After escaping its mysterious grasp twelve years ago, Ethan Wilde never thought he'd return to Kingston, North Carolina—until the murder of an old schoolmate draws him back to the hometown he fears and the love he left behind. Rooted to Kingston by a force he can't explain, Jesse couldn't leave with Ethan when he asked, and it's a choice he's always regretted. A choice based on a terrible secret they share with four others. When they were nine years old, the six of them were taken into the woods, and no one is exactly sure what happened to them. Only that they came out changed. Marked. Twenty years later, the evil that hunted them is back and it's collected two souls already. Ethan and Jesse's love defeated the monster once, but are old feelings strong enough to save the survivors a second time?