Deep in the Smoky Mountains, where the roar of Abrams Falls drowns out every other sound, something ancient has begun to stir. It doesn't whisper in words; it carves them into stone, into water, into the breath of the living.

When the falls run red, Avery Adamson and Caleb Knox are pulled into a terror older than the mountains themselves. Townsfolk choke on borrowed voices, children speak with voices not their own, and cairns rise like teeth from the ground. Boundaries collapse. Rules are broken.

But the Smokies keep their own kind of memory, and every scar leaves proof. With ash, cloth, and blood, Avery and Caleb must learn how to teach hunger the only lesson it fears.

In a valley where survival is maintenance, not victory, they will fight to make the gorge choke on its own stolen names before it swallows the living whole.