Book excerpt: YOU CANNOT ESCAPE THE PAST Fergus’s world changes forever the day his car crashes near the village of Allingley. Traumatised by his near-death experience, he stays to work at the local stables as he recovers. He will discover a gentler pace of life, fall in love – and be targeted for human sacrifice. Clare Harvey’s life will never be the same either. The archaeologist’s dream find – the peat-preserved body of a Saxon warrior – is giving her nightmares. She can tell that the warrior was ritually murdered, and that the partial skeleton lying nearby is that of a young woman; their tragic story is unfolding in her head every time she goes to sleep. Fergus discovers that his crash is linked to the excavation, and that the countryside harbours some dark secrets. As Clare’s investigation reveals the full horror of a Dark Age war crime, Fergus and Clare seem destined to share the Saxon couple’s bloody fate.