Till Human Voices Wake Us

Book excerpt: Love and duty come in many guises ... When everything falls apart around Raphael, he starts over anew. As an immortal mage responsible for our world’s magic, this has happened more times than he cares to count. He no longer finds it exciting. In a modern London where magic hides around every corner, he awaits the end of the Great Game, a magical contest he is playing with the enchantress Circe. The Game’s prize is the world’s magic, and its price almost certainly Armageddon. Win or lose, Raphael is willing to sacrifice his power, his soul, and his life to prevent the end of the world. His heart doesn’t even enter his calculations. Three days before the crux of the Game his long-lost brother comes to find him—and along with unwelcoming memories brings a gift far more dangerous than any enemy: hope. Till Human Voices Wake Us is a retelling of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, a story where love, like duty, like Raphael himself, has many unexpected faces. Keywords: contemporary fantasy, mythological retellings, literary fantasy, mythopoeic fantasy, Orpheus and Eurydice, Greek myths