This year's festival season will be perilous.

Zombie cactus season has officially begun in Axia, and Deandra is not having a good time. The town is preparing for a festival to honor the versatile plant, and it's giving Dee—a recovering barista—Pumpkin Spice Latte–season flashbacks.

Most shop owners in Axia are taking part in the cactus-themed festivities, and Quinn and Rularo Greenwood are no exception. Their shop, InkCraft, is known for its alchemical inks that add magic-powered animation to business cards, signs, and even tattoos. Since the couple will be busy with the festival all weekend, they've opted to leave their salica at home, where the high-strung, magic-touched ferret will be more comfortable. They've hired a very reluctant Dee to aid in his care.

Though the ferret often uses the depths of Rularo's beard as a security blanket, he accepts Dee's calming presence as a passable, if weak, replacement. But when a customer of Rularo's dies because of a poison-laced tattoo, Peril is riddled with guilt, sure he could have saved his family from awful allegations had he been with Rularo at the time of the incident.

Uncovering who actually tampered with the tattoo ink is more complicated than Deandra and Peril anticipate. The more they dig, the more they're sure the incident is connected to a sapient-animal rights group that has been harassing festival attendees. With the clock ticking toward the end of the three-day festival, they must ferret out the culprit before the town's horde of cactus-crazed tourists depart Axia, leaving InkCraft in shambles … and taking their secrets with them.

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