I am alive and you are dead, beautiful child, but you won. You spoiled my pleasure in being a vampire. You taught me to love and you tore it away. Oh yes, you won a victory so complete that you might as well have annihilated me and held victory celebrations on my grave.
But was it what you wanted? Robyn, does your soul look down on me now with pity or with heartless glee?
If only you had given me an answer. I cannot live forever without an answer.
Lilith, my sister, I’m sorry – but I cannot.
So he left it all behind. Sebastian passed from flame to ice, to the Weisskalt’s dazzling eternal winter; embraced the very extremity of the solitude that he had always held so dear.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
As with A Taste of Blood Wine and A Dance in Blood Velvet, there are many friends old and new whom I’d like to thank for their help and support with this book and my writing in general over the years – too numerous to mention without the risk of leaving someone out!
Thank you in particular to my agent, John Berlyne, and to Natalie Laverick, Cath Trechman and all at Titan Books, not least their wonderful design team.
Special thanks are also due to many wonderful writers on female spirituality (as named in A Dance in Blood Velvet) for inspiring me with tales of Lilith… and opening my eyes to hidden worlds that we still rarely see. Eternal thanks also to Stevie Nicks and to Horslips, for the inspiration of their music. I hope I don’t need to point out that I wrote The Dark Blood of Poppies at least fifteen years before the film Black Swan appeared… but the slight similarities of theme are certainly interesting!
I’m very grateful indeed to all the readers who have emailed me longing to know when the Blood Wine books would come back into print. It’s been a long wait, so thank you for your patience!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Freda Warrington was born in Leicestershire, UK, where she now lives with her husband and mother. She has worked in medical illustration and graphic design, but her first love has always been writing. Her first novel A Blackbird in Silver was published in 1986, to be followed by many more, including A Taste of Blood Wine, Dark Cathedral, The Amber Citadel, and The Court of the Midnight King – a fantasy based on the life of the controversial King Richard III. As well as the Blood Wine Sequence for Titan Books, she writes the Aetherial Tales series for Tor. Her novel Elfland won a Romantic Times award for Best Fantasy Novel. She can be found at www.fredawarrington.com
COMING SOON FROM TITAN BOOKS
THE DARK ARTS OF BLOOD
Freda Warrington
In the turmoil and glamour of 1920s Europe, vampires Karl, Charlotte and Violette face threats to their very existence…
Fiery, handsome dancer Emil achieves his dream to partner the legendary ballerina Violette Lenoir – until his forbidden desire for her becomes an obsession. Rejected, spiralling towards madness, he seeks solace with a mysterious beauty, Leyla. But she too is a vampire, with a hidden agenda.
Is Leyla more dangerous than the sinister activist, Godric Reiniger? When Karl and Charlotte undertake an exotic, perilous journey to rescue Emil, they unearth secrets that threaten disaster for vampire-kind.
The long-awaited, brand-new fourth novel in the Blood Wine Sequence.
Available October 2014
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