The Thirteenth Toll

For centuries, the village paid its tolls to the unseen. Now, the debt is coming due.
In Hushbrook, the rain doesn't fall. It listens.

For generations, the village has thrived under a sacred covenant. Prosperity, health, talent-all are granted in exchange for simple tributes, collected by the solemn Harvester. A lock of hair. A cherished memory. A season's laughter. No one questions the old ways. To question is to see the cracks in the world, and in Hushbrook, it is safer to be blind.
Eleven-year-old Silas has been silent for seven years. He is also the only one who sees the true collectors: the shifting, hungry things called Patrons, bound to every adult. His notebook is filled with their monstrous forms. He knows what the tolls truly cost.

When the ancient cycle culminates in the Final Pact, the Harvester announces a new offering is due. Not a toll of memory or breath. A Silent Soul. A child who has never spoken a vow.

And there is only one child in Hushbrook who fits the description.

Now marked for a fate worse than death, Silas discovers his silence is not a curse, but a key. His vanished mother left clues hidden in the very depths of the whispering woods, clues that suggest the Pact is not a blessing, but a beautiful lie. A lie that feeds on the souls of the quiet. To survive, he must flee into the forest that has already consumed so many, toward a truth that may shatter his world-or offer the only chance to break it.
But the woods are watching. The Patrons are hungry. And the debt must be paid.

What is the true price of Hushbrook's peace? Uncover the secret buried in the roots of a whispering forest.