Tales of Malstria
The Immortal Damned
“Always keep your thoughts at heart on these three things true: Where you come from, what you are, and what will come of you. Lullay lullay little Quin, son, lullay lullay lo. With sorrow you came to this world, with sorrow you will go.”
A runaway in twelfth century York, Quin scraps together a life from stolen trinkets and constant hope. His knack for survival keeps him breathing after he’s nabbed by Leoric of Rensweald, a nobleman with generous intentions and dangerous needs. Quin alone knows Leoric’s savage hunger and guards his secret with loyalty born of fear, ambition, and a strangled sense of brotherhood. Richly rewarded for his silence, Quin is content until Leoric adopts a girl named Amarys as his ward. As Quin falls in love with her, his precariously balanced life comes undone.
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Excerpt
His eyes flashed upward and locked on mine as her blood streamed over his lips and chin. There was a smile in those eyes of his–a smile and a warning, and I couldn’t move until he looked away.
Masterful as I was at tucking myself away until dangers passed, when I fled that room instinct failed me. All I could do was run. By the time sense returned, I found myself in the center of a dark, narrow street even wind and sound had deserted.
An alley cut between the looming buildings on my right, and through the gap, the moonlit spires of Darton Cathedral beckoned me to turn. God put them there for me; for that moment. My eyes fixed on those spires, I dashed into the alley–knowing without thinking where I should hide.
He dropped from above in a streak of darkness and, landing two steps in front of me, blotted out the spires as he rose to his full height. Before I could turn, he clutched my shoulders with a grip so tight my fingers tingled.
“Don’t fight me, Quin,” he growled in my ear. “Don’t fight me and don’t run, or you’ll wish you could trade places with that whore.”
I fought anyway, useless as I knew it was, until he slipped his hand around my throat and squeezed just hard enough to make me gasp for air that wouldn’t come. I clawed and pulled at his wrist, and staring down at me with icy eyes, he slowly tightened his grip.
Those eyes were the last thing I saw and the first thing I awoke to in our room. Frigid and furious, their gaze hadn’t left my face for a moment. Lying on my back on the bed he towered beside, I could still feel the burn of his hand on my throat.
“You shouldn’t have told her my name,” he said.
I followed the flick of his eyes to see the whore’s corpse shadowed by a dark stain where it sprawled beside the bed.
“I’d have let her live, but look what you’ve done to her . . . And, to make it worse, you run off so I’m forced to leave her unfinished. Leaving me wanting more, Quin. Leaving me quite unsatisfied.”
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Tales of Malstria
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Characters Of Tangled
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Q&A
Q What was the biggest obstacle you faced while writing Tangled?
Q What is it in Quin that allows him to look for his ‘more’ when life has dealt him such a cruel hand?
Q Did you find it difficult writing in first person from a male perspective?
Q There are scenes in your novel that encompass the depths of love, hatred and fear. How do you create such diversity in your writing?
Q The city and landscape of the story seem alive. How did you develop the sense of scenery?
Music That Inspires
- The Red – Chevelle
- Truth – Seether
- Bother – Stone Sour
- Spiral – Godsmack
- I Will Not Bow – Breaking Benjamin
- Last TIme – Fuel
- Down and Out – Tantric
- Just Like You – Three Days Grace
- Silhouettes – Smile Empty Soul
- Comfortable Liar – Chevelle
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