Welcome to Burrsville, traveler. If you missed the sign coming into town, you could be forgiven - it's grown over with Virginia creeper, and no one has thought to cut it down, and no one will. There is not much use for a sign. People who find their way here do so by accident.
You will not find a hotel here; there never was one. There was a diner, once, but the dust is so thick on the windows you can no longer peer through, and if you go around the back you can see where the bear broke in and ate the frozen waffles and the jars of jam, and when he'd had his fill the raccoons and possums and mice came for the rest. There are stranger and hungrier things than that in Burrsville.
If you go down Main Street, you will see what's left, the secondhand stores and the Army recruiter, the smoke shop and the bottle-and-can return. You will see the empty husks of the churches - the crumbling stone of the Catholic church, where I met the devil once, and the collapsed steeple of the Pentecostal, open to the sky, hollow as a throat. If you go inside, you will find blood before the altar.
Perhaps, if you look long enough, you will find someone who lives here, and you'll ask them what happened in the church. If they are honest with you, they will say they can't remember, but there are red flickers of shame and ecstasy and riven bone lurking in the caverns of their mind. They will not be honest; they will simply say they don't know.
When you leave the town, and go up and up the winding road out of the valley, you must be careful of the wild things. They have the run of this place, and they are fearless. They will not flee from you, and people who crash on that road have disappeared.
Sometimes they come back - or something does, walking in their skin and using their voice.
You may be tempted to pull over at the sight of a fawn, alone and trembling, at the edge of the road. You may get out and look around for a mother, and find none, and when the fawn retreats back into the shadows of the trees you may follow, hoping to see it safe. The scent of the earth, the cushion of the moss beneath your feet, the feather touches of the ferns against your hands, they will all draw you forward and lull you into quietude and wonder. Between one breath and the next, you will lose sight of the fawn, its spots melding into the sunlight dappling through the oak leaves. You will turn back toward the road and realize the trees have closed around you, and you no longer know where the road is, or how far you've walked. Suddenly the forest will feel less peaceful, more watchful, and when you brush another fern and instead find a thorn, long as a thumb and curved, you will realize this place is not friendly.
You will push forward through the trees, fear clenching cold around your heart and spiderwebs striping themselves across your lips. Suddenly there will be light again, glimpses of tall grass, and you will burst from the forest, gasping with relief. If you're lucky, you will meet him there, with his six-fingered hands and silver eyes, and he will offer you a bargain.
But you aren't lucky, are you? The lucky ones don't find Burrsville, or wander into my woods. So instead of him, you'll meet me, and I offer no deals. You are in my sanctuary now, traveler. There is no leaving.
A hundred years ago, a witch sold her soul to save her life—but now she must stop the devil from collecting his due in this gripping and nuanced debut horror novel.
The devil was as my mother and grandmother had always described him: polite enough that you might forget yourself, so beautiful that you’d want to, so dangerous if you did.
Attacked by the man she desired and at the brink of death, Tess Wynne vowed she would do anything to live—and the devil heard her. Their bargain meant she would remain ageless and tethered to the land she nearly died on, at the edge of the isolated Appalachian town of Burrsville. Her home is now a wildlife sanctuary, and the spells she’s woven keep the land and community safe.
But then Tess rescues an orphaned fawn with unnatural appetites, and her instinct to protect this strange creature puts her at odds with Burrsville’s residents. And when a new pastor comes to town and begins chipping away at the trust she’s gained, threatening the sanctuary and its animals, the careful edges of Tess’s world begin to fray.
The devil whispers in her ear that he can save the sanctuary if she’ll just pay his price, and Tess must decide if she’ll trust in her own magic to save what she loves—or surrender to his will.
Thriller Paranormal - Supernatural [ Berkley, On Sale: August 25, 2026, Hardcover / e-Book / audiobook, ISBN: 9798217188758 / eISBN: 9798217188765 ]
C.N. Vair (she/her) is a horror and dark fantasy author living in Western New York. A former journalist, she’s interested in the history and haunted corners of small towns, the magic and malice of the natural world, and power in all its forms. When she’s not writing, you can find her wandering in woods and cemeteries, growing poisonous plants in her garden, or spending time with her husband and dogs.
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