The Black Root

The map ends here. The nightmare begins. The Deep Woods, 1926. Malachi Thorne is no longer a man. He is a god in chrysalis, a bloat-monster of flesh and magic fleeing to the ancient heart of the Appalachian mountains. If he reaches the Mother Tree, he will not just control the forest—he will rewrite reality itself. Verity and Silas are the only ones left to hunt him. But they are leaving the world they know behind. Beyond the tree line lies the "Deep Woods," a place where the laws of physics shatter. Here, the rivers flow backward, the shadows have teeth, and time is a circle. For Silas, the journey is a death sentence. The closer they get to the Source, the stronger his eldritch form becomes—and the more his humanity fades. He is losing his memories, his voice, and the man Verity loves, replaced by the cold, hungry instinct of the Guardian. Verity is now the Keeper of Memory. She must navigate a landscape of hallucinations and psychological torture, tethering Silas to his sanity with nothing but her voice and her will. They must destroy the Root to save the world. But killing the Source means killing the magic that keeps Silas alive. To end the horror, Verity may have to break her own heart.