The greenhouse smelled of damp moss and scorched kerosene. Outside, fog rolled in thick off the bay—pier lamps glowed like bruised purple eyes, swelling and dissolving into the dark.
Luna, Ryan, and Margaux are stranded on a peninsula the high tide is slowly swallowing. Margaux knows the waters better than anyone… but she didn’t come back the same. She returned hours after the causeway vanished, her trench coat dripping wet yet her hair untouched, carrying a heavy bag that left a dark, spreading stain across the concrete. She claims she walked around the bay—four hours through salt marsh no human could cross.
Her smile stretches too far. Her voice echoes strangely. And when Ryan confronts her, he is gone in a heartbeat—not dead, not missing—just replaced.
Now Luna is trapped with something that wears Margaux’s face. Something that tells her exactly what she has always longed to hear… while the shadows stretch and multiply into shapes that have waited a very long time to feed.