In the historic heart of the Cotswolds, the river remembers what the town tried to drown. A British Folk Horror novel of ancient pacts, ancestral curses, and a silence that screams. When Elara Ward flees London for the picturesque town of Winchcombe, she seeks sanctuary from a chaotic life. What she finds is a cottage under siege by the River Isbourne and a dark history bubbling just beneath the water’s surface. While clearing flood debris from the roots of an ancient willow tree, Elara unearths a macabre artifact: a witch’s ladder —a braid of horsehair, raven feathers, and silver charms. It is a prison, a tether, and a warning. And Elara just broke the seal. Now, a frost-blue mark burns on her palm, pulsing with a cold, hungry intelligence. The church bells toll out of time. Fog swallows the streets. And the spirits of the Winchcombe Coven—thirteen souls betrayed and drowned in 1643—are beginning to wake. With the help of Julian Thorne , a reclusive antiquarian burdened by his own family’s dark legacy, Elara must unravel a centuries-old conspiracy of silence before the river consumes the town. But as the knots of the ladder loosen, Elara realizes the haunting isn’t just an invasion. It’s a homecoming.