Beware the Murkfell Wood.

The words haunt Theodora Mourningbeam as she sets out on her journey to Murkfell village, where she will become one of the Red Cloaks?midwives and nurses with magical powers who heal the villagers and safely deliver their babies. But Theodora must journey through the dark, mysterious Murkfell Wood to get there, a forest rumored to be haunted by a ferocious dire wolf. An old coachman tells Theodora to "beware the Murkfell direwolf" before leaving her alone at the entrance to the fell wood, where darkness and gloom exist even in the middle of the day. Along with her Red Cloak sisters, she's determined to get to the bottom of the mystery of the Murkfell Wood?and its beast, who is cursed to roam the depths of the Murkfell. She knows there is more to the beast than meets the eye?and discovers even more about herself and her own powers along the way.

Lucien Brightheart is a cursed man, enchanted by an evil witch to lurk in her dark forest, the Murkfell Wood, in the form of a direwolf. He can be freed from his curse, but only by a Moonbright witch?a rare celestial coterie of sorcerers. But the clock is ticking, he's bound to the Murkfell, and his curse must be broken before the rising of the Red Moon, a rare event rapidly approaching. Will Lucien ever find a Moonbright witch who can break his curse and free him from his beastly prison?