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

“Try not to move around too much,” she said, briskly. “I don’t want you to start bleeding again.” She conjured a pair of scissors from somewhere and began to cut off his shirt. “Stay still. I need to examine you and these clothes need burning.”


Marchant made a weak sort of noise and did as he was asked. Or he might have passed out again. He hadn’t opened his eyes at all.


“We will talk about this,” she said, pinning Rob with gimlet eyes. “But first, I need to stitch this gash on his hand,” she glared at the offending appendage as if she held it personally responsible for its injury, “and then we need to get this man into a proper bed and we all need to wash.”


Chapter 37