Chapter 1

1.

My cousin's wife, Mabel, was dead.

Her eyes were bloodshot and bulging out of her head.

Her lower body was still frozen in the agonizing position of labor.

My cousin, Cody, was slumped on the floor, shaking with terror.

As soon as I burst through the door, my Aunt Pearl grabbed my arm with a grip like iron.

"Why did this bitch have to die?" she shrieked. "How dare she! All I did was try to shove that little monster back inside so her brother could come out first! How could she just die on me?"

"Caleb! You're a doctor!" she yelled, shaking me. "Cut her open right now! My grandson is still in there! Do you know how many eggs I wasted feeding her just to get a boy?"

Mabel's belly was deflated now.

The loose, thick skin hung over her waist like a hollow sack.

Acting on medical instinct, I stepped toward her.

My brain went numb at what I saw.

Amidst the blood-soaked sheets, sticking out from between Mabel's thin, skeletal legs, were two tiny, deformed legs.

They were covered in the biological features of a male infant.

2.

"Filthy bitch. She was a curse while she was alive, and now she's ruined my best bedding," Pearl hissed.

She began kicking the blood-stained quilt into the fireplace.

I tried to stop her out of respect for the dead, but Cody threw Mabel's clothes onto the floor in a heap of trash.

"Mom, just burn the bitch too," Cody spat. "She's bad luck. I slept with her a thousand times, and all she gave me was that disgusting freak of a monster."

"Burn her? What a waste of firewood!" Pearl snapped.

She threw a bucket of water into the fireplace to salvage the half-burnt quilt.

Her eyes settled on the bundle in my arms with pure disgust.

"And that thing Caleb is holding! Our family doesn't raise freaks! Toss the brat in the river with her mother. Save us the cost of a shroud."

The baby girl in my arms let out a weak, pathetic whimper.

I was about to scream at them when Elder Miller walked through the doorway.

"What a sin," he whispered, leaning on his cane. "What a terrible sin."

Elder Miller was the authority in our mountain town, even more respected than the mayor.

He dealt in the old ways, the folk magic.

Whenever someone got sick, they called him before they ever called a real doctor like me.

I was shaking with rage. "Elder Miller, Mabel was having twins. My aunt shoved the smaller one back in. She killed them both! I'm calling the police!"

"You ungrateful brat!" Pearl grabbed a heavy fire poker and swung it at me, just like she used to when I was a kid.

"Don't forget who raised you after your mother died! You want to call the cops? I'll beat the life out of you first!"

"Enough!"

Elder Miller slammed his cane against the floor.

"Mabel died a violent death. That brings a curse upon the bloodline. You treated her like trash in life, and now you want to kill her only daughter? Do you want Cody to die too?"

Pearl didn't believe him at first. "The bitch is dead. How can she hurt my son? I'll burn her to ashes right now!"

Cody scrambled to grab a jug of diesel and doused Mabel's body.

But no matter how hard he clicked his lighter, the flame wouldn't catch.

Fear finally began to creep into their eyes. "Elder... what's happening?"

Elder Miller had expected this.

He hobbled over to Mabel's body, his hands trembling as he looked at her.

"A child who dies in the womb carries the heaviest spite. He was already formed, a twin, a shadow. By forcing him back in, you created a Spirit Malice."

"Mabel died in agony. Her soul has merged with that malice. This is becoming a Mother-Son Blood Wraith."

He turned to Pearl, his voice low. "I gave you a fertility charm that everyone in this town uses. Why did your house turn out like this?"

Pearl's eyes darted around. "I... I just wanted to be sure. I got another secret recipe from my old neighborhood and made her take both. I didn't know..."

"Help us, Elder! You can't let anything happen to my Cody! He's the only male heir left!"

Elder Miller looked defeated. "When a Blood Wraith is born, the whole village pays in souls. We have seven days. If we can trick them for seven days, the curse won't settle, and the Reapers will take them."

His murky eyes drifted toward me.

It wasn't my imagination―the red silk cord around my wrist suddenly grew searing hot.

"Caleb," the Elder said. "You're the only one here whose hands aren't stained with Mabel's blood. The storm washed out the bridge, so you can't get back to the city anyway. Help your family. Repay them for raising you."

"If we survive this, I'll make sure your mother's remains are moved into the ancestral graveyard with honors."

I was a foundling.

My mother had been a social outcast, buried in a lonely, unmarked grave.

Elder Miller knew that was my only weakness. I had to agree.