Book one in the award-winning contemporary fantasy trilogy about a tribe of shapeshifters in northern Maine, USA.
Ten years after departing this world, Michael Singleton returns to the valley nestled along the Blackwater River. Michael suffers from a rare disease, the curse of his tribe. Because of this, Michael’s soul will be damned to wander the Shadowlands, the domain of the Witch Goddess, for eternity. To escape this fate, Michael must unlock the spell that opens the portal to Corvus’s kingdom, the Otherworld. It is a secret known to only one man: the powerful Guardian of the Dead.
Alena is set to inherit her father’s title of Guardian of the Dead until she meets a handsome, tormented stranger at the solstice feast. When Michael is accused of murdering the Captain of the Guard, Alena must decide whether to obey her heart or the sacred laws of her shapeshifter tribe.