New research has uncovered deeply buried military secrets—both the Allied and Axis special operations during WWII included monsters. Did the Soviets use a dragon to win the Battle of Kursk? Did a vampire fight for the Canadians in Holland? Did the US drop the second atomic bomb on a kaiju? This collection takes real events from World War II and injects them with fantastical creatures that mirror the “unreality” of war itself. Each story—and two poems—feature mythical, mystical, and otherwise unexplainable beings that change the course of history.

Violet Zennor was raised fighting in underground arenas. Ruthless and skilled, she becomes an heiress after her father's death. But her freedom is short-lived. Her father planned to send her to the Darklands, where her stillborn brother was sold. Despite pressure, Violet refuses. After an assassination attempt, she realizes she must confront her father's legacy. Seeking help from Miren, Ellie, and Asher, she prepares for the ultimate journey: into the Darklands, to the Anchorhold. This gripping tale explores a sinister fantasy world where blood is power and magic is a weapon.

Elise and her boyfriend, Tom, set off for Minnesota, hoping the paycheck from the sugar beet harvest will cover the rent on their Brooklyn apartment. Amidst the grueling work and familiar anxieties about her finances, Elise starts noticing strange things: threatening phone calls, a mysterious rash, and snatches of an ominous voice coming from the beet pile. When Tom and other coworkers begin to vanish, Elise is left alone to confront the weight of her past, the horrors of her uncertain future, and the menacing but enticing siren song of the beets.

Colonel Edward Pierce of the Confederate Army has gone rogue. He and the nearly five hundred men under his command have vanished into the West, pursuing a fabled ancient treasure and leaving only death and destruction in their wake. Tasked with killing the deserter, Jess Shepherd and his two companions will weather the unforgiving trail in pursuit, encountering bandits, bounty hunters, and true evil. A bleak tale of the callous indifference of the frontier, the unsettled West, and man.

When Sarah returns to her hometown of Cedarbrook for her brother's funeral, she expects grief and sorrow—but not fear. Her brother's death, ruled a mysterious drowning in the frozen waters of Echo Lake, doesn't add up. As Sarah digs deeper, she discovers her brother wasn't the first to meet this fate. Several others have drowned or vanished under strange circumstances, their bodies pulled from the icy depths of the lake with no explanation.

In the quiet city of Stoke-on-Trent, life is turned upside down when an unimaginable horror strikes. As the dead begin to rise, Adam Grear, an ordinary supermarket worker, is thrust into a fight for survival. Adam must navigate a world full of horror and despair and keep his girlfriend, Amy, safe.

Ebenezer "Eerie Eb" Edwards is ready to hang up his rifle. After years in the military and security contracting, he's set on leaving his tactical profession behind and focusing full-time on podcasting. But when a lucrative final contract crosses his path, Eb agrees to one last mission—a search deep into the heart of Savage River State Forest for the missing sister of Cora Rhodes, a wealthy heiress with a fierce determination.

A year ago Sophie Wickham stumbled into the isolated Lancashire village of Withered Hill, naked, alone and with no memory of who she is. Surrounded by a thick ring of woodland, its inhabitants seem to be of another world, drenched in pagan, folklorish traditions. As Sophie struggles to regain the memories of her life from before, she quickly realises she is a prisoner after multiple failed escape attempts. But is it the locals who keep her trapped, with smiles on their faces, or something else, lurking in the woods?

At Thorne Hall, a grand estate nestled in the Berkshires, fifteen restless spirits roam, bound within the mansion’s walls since the Gilded Age. Elegy Thorne bears the weight of her family’s curse to preserve the mansion as it was in the 1890s, using ancient folk songs to keep the spirits secret and silent in order to avoid deadly consequences. When a mischievous child spirit wreaks havoc on the manor, the Thorne family calls upon their trusted preservationist to restore the mansion.

After the sudden death of their parents, the Gerber siblings take over the family farm, quickly learning that fending for themselves is much harder than they’d assumed. This hardship leaves them open to letting a strange man they’d rescued from winter’s clutches stay on for room and board, oblivious to the ferocious evil he’s carrying, as well as ravenous beasts it will draw to their home.

England, 1921. Three years after her husband, Alex, disappeared, shot down over Germany, Jo Manders still mourns his loss. Working as a paid companion to Alex's wealthy, condescending aunt, Dottie Forsyth, Jo travels to the family’s estate in the Sussex countryside. But there is much she never knew about her husband’s origins…and the revelation of a mysterious death in the Forsyths’ past is just the beginning…

Ford Atticus Ford, former lead ghost hunter on the hit paranormal reality show Graveyard: Classified, has more than a few regrets - especially after young Chelsea Hopper was attacked by a demon . . . on live television. Assisting police departments by conducting paranormal investigations and uncovering buried clues now provides him with an ounce of redemption, but it will never be enough. With the show cancelled and his reputation destroyed, Ford sets out to avenge little Chelsea, and save his own soul - if he can.

In a place and time unknown, two elderly sisters live in a walled garden, secluded from the outside world. Evelyn and Lily have only ever known each other. What was before the garden, they have forgotten; what lies beyond it, they do not know. Each day is spent in languid service to their home: tending the bees, planting the crops, and dutifully following the instructions of the almanac written by their mother. So when a nameless boy is found hiding in the boarded house at the center of their isolated grounds, their once solitary lives are irrevocably disrupted.

When an unspeakable ancient evil returns, an orphan girl’s secret may be the world’s only hope. After witnessing the murder of her mother and enduring captivity by outlaws, a young girl finds herself the slave of a brutal mountain man. Trapped by magical wards carved into the trees surrounding a trapper’s shack, the girl almost gives up hope. The arrival of a ghostly gunfighter, as pale as the moon, changes her fate.

The moor is a difficult place for a young woman to grow up in the eighteenth century, and life for Hettie Gale is no different. Abused by her father and abandoned by her family, she builds a new life for herself and her young son. But when she’s assaulted by men who lie about the encounter and accuse her of a heinous crime, Hettie is sentenced to death. In the present day, Alice receives news that her cousin has gone missing from her cottage on the moor, where Alice spent many of her childhood summers. Wanting to help find Fleur, she heads to the village.