The Hound of Scrying Hollow by Brooke Marley Jones

Stories creep through Scrying Hollow—whispers of a great beast. Come dusk, the first howl catches the wind and rustles the trees. Make haste, for it’s no wolf bounding through the Hollow.

The Hound comes for you.

Liliwen, the eldest daughter of the Valet family, knows the tales well. You see, her father was the first to die to the Hound. Seven years later, heartbreak threatens again, when Liliwen’s brother is ambushed by the beast. Eviscerated and barely alive, her brother escapes and stumbles home.

Once more, death waits upon Liliwen’s doorstep.

In response, a reward is issued for the Hound’s heart. Believing the queen’s physician might help her dying brother, Liliwen embarks on a solitary hunt. Armed with intimate knowledge of the Hollow, she catches the Hound in a magical net. Before she can deliver the killing blow, the splintering of bones rings out.

Suddenly it’s a man, not a Hound, writhing in Liliwen’s net.

Liliwen frees the man, but the pair are set upon by wolves, forcing them to retreat into the Hound’s home, a ruinous castle within Scrying Hollow. It isn’t until Liliwen attempts to escape that the doors slam shut, trapping her. While her brother inches closer to death, Liliwen remains captive in the crumbling castle with the very beast who murdered her father…

The Hound of Scrying Hollow.

Loosely inspired by the Beast of Gévaudan, the true story of a terrifying beast that tormented the French countryside in the 18th century, The Hound of Scrying Hollow enjoys sprinklings of Dracula, Beauty and the Beast, and other fairy tales.