Ravenous

Those who come back from the mysterious place known as the Realm, if they come back, are changed. Some return haunted. Others with knowledge of themselves that they will not share, and the magic of the Realm at their disposal. The peculiari, as these few are called, are tolerated at best, feared at worst.

Nicodemus isn't anything like one of the exceptional, adventurous peculiari. For the most part, he's content to keep house for the peculiari of the Arawn Agency and rarely ventures outside of the manor they all call home. As an asterion, one of the unwanted, monstrous children of the Realm, Nicodemus is human in appearance except for the ram's horns growing from his head, and prefers the company of those who don't judge him. There's just one hitch in his otherwise safe and orderly world. One awkward, inconvenient, twice-a-year problem in which Nicodemus goes into what can humiliatingly only be called a rut.

It's a secret he keeps from the others. But this year,...