In Blackthorne, the dead don't always stay dead-and the living don't always stay themselves. When Dyrael Clawshaw witnesses something impossible in Saint Mercy Cemetery, he expects fear to fade with daylight. Instead, it follows him into school halls, into silence between classrooms, into people who start repeating words they never learned. A girl who should be gone returns unchanged. A presence that should not exist begins living too close to him. And beneath it all, something in Blackthorne quietly adjusts reality whenever it starts to slip. Dyrael is the only one who remembers what doesn't match. But memory is not a safe thing in Blackthorne. And the more he holds onto the truth, the more the town seems determined to make him the problem. Because something ancient is watching. Something hungry is learning. And Dyrael's blood doesn't behave like it's supposed to. In Blackthorne, death is only the beginning of correction.