Stephanie Zayatz

Rituals Stephanie Zayatz

Some secrets were meant to stay buried. Back to work for the first time after their violent brush with death, detectives Aviira and Jirel take a case that seems straightforward enough: bring home a grief-stricken teenage runaway who may have gotten involved in a dark-arts-obsessed cult. But the trail quickly goes cold as the clues are thin and everyone has a secret to keep about the whereabouts of an innocent girl. Aviira and Jirel find themselves emotionally invested in a tangled mess of lies and false leads all while some of Aviira's own lies make matters even more complicated once she realizes that some of her secrets have fallen into the wrong hands: Brendan Byrne, behind bars but obsessed with finding the identity of a child he believes to be his. With nothing left to lose Brendan makes it clear he will do anything to get what he wants--but unfortunately for him, so will Aviira.