When the birds begin dying in a remote section of the Ozark forest, park ranger Anna Weaver searches for an ordinary explanation. Disease. Contamination. A natural disturbance. Anything that can be observed, measured, and understood.
But the forest has fallen unnaturally silent. The sunlight no longer strikes the trees at the proper angle. Anna senses an unseen presence watching from the shadows-and when she steps through a shimmering passage between two ancient oaks, the familiar world disappears behind her.
Anna has crossed into the Between, a realm of thin places and forgotten paths where the mythologies of the Americas are not merely stories. Ancient powers endure there. Tricksters bargain at the margins. Lost beings search for purpose. Guardians hold failing boundaries against a hunger older than the present world.
Guided by Fen, an enigmatic path-finder who is only beginning to regain his substance, Anna joins an unlikely fellowship drawn from different ages, cultures, and wounds. Among them are Sera, a quiet survivor who has made a life in the spaces between worlds; Cole, a soldier burdened by the choices of his past; and Crow, a clever and irreverent Trickster who has spent centuries avoiding every cause that might require him to care.
Their separate paths converge around a terrible discovery: the ancient Seal imprisoning the Devourer is failing. Its fragments have been scattered through realms governed by beings such as Tlaloc, the Weaver, Grandmother Stone, and the Wendigo Lord. To restore it, the companions must cross dreaming mountains, descend into deep waters, confront deceptive bargains, and face powers that know precisely how to exploit their deepest fears.
Yet the greatest danger may not be the darkness beneath the worlds. It may be the belief that courage belongs only to the powerful, that damaged lives cannot matter, and that one person's choice is too small to hold back the night.
Drawing inspiration from the mythological traditions of Indigenous North America and Mesoamerica, Hózhó When Courage Stands is a mythic supernatural thriller about balance, sacrifice, fellowship, and the stubborn light created whenever someone chooses to stand for another. It is a story of wounded people who discover that bravery does not require the absence of fear-and that even those who have failed, fled, faded, or forgotten their own names may still become essential to the survival of the world.
Ancient bindings are breaking. The hunger below is awakening. The Fifth Sun is not guaranteed another dawn.
Someone must hold the door.