Redd's mother has to pick up his sisters from gymnastics. Granny is sick again, and needs another care package. Redd's mother sends him, with a reminder not to stray from the path and armed with his hoodie, through the border between his suburban home to the Old Woods.

"Could you love me?" he whispered. The question stole my breath and burned my lungs in the silence that followed. I wanted to answer, to whisper yes into the space between us, but I was afraid. All Gesela's life, her home village of Elk has been cursed. And it isn't a single curse-it is one after another, each to be broken by a villager, each with devastating consequences. When Elk's well goes dry, it is Gesela's turn to save her town by killing...