An ambitious apothecary tends a beautiful stranger with an ancient, world-shaking secret. A young man in a world of fairy-tale creatures discovers an invasion. An imprisoned roc struggles with his baser instincts. A doomed mine worker runs to escape something that should never have been dug from the earth. Combining genre-edge curiosity and classic storytelling, Charlie Nash's third collection celebrates modern fantasy with dark twists, including "The Ghost of Hephaestus", shortlisted for both the Aurealis Award for Best Fantasy Short Story, and the Ditmar Award for Best Novella or Novelette.