The winding streets had taken me on a jagged path back toward the river. Before I crossed onto the next street, I peered around the corner to the right. I shivered at the sight of Castle Hades.
The ancient fortress was still breathtaking, every time I looked at it. Its dark stone loomed over a bustling city of merchants and beggars, holy sisters and street crawlers. We all looked up to it with awe.
The castle’s four central towers rose up like ancient obelisks against the night sky. Two enormous rings of stone walls fortified the exterior, and a moat surrounded it.. Once, the castle had gleamed white in the sun, and lions roamed the courtyards. Just fifty years ago, ravens had swooped over its twenty-one towers, and true Albian kings and queens danced in the courtyards.
Back then, we used to think the ravens protected Dovren. That they were good luck.
But the ravens had done nothing when invaders arrived on the Dark River—an army of elite warriors, headed by the ruthless Count Saklas. The ravens didn’t help at all when Count Saklas beheaded our king in his own dungeon.
Now, the count ruled the whole kingdom from the castle’s stone walls. Our citizens hung from gallows and gibbets outside, macabre warnings. Anyone who opposed his rule got the death penalty.
Pretty sure the bastard killed the ravens, too, because of course he did.
Two years ago, the last time anyone saw my sister Alice, she was carrying red silks into the castle. Then, she just disappeared. No idea what happened to her. It felt like the castle had swallowed her up.
Shivering, I turned away, thinking warmly of the Bibliotek Music Hall. My friend Zahra would be waiting for me, probably already with a cocktail in hand. In my pocket, I had a tiny nip of whiskey, and I pulled it out to take a sip and warm myself up. Cheap and strong, it burned my throat.
Maybe the count had conquered my country, but we still had the best music in the world. And we knew how to throw a party.
But just as I was starting to let down my guard, the sound of footfalls echoed behind me. I whirled, and fear jolted me as dark shadows emerged from the fog.
Bloody hell. The Rough Boys had found me again.
~~~
The Fallen is out now. Click here to get it.
Acknowledgments
Thank you, Ben, for everything. There would be no books without you. Thank you to CN Crawford for collaborating with me on this Hades project. It was so much fun to work with you on this and your input made the book so much better. For anyone reading, CN Crawford also has a Hades book out—The Fallen. Click here to get it.
Thank you to Jena O’Connor and Lexi George for your excellent editing. The book is immensely better because of you!
Thank you to Carlos Quevedo for the beautiful cover art.
Author’s Note
Hey there! I hope you enjoyed Infernal. I loved writing this book. Most of my books draw some inspiration from myth or history, and Infernal is no different. The most obvious inspiration is Greek myth, and it was so fun to do my own interpretations of the Hades & Persephone myth.
The other historical element is Guild City. It is based in London with Tudor architecture (the dark timber and white plaster buildings from 1465-1603) but the layout of the town is based upon the town of Sighișoara in Transylvania. It is a beautiful medieval city surrounded by a roughly circular wall that is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. As with Guild City, there are towers built into the wall that were once owned and maintained by various guilds (such as the tailors, bookmakers, butchers, tinsmiths, and rope makers). The guild towers were responsible for the defense of the city when it came under attack, and each one is different and fascinating. As soon as I as I saw them, I was imaging Guild City.
That’s it for the history and myth in this book. Thank you for reading, and I hope you stick around with Hades and Persephone for the rest of their adventures!
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.