Excerpt from Sunless

Death is only the beginning… Once she would have laughed at the words or brushed off the person quoting them but that had been more than twenty years ago, and a lifetime she no longer had. Now it was no laughing matter, even if a pair of einherjar were presently taking swings at each other amid the catcalls and laughter of the handful of patrons aware enough to realize where they were. Fights weren’t uncommon in Tisiphone’s, any more than the goading given by the bus boy and the bartender. She watched out of the corner of her eye, one hand on a much-loved book as the smaller man stumbled and tripped, earning a resigned groan from the bartender as he turned away from the fight. The busboy smirked and strode off, placing the abandoned dishes onto a tray and moving them to the sink behind the bar, oblivious to her presence or ignoring her completely.