Divan Drakovar has lived in Brașov, Romania, since the age of six-ever since the morning he woke to find his parents murdered in a brutal attack on Castle Bran. His older brother, Caliban, then twenty, fled with him to their mother's family, before returning alone to Bran. Divan never saw him again. The silence that followed became its own kind of wound.
Twenty-five years later, Divan has forged a quiet life as a respected doctor, healing the sick and crafting remedies in his private apothecary. He has learned to trust reason, skill, and science. Then a letter arrives-written in Caliban's hand. Lonely. Desperate. Asking for help.
Something about it feels wrong.
Against his better judgment, Divan returns to Bran, unaware that a darkness still clings to the mist-shrouded Carpathian Mountains of 1850s Romania. The village is steeped in fear. Shadows move through the woods. Whispers speak of a monstrous presence that hunts beneath the full moon. Castle Bran-once his home-stands over the town like a tomb, guarding secrets long buried.
And Caliban, once strong, once unbreakable, is no longer merely alone-he is haunted.
There is something in Bran. Something ancient. Something hungry. As Divan searches for the truth, he discovers too late that he has stepped into a carefully laid snare-woven of blood, buried guilt, and a darkness that may already be claiming him as its own.
