Shadowburn Avenue

She stepped outside for a cigarette.

That was Friday.

Ashboro PD called it a voluntary disappearance and closed the file. Her mother called Blake Garrett.

The last voicemail is nineteen seconds of a young woman laughing. Under the laugh, something breathes.

Blake’s heard that sound exactly once before — in a tunnel, standing over a body.

He takes the case because he’s broke and because nobody else will. By the time he understands what opened in that alley, he’s in too deep to walk, the Umbra have a leash on his wrist, and the thing under the River District has learned the sound of his heartbeat.

Ashboro has a hole in it now.

Blake Garrett put it there.

Book Three of The Umbra Venatori. One-click and go down after him.