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

“If you pull too much energy from the shimmer as you’re working, it thins, and they can get through. I don’t really understand it. They didn’t tell me much about the mechanics of it. But it’s definitely dangerous. Using kias...that’s what they call it...is dangerous.” Matty nodded in agreement. “I can do a bit. They had me shut in a room by myself a lot of the time. I didn’t have much else to do.” He pulled a face. “I’m not sure I’d like to do it here, though. Not without one of them around to back me up.” He looked at them. “They’re a lot more powerful than they look. They’re strong physically, but that’s not all there is to them—they’re supremely powerful workers. They have much more innate kias than most humans. Lin and I talked about it a bit.”


He brushed he hands over his face again. “I’m getting tired. I need to go back to bed I think.”


“I’ll give you a hand,” Rob said. “Come on.” He rose to help him, and Sylvia Marks rose too


Chapter 41