A griffin tortured by memories.

An outlawed book that corrupts anyone who reads it.

It’s been two years since the events in the Monster Lands.

Trying to forget the horrors he experienced there, Harrell White-shoulders lives in quiet anonymity, burying himself in security work along the Isthmus Canal. Construction of the mighty waterway connecting two oceans is nearly complete, and Harrell has had his talons full dealing with disruptive locals and squabbling workers.

This is almost enough to keep the memories at bay...except for the flashbacks...and his terror of enclosed spaces...and the creeping influence of the monster’s technology everywhere he looks.

When a young jungle griffin, KeeKee—accompanied by her life-long friend, Twig—asks Harrell to provide her with an apprenticeship, he reluctantly agrees. But the two have their own secrets. KeeKee doesn’t even want to be a ranger, while Twig is dangerously obsessed with the monstrous creatures beyond the gate, the “hoomins". He hopes KeeKee’s apprenticeship with Harrell will be his ticket to working with the five captives being held in Defiance.

But unknown even to KeeKee, Twig possesses a book so dangerous every copy of it has been tracked down and burnt...except his.

KeeKee’s education takes Harrell to the edge of the Frozen Continent, then down to the source of the Jungle River in search of an animal long thought extinct. But no matter how many miles he flies, he can’t escape the monster’s grasp.

And this time he might not escape with his life.