Some houses want a bride. Blackwater Manor wants a vow. When Mirabelle arrives at the crumbling Blackwater estate, she expects dust, silence. and maybe a few restless ghosts. She doesn't expect the manor to recognize her. Or to place a black ring on her finger like a promise she never made. Trapped inside a house that breathes with hunger and whispers in wedding hymns, Mirabelle is pulled toward a marriage written long before she was born-one sealed in red cord, blood vows, and a groom who isn't entirely human.
Her only ally is Thorne, the manor's brooding caretaker. a man bound to the estate by secrets he won't speak and devotion that feels dangerously close to fate. But the closer Mirabelle gets to him, the more the house tightens its grip-determined to claim her body, her voice. and her yes. Because in Blackwater Manor, love isn't salvation. It's the ritual. And the house will take a bride-even if it has to tear her heart apart to do it.
Some houses want a bride. Blackwater Manor wants a vow. When Mirabelle arrives at the crumbling Blackwater estate, she expects dust, silence. and maybe a few restless ghosts. She doesn't expect the manor to recognize her. Or to place a black ring on her finger like a promise she never made. Trapped inside a house that breathes with hunger and whispers in wedding hymns, Mirabelle is pulled toward a marriage written long before she was born-one sealed in red cord, blood vows, and a groom who isn't entirely human.
Her only ally is Thorne, the manor's brooding caretaker. a man bound to the estate by secrets he won't speak and devotion that feels dangerously close to fate. But the closer Mirabelle gets to him, the more the house tightens its grip-determined to claim her body, her voice. and her yes. Because in Blackwater Manor, love isn't salvation. It's the ritual. And the house will take a bride-even if it has to tear her heart apart to do it.