by Linsey Hall
We were searching for Evangeline’s grave. Her friends were having a picnic a couple of miles down the coast, and we would join them once we were done.
But this was a journey just for us.
And Cordelia, who ran far ahead of us on the path.
A week ago, after we’d visited the seer in Silvius castle, we’d begun to look for the grave. Carrow wanted to do it, and I wanted her to be happy.
She’d saved me. She’s saved us.
“I think this is it.” Carrow pointed up the hill to a spot about twenty yards off the path. “See the pile of stones?”
“I do. Let’s go visit.” I held a bunch of flowers we’d gathered along the coast.
Without Evangeline, we wouldn’t have each other.
Carrow laughed as we ran through the grass, headed up the hill toward the grave. For the briefest moment, I had a vision of what we must look like. It was an out-of-body experience.
I was running through grass. Laughing.
It was so far away from the interminable years of my immortality that it seemed like a different planet. This one was in color, fully and brightly. The air smelled better, the grass felt softer, and everything tasted divine.
Carrow was here.
We slowed to a stop in front of the pile of stones. They were arranged in a neat pyramid, and pink flowers grew between them, trembling on the cool sea breeze.
“It really is her.” Carrow knelt. “I can feel it.”
I joined her, laying the flowers on the cairn. “She’s with you always.”
Carrow nodded, her eyes gleaming slightly. “She and my mother and all the rest of my family.” She turned to me and kissed me. “And you, too.”
“Always.”
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 Christine
Author’s Note
Thank you so much for reading Carrow’s Series! As you know by now (if you generally read the Author’s Note), this is where I like to mention the historical elements in the book—both interesting tidbits and where I might have deviated from history. There weren’t a large number of new historical elements in Cursed Mate, but one of the most distinct was Silviu’s castle in Transylvania.
In preparation for this book, I made a trip to Romania to see Vlad the Impaler’s birthplace and the castle that is associated with him. I knew that it wouldn’t look like the Transylvania of American movies (largely populated by dark, creepy castles and rainy old villages) but I was surprised by the extreme difference between what our movies depicted and the truth.
Quite simply, Transylvanian villages are the loveliest, cheeriest villages I’d ever seen. They give the Cotswolds a run for their money, albeit with a different style of architecture. But when it comes to writing a vampire book, one can’t write “he returned to the land of his birth, which looked like the Romanian version of a Norman Rockwell painting.” So I leaned into the creepy Dracula castle vibe, but it was fun to think of the contrast while doing so. If you’re interested in getting a look at what I’m talking about, do a Google image search fro Sighișoara, the birthplace of Vlad the Impaler.
Another historical element in the story was the Mages’ Coffeehouse. It first appeared in Dark Secrets, where I discuss the history of English coffeehouses more fully. But I thought I should mention that the Mages Coffeehouse, which appeared in Guild City in 1642 in this book, predates the first English Coffeehouse by 10 years (that was a coffeehouse established in Oxford in 1652 by a Jewish entrepreneur). So, depending on how you look at it, the Mages Coffeehouse is either inaccurate in its timing for appearing in England, or it was the first :-) I should also note that it would be unusual for a coffee house to allow women at that time (thank you to my editor Lauren Simpson for pointing that out to me!). Guild City is far advanced in terms of gender equality compared to the human world.
The garden at Councilor Rasla’s house was based on the Elizabethan Garden in Plymouth England, and the house took its inspiration from the Elizabethan House museum that is associated with the garden.
Lastly, in this book, Carrow is revealed to be a Soulceress. If you’ve read my paranormal romance series, you might recognize Soulceress as the title of the second book. I came up with Carrow’s magical talents before I figured out what she was, exactly, so when it came time to name Carrow’s species, I kept returning to the word Soulceress. I liked it so much that I decided I would use it again and it could be a different look a similar concept. So if you aren interested in a totally different take on Soulceresses, consider reading Soulceress. It is set in a different magical world (this one populated by immortals) but it has many similar themes to the Shadow guild world.
Thank you again for going on Carrow and Grey’s adventure with them. This isn’t the last we’ll see of the Guild City crew. Seraphia will be returning in Autumn 2020, and her name isn’t really Seraphia. Be sure to check it out to find out why she’s been such a mess lately!
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 978-1-64882-002-1
[email protected]
www.LinseyHall.com
https://www.facebook.com/LinseyHallAuthor