A monster hunter rides into a curse made of crows, pain, and stolen souls.
Who drives the story
A half-black, half-Comanche monster hunter carrying his dead friend's bones, hoping to resurrect him. He learns to let Sam go and to unmake a curse his ancestors helped create.
A young girl with prophetic visions who can shapeshift into a crow. She becomes Rhett's ally, helps kill the Malice, and stays with the Comanche to learn her powers.
A one-armed gunslinger who lost his arm to a chupacabra and hunts monsters for bounty. The Malice possesses him and forces Rhett to shoot him in the leg; he survives and rides east after a wendigo.
A gaunt white necromancer found in a cave of preserved body parts. He sold Sam's soul to the Malice, revealing himself as a tool rather than the true enemy.
Rhett's dead friend, carried as bones and spoken to as a companion. His ghost asks Rhett to stop the Malice instead of bringing him back.
Rhett's loyal, ugly paint mare and his only companion on the trail. He talks to her constantly, and she carries him out of the story's final page.
Also in the story
Leader of the Comanche warriors who claim the Malice as their people's shame. He gives Rhett the sacred obsidian knife needed to cut out the curse's heart.
How they are connected
He learns to let Sam go and to unmake a curse his ancestors helped create.
She becomes Rhett's ally, helps kill the Malice, and stays with the Comanche to learn her powers.
The Malice possesses him and forces Rhett to shoot him in the leg; he survives and rides east after a wendigo.
He sold Sam's soul to the Malice, revealing himself as a tool rather than the true enemy.
He gives Rhett the sacred obsidian knife needed to cut out the curse's heart.
Rhett's loyal, ugly paint mare and his only companion on the trail.
Go deeper
Grief and letting go · Inherited guilt and atonement · Identity as both and neither · Monsters as tools and masters
Themes explainedThe full story act by act, the ending explained and a quick quiz.
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