Queen of the Fae (Dragon's Gift The Dark Fae #3) - Linsey Hall Page 0,64

saw the blaze go out.”

I wouldn’t have tried to shove Tarron’s magic back into him if it hadn’t done its most important work. He never would have forgiven me.

“It is out, yes. And we Guardians will find a way to extinguish it at Mount Chimaera once and for all, so that this cannot happen again.” Her eyes turned dark. “Our hubris got the better of us, thinking that we could protect it. We cannot. Not from one such as she.”

My mother. Not the queen at all, in fact.

“What are we?” I asked. “If we’re not quite dead.”

And how do we get Undead?

“I’m not really sure,” Brigid said. “You did something with your magic that has never been seen before. In trying to save Tarron’s life, you somehow saved your own as well. Almost.”

Tarron gripped my hand.

“Is it because we’re fated mates?” I asked.

“That could have something to do with it.”

“How can we come back to life?” I demanded. “We have to go back and stop her.”

Brigid nodded. “I suppose it is possible, since you aren’t really dead. Just a little bit dead—your souls trapped at this halfway point.”

“What should we do?” Tarron asked.

She shrugged. “You will have to figure that out for yourselves.” She gestured around at the white mist. “Find your way through this half realm. Use your wits to reach the other side. Only then can you stop the false queen and save your people.”

And with that, she disappeared.

Tarron and I turned to look at each other. Dead. But not quite.

I reached for him. Our hands drifted right through each other, but I felt a surge of comfort.

We’d get out of this.

We had to.

~~~

Thank you for reading Queen of the Fae! The next book will be here in early October 2019. Click here to keep the adventure going with Aeri’s story!

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 on Amazon or GoodReads.

Author’s Note

Thank you for reading Queen of the Fae! If you’ve read any of my other books, you might know that I like to include historical places and mythological elements. I always discuss them in the author’s note.

I drew quite a lot of inspiration from myth in Queen of the Fae. One of the main elements is Eternal Flame. There are many places in the world where eternal flames have burned for hundreds or thousands of years. Some of these are natural phenomena and others are tended by humans, usually as part of a culturally significant ritual. I had quite a few options to choose from for the book and decided to go with the eternal flame at Mount Chimera in Turkey. It has been burning for over 2,500 years and is the largest known venting of methane gas on earth. The fires burn along the mountaintop and were once used as a navigation beacons.

Mount Chimera was often written about by ancient philosophers and scholars. The Chimera monster is indeed related to the mountain. Most ancient sources, including Homer, record the monster as being the one that we are most familiar with in modern day—the odd creature with a lion’s head, a snake’s tail, and a goat head protruding from the back. However, other historians described Mount Chimera as being populated by goats, lions, and snakes in different areas. It was his interpretation that I used for the story.

The four goddesses who guard the flame are all ancient goddesses of fire in some sense. The Vestal Virgins once tended the sacred flame of the goddess Vesta, but I thought they were due for a little liberation.

The cave hideout where Tarron and Mari spent the night to avoid the storm is based upon the Lycian rock cut tombs of the Dalyan that were built in the 14th-15th century BC in Turkey. They are an incredible archaeological site that I had no idea existed until I found it on Google, and it just impressed upon me how many amazing sites there are that most of us don’t know about. Even though I studied archaeology for years, there are so many amazing wonders that I stumble upon.

The Asiatic lions that almost attack Tarron, Mari, and Aeri while they are approaching Mount Chimera are based upon the real Asiatic lions that went extinct in the 19th century due to human hunting and interference.

Finally, the dagger that Tarron anoints in the Eternal Flame was inspired by a sacred kris dagger from the 15th century Denmark Sultanate in Indonesia. The dagger was said to have been forged in the Mrapen flame, another ever-burning fire that is sacred in Javanese culture.

I think that’s it for the history and mythology in Queen of the Fae. I hope you enjoyed it and will come back for more Mordaca and Aerdeca.

For Amanda.