When mankind was young, the Muses struck a deal with the gods: immortality in exchange for the responsibility of inspiring mankind's stories. But now, thousands of years later...the nihilistic immortals are ready to end it all, and they're taking the universe with them. Ross returns from a deployment to Afghanistan to discover that his wife is now estranged and his father, famous fantasy novelist Ed Brigham, has died. At the funeral, Ed's fans sign a petition to rope Ross into finishing Ed's long-running gunslinger series The Fiddle and the Fire. But when he and two of Ed's fans investigate the novelist's mysterious death, they discover a secret pathway to Destin, the fantasy world in Ed's books. There they meet the Kingsmen, legendary gunslingers that protect the lands of the Outlaw King with the power to slow time, and the Grievers, a secretive cult of swordswomen that keep peace with the ability to fold space. And he's going to need their help, because in a bid to lure a Lovecraftian god from beyond the stars with pain and suffering, the Muses are wreaking havoc by inspiring horrible atrocities instead of stories.