He came to bury a grandmother he barely knew. He found himself unearthing a war he never believed in.

Alex Rivers, a cynical journalist whose career was built on debunking the very idea of the supernatural, arrives in the dust-choked, forgotten Texas border town of Hopewell with one goal: settle the affairs of his estranged grandmother, Ada, and get back to civilization. Ada was the family enigma, a reclusive herbalist whispered to be a "Hedge Witch," her isolated adobe house a testament to a life lived on the fringes of reality. Alex expects to find a few quirky antiques and a lot of dust. He’s not prepared for what Ada truly left behind.

The Cinderwood Desert is a harsh mistress, its beauty stark and unforgiving. As a crippling drought tightens its grip on Hopewell and the impoverished nearby settlement of The Hollow, an ancient malevolence begins to stir. Children fall victim to a mysterious "wasting sickness" that baffles modern medicine. Livestock are found dead, drained of life, with no rational explanation. Strange lights dance on the horizon, and an unnervingly sweet, cloying scent – the perfume of the dreaded Scorpion Grass – drifts on the night air, a harbinger of a far greater darkness.

Forced to confront the escalating terror, Alex delves into Ada’s meticulously kept journals. What he initially dismisses as the ramblings of an eccentric old woman slowly reveals itself to be a chillingly accurate field guide to a hidden world of "Night Kind," protective rituals, and the terrifying "language of the moon." He learns his grandmother wasn't just a solitary herbalist; she was a guardian, a sentinel standing against a specific, ancient evil she called Mistress Myra – the Carrion Queen of Cinderwood – an entity Ada believed she had banished decades ago.

Now, with Ada gone, Mistress Myra is back, drawing strength from the land's despair and the community's mounting fear. Alex, a man who once scoffed at salt circles and iron charms, finds himself an unwilling heir to Ada's dangerous legacy. Aided by Ellen Morris, a pragmatic local clinic worker with a surprising wellspring of ancestral wisdom, and Matthew Stone, a frail elder whose eyes hold the ancient secrets of the desert, Alex must race against a dying moon to understand his grandmother’s "Instructions" before Hopewell is consumed.

He is no "Conjure Man," no hero. But as the unsettling occurrences in Ada's house become more personal, more targeted, Alex realizes he's no longer just an observer. He’s the lure. And the only way to save the town might be to offer himself to the very darkness he once so confidently denied.

"Scorpion Grass and Silver: A Cinderwood Reckoning" is a gripping paranormal suspense novel where a modern skeptic collides with ancient power. It’s a story of reluctant heroism, the weight of unexpected inheritance, and the terrifying realization that some folk tales are written in blood. If you enjoy atmospheric mysteries with a touch of dark humor, intricate magical systems rooted in folklore, and characters forced to confront the unbelievable, then prepare to be drawn into the dusty, dangerous, and utterly unforgettable world of the Cinderwood Desert.

Will Alex decipher Ada’s secrets in time? Or will he, and Hopewell, become just another forgotten echo in a land where the old ways whisper and the shadows hunger?