taken Matty and Rob more than a decade to admit they have feelings for each other and they are determined that neither social expectations or magical illness will part them now.

Inheritance of Shadows

Matty looked at Rob. Rob looked back. As one, they moved toward the open door. Rob grabbed the tilly-lamp off the kitchen table in passing. It was full dark outside now, not simply the dimpsy-dark of the end of a drizzly late-summer day. Lin was rounding the end of the barn.


They could hear the sound again. To Matty, it seemed more of a screeching wail than a song, now. The light was leeching a cold blue around the corner and they slowed as they ran up to it. Lin had drawn his swords and stood in a fighting stance in front of the light, which was brightening as they watched. They could see a shadow in the centre of it. They both jammed their heels in as they came up behind Lin, one on either side. The sound was ear-splitting and there was a hot, harsh breeze coming from the centre of the light. It smelled of the desert.


“What is it?” Matty had to raise his voice to be heard.


Chapter 9