Dark Secrets - Linsey Hall Page 0,59
intrigued than confused, and it reaffirmed my decision that she was my favorite.
“Carrow Burton, I thought you were here to reapply for a guild?” asked Mateo, the leader of the vampires. Leader of all except Grey, of course. He didn't join anything—not even my guild. “Why do you have these people with you?”
Something flickered in Ubhan’s eyes. We hadn’t spoken to him since we’d broken into his office, but he knew things had changed. The entire Council knew about the tower on the far side of town—it was hard to miss, now that it had appeared—but Grey’s contacts said they were still uncertain about it.
I was here to enlighten them.
“As it happens, I have a guild.” I gestured to my friends. “The Shadow Guild. The tower that has reappeared after a long absence is ours.”
Murmurs rose, and several guild members stood. Ubhan stayed seated, his jaw set.
Cartimandua leaned forward. “You’ll have to start from the beginning.”
So I did, omitting the part about Orion’s Heart. We still weren’t entirely sure what role that power played, and it didn’t matter right now. I even confessed to breaking into Ubhan’s office, since I didn't want that hanging over my head.
I finished, and Nyla, the leader of the Mages’ Guild, turned to Ubhan. “Is this true?”
He nodded. “What they found in my office, yes. Their interpretation? I have no idea.”
“It’s sounds true to me,” Cartimandua said. “It makes sense that there would be a guild for those with unique powers. After all, we have members of our guilds who don’t quite fit.”
“This Rasla…” Nyla said. “He was a zealot?”
“As far as I could tell, yes,” I said.
“He was,” Grey said. “I knew him then, and I can confirm it. He’d likely have destroyed the tower altogether if it wouldn’t have weakened the city’s defenses to have an enormous hole in the wall.”
“Yet, you defeated him,” Cartimandua said. “And defended Guild City once again.” She turned to look at her colleagues. “I vote to accept Carrow as a member of the Council and to fully reinstate the Shadow Guild.”
There were some grumbles, primarily from Ubhan, but the vote went in our favor. When it was over, Cartimandua looked at me. “Congratulations. Now you get to come to meetings.”
Damn.
Meetings were better than being evicted, though.
“Thank you,” I said.
We turned to leave, and I caught Ubhan’s eye. He glowered at me.
That was going to be a sticky relationship.
But as we walked out into the sun, it was impossible not to believe in fate. After all, it’d landed me here, amongst this crew of amazing, lovely supernaturals who were as strange and different as I was.
And now, we had a guild.
My friends were chattering away about plans for a party, but I only had eyes for Grey. He stood off to the side, his gaze on me.
He was thinking of our curse. It was written all over his face. And though the idea of it scared the hell out of me, the insanity of the last few days had proved that anything was possible.
Fate might have something terrible planned for us, but I wasn’t going to let it come to pass. I’d saved the Shadow Guild. I’d save Grey, too.
I had to.
Thank You!
THANK YOU FOR READING!
I hope you enjoyed reading this book as much as I enjoyed writing it. Reviews are so helpful to authors. I really appreciate all reviews, both positive and negative. If you want to leave one, you can do so at Amazon or GoodReads.
Acknowledgments
Thank you, Ben, for everything. There would be no books without you.
Thank you to Jena O’Connor, Lexi George, and Ash Fitzsimmons for your excellent editing. The book is immensely better because of you!
Thank you to Orina Kafe for the beautiful cover art.
For Isla.
Author’s Note
Thank you so much for reading Dark Secrets! As always, there were a few historical tidbits that I wanted to share more about. The first is the Elizabethan gardens in front of the Mages’ Coffeehouse. They are based off of the (much smaller) ones that are still preserved in Plymouth, England which were originally built in the 16th century.
The Mages’ Coffeehouse was inspired by the coffeehouses that became popular in England for the first time in the 17th century. The beverage had been brought back to England by international travelers to Asia and was initially drunk for medicinal purposes. By the 17th century, it was popular in the same way it is today. The coffeehouses were places where people (men, primarily) met to discuss the news. Because no alcohol was served, they were generally thought to be places where more intellectual conversation could take place.
The first coffeehouse, established by a Jewish entrepreneur, was established in 1652 the town of Oxford (same as the famous university). Oxford was a particularly important town for the Establishment of coffeehouses. Though the first (called The Angel) is now gone, you can still visit Queen’s Lane Coffee House, which was established in 1654 and is still running. It is considered to be the oldest continually operating coffeehouse in Europe.
Coffeehouses bore the nickname “penny universities”. The name derives from the cost of admission (a penny) and the fact that they were hotbeds of intellectual discussion frequented by scholars and people from all walks of life. In a society with strictly divided social classes, coffeehouses were unique in the fact that all sorts of people mingled together. If you had the penny admission, you were welcomed in.
One of my favorite parts of Dark Secrets is the visit to Magic Side Chicago, where Carrow and Grey enlisted the help of Nevaeh Cross. For one, Magic Side is extremely cool. It’s located offshore from South Side Chicago in the middle of Lake Michigan. Like Guild City, Magic Side is hidden from the larger human population. It’s full of crazy cool magic set amongst skyscrapers and old warehouses inspired by Chicago’s rich architectural heritage, ranging from elaborate Art Deco facades to monumental Neo-Classical edifices. Future stories will return to Magic Side, providing an exciting chance to explore the magic and mystery inherent in many of Chicago’s institutions, such as the Oriental Institute Museum, the Field Museum, and the Museum of Science and Industry - a relic from the 1893 World’s Fair.
But most exciting of all…is that this isn’t the last you’ll see of Neveah Cross. She is the heroine of a new series I’m extremely excited about. I’ve co-written it with two of my best friends in the whole world—probably the only people I would trust to write in the Dragon’s Gift World. They are both archaeologists like myself, so you can count on tons of fun adventures in the future. I’ll keep you updated about the release date, but it’s likely to be sometime in the early Autumn of 2020.
About Linsey
Before becoming a writer, Linsey Hall was a nautical archaeologist who studied shipwrecks from Hawaii and the Yukon to the UK and the Mediterranean. She credits fantasy and historical romances with her love of history and her career as an archaeologist. After a decade of tromping around the globe in search of old bits of stuff that people left lying about, she settled down and started penning her own romance novels. Her Dragon’s Gift series draws upon her love of history and the paranormal elements that she can't help but include.
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All reference to events, persons, and locale are used fictitiously, except where documented in historical record. Names, characters, and places are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright 2020 by Linsey Hall
Published by Bonnie Doon Press LLC
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form, except in instances of quotation used in critical articles or book review. Where such permission is sufficient, the author grants the right to strip any DRM which may be applied to this work.
ISBN 978-1-648820-00-7
https://www.facebook.com/LinseyHallAuthor