The Game We Buried at Reunion

About this book:

Ten years ago, seven teenagers buried a brutal game in the ashes of a Vermont cabin, swearing never to speak of the night Sam didn't come home. Now, a hand-delivered brass token and a card stamped *THE ARBITER* drag them back to Blackwood Peak—where the bridge is washed out, the fuel lines are drilled, and the gun cabinet stands empty. Someone has rewritten the rules in purple ink: *A truth for a token. A life for a lie.* And the first bell tolls at midnight.

Miles, the tracker who sees too much; Paige, the runner who can't outrun her memory; Julian, the lawyer who thought contracts could protect him; Chloe, the striker with a knife at her hip and a secret in her pocket; Isaac, the trapper filming his own demise. They're not here for a reunion. They're here because the game never ended—it just went cold. And the Watcher isn't blind anymore.

In a lodge that doesn't appear on maps, with no phones, no vehicles, and four rifles missing from a welded-shut cabinet, the old hierarchy collapses. The Arbiter's authority is stripped. The perimeter is monitored. And somewhere in the hemlocks, a carbide lamp flashes the ancient signal: *Hounds unhitched. The board is open.* To survive the night, they'll have to finish what they started—and decide which sins they're willing to die for.