Publisher's Synopsis
Genesis Belle would do anything to leave the monster hunting world behind-even make a deal with one of the world's most accomplished hunters: her mother. All she has to do is kill the creature lurking in the shadows of their town before her mom does. If she wins, she can follow her cross-country road trip dreams without slaying monsters on the way, but if she loses, she'll have to keep working at a hunting outpost masquerading as a dingy diner.
Genesis is sure this bet will be what she needs to get out of her hometown so she can see the world without a knife hidden in her waistband. Thanks to the help of a new apothecary-in-training, Red, she assumes winning will be easy enough. He'll help her with the boring part (researching monsters) and she'll do the important part (killing monsters). It should be as simple as the pie she serves at the diner. But when human bodies start piling up around town covered in oozing dark magic, what started as a simple hunt turns into a nightmare.
The further down the rabbit hole Genesis and Red go, the more obvious it becomes that her mother's shady hunting tactics may be to blame for the town's body count. And when her mother dissuades her from continuing their bet under the paper-thin guise of keeping her from getting her feelings hurt, she's never more sure that something malicious is going on under the surface. Armed with a broken ancient mermaid artifact, that annoyingly nosy apothecary, and a shit ton of spite, Genesis must traverse the monster hunting world and utilize her skills to not only win the bet against her mother but save the town from the magic lurking in the shadows
