Leaf and Scale

Words have power, and secrets can kill…The village of Drake's Bend has long been guardian of a sacred grove where ancient trees offer gentle counsel to those who dare share their secrets. For centuries, this delicate balance between confession and wisdom has been maintained.Until now.The whisperwoods have turned venomous. The trees sharpen sacred confidences into devastating weapons of betrayal, threatening to tear the local community apart. Old friendships are being torn apart, and villagers fall ill with a mysterious sickness. But the whisperwoods hold still darker secrets that are twisted and spread to the highest reaches of London society. The old sentinels could be lost forever as the call to silence them grows louder.Fern must uncover the truth behind what poisons both trees and people before time runs out and lives are ruined. The ancient sentinels are the last of their kind, and their loss would forever silence a magic as old as Britain itself. But in the race to save both grove and villagers, Fern discovers that some secrets were meant to stay buried-and awakening them could destroy everything she holds dear.

Some flowers bring beauty. This one brings the dead.In the cemetery of Drake's Bend, a most unusual flower unfurls its bloom. The spectral orchid signals that a restless soul has returned-and it has unfinished business. Fern must piece together clues to settle a soul who lived an unremarkable life, before villagers are gathered in spectral arms to join it in death.But as Fern unravels the spirit's final days, she discovers that person's fate was bound to a far greater secret-one tied to her father's murder. When another orchid flowers, the truth she has tried to discover for five years might finally be within her grasp…except the trail pulls her beyond the veil between the living and the dead. In a realm where love can bind too tightly, how will she return before her time runs out?