The Noctis mansion is death’s home and a haven for supernatural creatures. It’s used to strange visitors and strange requests—but this is the first time that anyone has asked to borrow Kappa, the two-foot-tall bog-monster that has lived with Big Jacky for years. Benjamin Gladwyn is the mayor of a small town in Louisiana. The bog-monsters that live in the neighboring Sauvage Preserve have started invading the town at night. No one knows why they’re doing it or how to stop them, but if they aren’t stopped soon, the secret of their existence will be exposed to the increasingly paranoid townsfolk. Since Kappa can speak, he might be the link the Torr needs to work with the colony. But Emerra Cole isn’t about to let Kappa head out into a strange swamp alone, and Big Jacky doesn’t trust Emerra to keep herself out of trouble, so they ask the wolfman, Conrad Bauer, to help. When Conrad, Emerra, and Kappa go down to Fort Rive, they find a town full of rumors and a swamp haunted by the weight of its own secrets. They have to learn what’s going on before things go from bad to catastrophic.