A man stormed in with a gun. Eliza was shot. She survived, but afterward life became smaller. Crowded places felt wrong. People asked questions she never wanted to answer. She learned how to live carefully. Then one night, someone took her. He dragged her out of bed and into a world she didn't understand. A man with blood on his hands, rules he never explained, and eyes cold enough to keep people away. She thought being kidnapped would be the worst thing that ever happened to her. She was wrong. She was dragged into Berkton, a town erased from maps where people disappear, governments look away, and the forest surrounding it has rules nobody says out loud. She was never supposed to matter. Not to the man who kept pushing her away. Not to the things watching from Rune Forest. Now enemies are closing in, old wounds refuse to stay buried, and the closer Eliza gets to freedom, the more dangerous attachment becomes. Because in Berkton, people don't only get eaten alive. Sometimes they get chosen.
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