Saige Chambers is constantly anxious and chronically over-prepared. From determining the best application of her blood witch magic in her bioengineering Ph.D. to figuring out how to fit in with her cohort, she’s desperate to find structure in a life full of open-ended questions. So when Saige and her fellow doctoral candidates depart for a conference, she has planned and anticipated every last detail.

She’s not prepared for the moment their bus turns off the highway and takes them to a remote mansion in the Appalachian mountains, the gates sealing shut behind them.

The mansion’s owner, Arius Medea, issues a simple mandate: fix his injured leg or die. But it’s no ordinary injury – the flesh melts off the bone, emitting waves of foul magic that set Saige’s blood alight.

Saige’s colleagues want to fight back and escape. Saige thinks their best chance is to fix him fast and get out.

As tensions rise, Saige finds herself growing closer to Vaishnavi Sri, a poison witch and Saige’s long-term crush. But first impressions can be misleading, and as Saige’s reluctant attraction to Arius grows, she begins to wonder if there’s a better life waiting for her in the walls of this mansion.

And then, one by one, her colleagues start to disappear. 

As Saige struggles to unravel the twisted magic of Arius’s affliction in hopes of saving their lives, she starts to think that dying may not be the worst option – because there are far worse fates lurking in the woods.