When Malakay Veynor, twenty years old, follows his mother into a decaying manor at the edge of a vast forest, he tells himself it's only temporary. His father works overseas, and his mother insists they stay here until she can join him. But when she leaves for several months to be with his father, Kay finds himself alone in the crumbling house—cut off, surrounded by woods the villagers refuse to enter.They only give him one warning: never go into the forest after dark.At first, Kay ignores the whispers. He dismisses the creak of footsteps outside his window, the faint tapping at the walls. But then he wakes to find his name scratched into the frost, the sound of a low breath in his room, and a figure watching him from the tree line.And then he meets him.Tall. Hauntingly beautiful. Wrong in ways Kay can't name. Eyes like molten gold that see straight through him. A voice that bends his will, both terrifying and intoxicating.The creature has waited. Now that Kay is alone, it steps closer, night after night, until fear curdles into fascination—and fascination into hunger. The monster doesn't just want blood. It wants surrender. Devotion. Love, twisted into a chain that binds.By the time Kay realizes he's been chosen, it's already too late. Because the forest doesn't just keep secrets. It keeps what belongs to it.He who waits in the shadows.

When Malakay Veynor, twenty years old, follows his mother into a decaying manor at the edge of a vast forest, he tells himself it's only temporary. His father works overseas, and his mother insists they stay here until she can join him. But when she leaves for several months to be with his father, Kay finds himself alone in the crumbling house—cut off, surrounded by woods the villagers refuse to enter.They only give him one warning: never go into the forest after dark.At first, Kay ignores the whispers. He dismisses the creak of footsteps outside his window, the faint tapping at the walls. But then he wakes to find his name scratched into the frost, the sound of a low breath in his room, and a figure watching him from the tree line.And then he meets him.Tall. Hauntingly beautiful. Wrong in ways Kay can't name. Eyes like molten gold that see straight through him. A voice that bends his will, both terrifying and intoxicating.The creature has waited. Now that Kay is alone, it steps closer, night after night, until fear curdles into fascination—and fascination into hunger. The monster doesn't just want blood. It wants surrender. Devotion. Love, twisted into a chain that binds.By the time Kay realizes he's been chosen, it's already too late. Because the forest doesn't just keep secrets. It keeps what belongs to it.He who waits in the shadows.

When Malakay Veynor, twenty years old, follows his mother into a decaying manor at the edge of a vast forest, he tells himself it's only temporary. His father works overseas, and his mother insists they stay here until she can join him. But when she leaves for several months to be with his father, Kay finds himself alone in the crumbling house—cut off, surrounded by woods the villagers refuse to enter.They only give him one warning: never go into the forest after dark.At first, Kay ignores the whispers. He dismisses the creak of footsteps outside his window, the faint tapping at the walls. But then he wakes to find his name scratched into the frost, the sound of a low breath in his room, and a figure watching him from the tree line.And then he meets him.Tall. Hauntingly beautiful. Wrong in ways Kay can't name. Eyes like molten gold that see straight through him. A voice that bends his will, both terrifying and intoxicating.The creature has waited. Now that Kay is alone, it steps closer, night after night, until fear curdles into fascination—and fascination into hunger. The monster doesn't just want blood. It wants surrender. Devotion. Love, twisted into a chain that binds.By the time Kay realizes he's been chosen, it's already too late. Because the forest doesn't just keep secrets. It keeps what belongs to it.He who waits in the shadows.