Book excerpt: Gretchen Lauterbach travels to Brevard, where she meets Zachary, an American ex-pat living in France who deals in antiquities...decidedly unusual antiquities. This collection of three short stories features the backstories of the cursed items from Beneath the Morvan Moon. In "Le Meneur Des Loups", Zachary possesses a cloak rumored to have the power to transform a man into a wolf that Pascal, a Brevardian, wants for his collection of lycanthropic memorabilia. Europeans have a history of suffering due to wolves. Thus it was wolves and werewolves, or loup garous, came to be among the most feared beasts in French folklore, as did Le Meneur de Loops, the Wizard of the Wolves, responsible for commanding the wolves on their missions of terror. But were the legends merely that? "The Clockmaker" tells the tale of a clock Zachary discovers in Pascal's shop that chimes only when Death is near. Finally, "Casting On, Binding Off" features a pair of knitting needles that almost kill Zachary.