Book excerpt: An ancient Cherokee legend of a great spirit that protects the land and lake of a South Carolina park, deep in the heart of the reservation, brings Rebecca Anderson home. An up-and-coming biology student. Rebecca is working on her Master’s thesis, attempting to separate fact from fantasy in this persistent local legend; little does she know how real the “legend” is. When people start going missing, and others are found dead, Sheriff Bill Murphy must identify who—or what—is causing all this trouble before it gets worse. As the mystery evolves, it entangles Sarah Muller, a local high school senior, and she finds herself at the center of the investigation, stalked by a nightmare she couldn’t imagine. As all the players move toward the final discovery, they will be shocked by what they learn: the “legend” is more than it seems and not what any of them imagined.