You inherit the Foxxy Hole, a failing tavern in the town of Russet Hollow, from an uncle you never met. His note says one thing: keep the back-room door barred after dark, and read the ledger alone. You read it anyway. By morning the ink has crawled off the page and branded you Keeper, holding shut a seal that has been quietly failing for a generation. The seal is eight threads, one for every creature-lineage in the valley, and the threads have come loose.

Every thread is a woman. Win one back, heart and body, and a piece of the door goes tight again. Lose them all and the thing under the floorboards gets out. Eight threads. Eight women.

One waystation tavern, one very old cage, and an enemy who has been waiting generations for one of your family to fail.