UNKNOWN

Death knows when the dead are not leaving properly.

In a Birmingham hospital, bodies survive when they should not, souls linger when they should be gone, and something rotten is gathering in the spaces between life and death.

Tobias and Stuart are still trying to build a life after Music's return. Tobias is alive, loved, and not nearly as fixed as everyone would like. Stuart wants to keep him safe. Tobias wants to be trusted. The difference between care and control is becoming harder to ignore.

Then Death steps into the room.

The dead are not moving on. Shadow ghosts gather. Daisy sees what nobody else can. Violence tears through ordinary life, and the myth that began with Music turns toward grief, queerphobic harm, medical fear, and the cost of choosing to live.

`In the Shadow of Death` is Book 2 in the Tobias and Stuart Trilogy: darker adult queer speculative romance about trapped souls, grief, violence, devotion, and the painful work of choosing life.