Nest of Tongues

Set in the San Francisco Bay Area, the story follows two Filipino American siblings who are manananggals, a type of Ta'Li (short for Tawong Lipod, meaning "hidden people"), creatures from Filipino mythology who must conceal their true nature to survive. Manananggals detach their upper torsos from their lower halves at night, sprouting leathery wings and sharpened senses, and must drink animal blood to extract kulam, a spiritual essence they need to live. The main plot spans a single week, with chapters told primarily from the siblings' perspectives and punctuated by mythic second-person interludes addressing the Bayani, a legendary hunter of the Ta'Li. An epilogue set three weeks later includes a section narrated by a third character.

Lily, a fierce and independent eighteen-year-old senior, and her timid fifteen-year-old brother Caleb hunt together in the mountains on a Monday night. Their grandmother, Lola, a datu (elder) of the regional Ta'Li community, forbids them from feeding on apex predators to avoid drawing attention, but Lily kills a mountain lion anyway. On their flight home, Lily catches the rare scent of Ta'Li blood and convinces Caleb to follow it. They discover a dead manananggal on the roof of a Filipino grocery store, stabbed in the heart, with Baybayin characters spelling "Aswang," a slur for Ta'Li, tattooed on the back of her neck.

When they report the discovery to Lola, she reacts with alarm but refuses to answer their questions. That afternoon, she reveals that the Bayani is real and operating in the Bay Area. The tattoo on the dead manananggal is a mystical mark that functions as a tracking beacon: Once marked, a Ta'Li is always found and killed within days. Lola announces plans to send both siblings to their aunt in New Jersey.

Lily refuses to go. She reveals to Caleb that she secretly purchased a plane ticket to Manila to find their mother, who left for the Philippines a year earlier to conduct research and has since sent only infrequent, vague emails. That evening, Lily spots the Bayani's mark on Caleb's neck: The Baybayin characters for "Aswang" have appeared on his skin.

The siblings agree not to tell Lola immediately. Lily finds a babaylan (Filipino shaman) named Tita Tia in Daly City who operates out of a pop-up tattoo parlor. Tita Tia performs a ritual meant to remove the mark, but it fails. She warns that the mark will feel warmer the closer the Bayani gets and that the hunter operates at night.

When the siblings finally reveal the mark to Lola, she accepts that sending Caleb away is pointless. Lily researches suspects and visits her ex-boyfriend Gids Najera at his college dorm, pretending to need help with a school project. Gids tells her the Bayani's powers come not from divine blessing but from anting-antings, enchanted talismans, meaning the Bayani could theoretically be disarmed.

At the Church of the Five Wounds, where the siblings investigate a newly arrived priest, Caleb is attacked in a darkened bathroom by an unseen assailant. Lily bursts in and the attacker vanishes. That night, Lily flies to San Francisco and eavesdrops on a secret meeting of the datus. She learns that Lola proposed using Caleb as bait, but the council voted to do nothing. She also discovers that their mother's research confirmed the Bayani's anting-anting-based powers and that an elder mentioned the alisan anting-anting, a rare talisman said to negate all nearby kulam. Most disturbing is an offhand remark implying something terrible happened to their mother.

Lily recognizes one elder's voice as belonging to Lola Soraiya, the owner of a coffee shop the siblings frequent. She and Caleb drive there and discover that Kuya Kasim, Lola Soraiya's grandson, has been killed by the Bayani. Lola Soraiya, a duwende (a type of small Ta'Li), performs a funeral rite and then inadvertently reveals the truth their grandmother has been hiding: Their mother is dead, killed by the Bayani in the Philippines. Lola has been writing fake emails in their mother's name for a year. Before the siblings can process this, the Bayani attacks and kills Lola Soraiya. Caleb detaches and fights so Lily can escape with both their lower halves. Lily drives through the shop's wall and runs over the masked attacker before fleeing.

The siblings confront Lola, who confirms everything and apologizes. She directs them to their mother's storage unit, where they find research journals and a single anting-anting. The journals reveal that the Bayani's powers are passed down through inheritance rather than bestowed by the gods. One notebook identifies Ronald Najera, the father of Gids and Caleb's former best friend Levi, as one of the largest private collectors of precolonial Philippine artifacts.

The siblings follow Mr. Najera home to a hillside property in Berkeley. Lily infiltrates the house and finds a display case of anting-antings, which she destroys. She confronts Mr. Najera and determines he is an unwitting collector, not the Bayani. When she returns to the car, Caleb is gone: His mark had warmed, and he fled into the forest to draw the hunter away from Lily's vulnerable lower half.

Caleb wakes bound and hooded in an abandoned church. His captor is Levi, who has been training as a bayani since spring. Levi reveals a shattering truth: There is not one Bayani per generation but an entire global secret society called the Katipunan, with many bayanis active wherever Filipinos live. Gids and Mr. Najera are also members. The anting-antings are made from the body parts of killed Ta'Li, explaining why victims were found missing fangs and fingers. Caleb convinces Levi to let him transform to prove that manananggals retain their consciousness. Levi is persuaded, but when Gids arrives, he switches on a powerful floodlight. Caleb's legs remain in the light and begin to disintegrate. He loses consciousness.

Meanwhile, Lily has sought help from Roman, a Filipino nurse and the uncle of Cassie, a new transfer student Caleb befriended earlier that week. Roman reveals that he and Cassie are kapres, tall, tree-dwelling Ta'Li who have been hunting the Bayani to avenge Cassie's parents, whom the Bayani killed. Suspecting Gids may be a bayani, they follow him to the church. Lily detaches, and Roman transforms into his twelve-foot kapre form. Lily fights Gids but is outmatched by his anting-antings, and he stabs her. Gids strikes Roman with a fallen crucifix, knocking him unconscious. In the ensuing struggle, Levi seizes Gids's anting-antings and stabs his brother in the stomach.

Lola arrives with Cassie and summons Datu Kaperosa, a ghostly Ta'Li who can teleport. They are transported to Tita Tia's shop, which exists between worlds. The babaylan saves Caleb's life but cannot restore his destroyed lower half: He is now permanently in manananggal form, unable to ever take human shape again.

In the aftermath, Lily resolves to continue her mother's mission by organizing the scattered Ta'Li communities and fighting collectively against the Katipunan, recognizing that no single hero can end the cycle of violence. Three weeks later, Caleb lives in a cave during the day and flies at night, waiting each evening for Cassie in her kapre form and searching for Levi without success. In the epilogue, narrated by Levi, the Katipunan spares his life and orders him to return to Caleb, pretend to reject the bayanis, and spy on the siblings' efforts. Levi reluctantly agrees out of self-preservation and puts his mask back on.