Willow stands over a half-devoured carcass on the outskirts of Bowen, a small town in Illinois beset by brutal animal attacks on both livestock and the population, and the local law enforcement has yet to track down the animal in question.

The most popular theory is that they have a cougar on their hands, or a rabid coyote separated from his pack, and then there's that one grizzled tracker at the local bar that keeps grumbling about how the tracks don't match up, points out the lunar cycles and insists they're all fools.

But she knows what's causing it all already, and it's months of tracking that's lead her to this place - drawing a circle around the latest victim, fresh enough for her purposes - and as she shuts her eyes and recites the delicate incantations she spent over a year locating, Willow thinks, "This is it, Oz, you'll finally be free."