Behind the brass gates of Orchard Grove, the manicured lawns and sprawling estates conceal a darkness that even the California sun can't bleach away.

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Sixteen-year-old Elliot Gray thought his inheritance would protect him from everything, but when visionary siren Helen Vaughn drifts into town, family fortune proves more curse than blessing. Why does the community embrace this stranger like an old friend? Why does Helen know secrets about his family that even he doesn't? And why does that statue he found in Lake Tenebrae bear an impossible resemblance to her face?

 

With the help of close friends—including a secret childhood crush—Elliot unearths her foul origins, cutting, fighting, and dragging his way through demonic sculpture gardens, a cult called Undercroft, and sun-drenched country clubs. But as Helen's past untangles with the Grays, the strings attached to Elliot's inheritance also emerge—strings reaching back centuries, binding the living to the dead.

 

As Helen's grip tightens around Orchard Grove and nightmares cease hiding in the dark, Elliot will do anything to keep his friends safe and become anything for the one he can't live without. Blood will spill beneath the California sun by any means necessary.