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

It wasn’t that they were keeping him in poor conditions. He had food, water, clean clothes, frequent if irregular exercise. But he was confined. He couldn’t leave and go home. Plus, no-one would help him cut the line.


The living conditions were different to anywhere he’d ever stayed before. It was better than the Western Front and he supposed the poor bastards he’d left behind there would be grateful to exchange places with him if they were ever offered the opportunity. He’d be pleased to swap with them now, though. He’d had enough.


Chapter 24