The Ember and the Snow

When winter presses its face to the glass, some promises ignite.

Brighton, Illinois, 1905. A brutal storm grips the town, and inside the Dodge and Clark Stammering College, Celia Joscelyn clings to rituals of warmth and courage—peppermint sticks, carols, and a coal-room vow whispered to a soot-black kitten named Wicket: Guard me.

But when fire turns sanctuary into inferno, that vow awakens something older than mercy and hungrier than flame. As snow howls outside and embers roar within, a creature rises—a werecat born of grief and love, bound by a contract that cannot be broken without blood.

This is the night Brighton will never forget. A night of courage and ruin, of forgiveness that reshapes curses, and of a legend that will stalk the town for generations.

The Ember and the Snow is the haunting origin of the Brighton Werecat—a tale where loyalty burns, winter bites, and even monsters remember grammar.