Empire of the Vampire (Empire of the Vampire, #1)

by Jay Kristoff

But I never met a minstrel who wasn’t a liar, coldblood. Nor a holy man who wasn’t a cunt.”

But I knew his fists like I knew my name. And I thought it love.

“Our dead stay dead, Silversaint. Yours rise against you.”

“THE PLACARD ABOVE the taverne’s door read THE PERFECT HUSBAND. The faded lettering was accompanied by a picture of a freshly dug grave. I hadn’t yet set foot in the place, and I was already fond of it.

‘There’s no one more afraid to die than those who believe they’re undying.

Through all my years in San Michon, all the blood and sweat and darkling roads I walked, I learned one of my greatest lessons sitting in that Library with those girls in the still of the night. “A life without books is a life not lived.

‘What a world this would be, were it not held wholly and solely in the grip of stubborn old men.’