by Raven Eckman
Dark Fantasy
Date Published: February 21, 2021
Publisher: Fox Pointe Publishing LLC
Rune’s mother is uncaring and her brother is too young to protect her, so when Rune’s father sells her to the depraved city of Wraith at the young age of ten, no one stops him. His last words to her are of a debt he cannot pay. The shadows who’ve kept Rune company as long as she can remember seem to know what he speaks of and yet they keep their silence.
And so Rune grows up living in servitude to Wraith’s brothel and its manipulative mistress, Agata, all while having only the faintest recollections of her forgotten childhood. Years later when she finally escapes Wraith, a wild place wrapped up in hedonism and old world ritual, she vows to never return…
When a child prince is kidnapped by a masked killer in a neighboring kingdom, however, Rune no longer has a choice. Joined by Weylin, her old love and a fellow Wraith runaway, she returns to the accursed city and the shadows of her past.
Not all is as it seems as threads of memory begin to unravel, revealing old lies and dark secrets.
The debt of her past may be too high to pay.
The shadows are speaking.
Death is waiting.
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Excerpt
I glance at the waiting shadows, my only friends in a world full of change and want and darkness.
Help. Please help.
The air in the circle grows thick as they press closer, seeking a way in. Their threads tangle and knot together, weaving among the circle’s branches …
Nothing.
The gray skuggi presses forward in determination, clawing at the resistance between us; a bead of sweat trails down my spine at its lack of success—at the futility and hopelessness.
And then Papa turns back to me.
“Rune … a debt … I cannot pay.” His eyes roll and I see their whites.
He speaks of the skuld.
A shadow snaps back, She cannot know of it—not yet.
About the Author
Raven Eckman is an author, freelance editor, and overall literary fangirl. She always knew books were her passion, well before her grandmother’s challenge to read a book a day when she was young.
She obtained her B.A. in English with a concentration in Creative Writing from Arcadia University. Since 2016, and the launch of her editing business in 2018: A New Look On Books, she’s been working with a range of authors, both self-published and traditionally published, on short stories and novels from horror to contemporary in YA and Adult fiction.
Shadowspeak is Raven’s debut novel. She is currently working on her second novel.
She lives in Pennsylvania with her fluffy pup, Atlas.
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