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

“He really wasn’t well, toward the end, before you came home,” Sylvia told him. “In his mind, I mean, as well as physically. He certainly thought he was going to make a weapon so terrible it would end the war. Annie was truly worried about him the day she asked me to come out here.”


“His letters to me got more and more rambling,” Marchant added. “I’m not sure they’d have made sense even before the censor got to them.” He drank some of his tea. “Is the war over?” he asked, cautiously. “I don’t even know what date it is.”


“It’s two days before Christmas, 1919,” Matty told him. “And you should probably go back to bed. If you feel half as bad as you look, you’re dead on your feet.” He stood up. “Plus, none of us had any lunch and it’s nearly tea-time. I am going to have some bread and cheese and fruit cake. You may all have some too if you would like some, but even if you don’t, I’m still going to.” He moved decisively toward the larder.


Chapter 39