The water in the hidden grove of Silver Falls was said to be the most beautiful in the world—not just for its shimmering clarity, but for the way it remembered. Mara had heard the stories since childhood.

In the rain-lashed port town of Blackshell Cove, the dead did not rest—they loitered. Mortimer Fain was the only undertaker left who knew the old ways. While others nailed coffins shut or weighted bodies