Ellie, a master’s student in archaeology, comes to Misty Town to investigate the truth behind her mother’s mental breakdown. The strange movements of a copper compass lead her to a road plagued by “vanishing fog” accidents, a bookstore hiding secrets, and a mine-shaft altar seeping black ooze. There she meets Jack, a sheriff searching for his missing wife, and Lucy, a night-blind nurse who can see “glowing threads.” The three discover that the clues they have each been following point to a corrupting force born of black crystals. As the countdown to the seventy-third cycle begins, will Ellie become the heart of a sacrifice, or break the chains of fate? Gripping the silver hairpin left by her mother, Ellie watches the compass needle point toward her own beating heart, where the overlapping faces of the ancients from three hundred years ago and her mother appear.
