The kiss of the damned

THE KISS OF THE DAMNED

Some souls are born to love. Others are cursed to destroy everything they touch.

Mara Ellwood has never believed in ghosts. But when she inherits Blackthorn Manor, a decaying mansion hidden deep within a forest of dying trees, her world begins to unravel. The inheritance comes with one strange condition: she must remain in the manor for thirty nights. If she leaves before the final night, everything will belong to a mysterious stranger.

On her first night, Mara discovers a black rose on her pillow, a silver ring engraved with a name, and a face she recognizes from the nightmares that have haunted her for seven years.

Adrian Vale.

Beautiful, cold, and dangerously mysterious, Adrian seems to know everything about the manor—and about Mara. His warning is simple: never answer a voice calling after midnight, never enter the locked west wing, and never fall in love with him.

But curiosity is a dangerous temptation, and Adrian is impossible to forget.

As strange whispers echo through the corridors and faceless creatures emerge from the darkness, Mara uncovers a terrifying secret buried beneath Blackthorn Manor. Adrian is bound to an ancient curse born from a desperate bargain with something that should never have existed. For centuries, the entity beneath the house has fed on love, grief, and the deaths of women drawn into Adrian's world.

Now, Mara may be the next victim.

The closer she gets to Adrian, the more she discovers about his tragic past, his forbidden desires, and the monster he fears becoming. Their growing attraction threatens to awaken an evil that has waited centuries to escape its prison.

But what if the most dangerous thing in Blackthorn Manor isn't the creature lurking beneath the floor?

What if it's the love growing between a cursed man and a woman destined to break—or complete—the curse?

With every passing night, the mansion grows hungrier, the shadows grow bolder, and the line between dreams and reality begins to disappear. Mara must uncover the truth behind her family's dark legacy before the thirtieth night arrives.

Because some curses cannot be broken by sacrifice.

Some monsters cannot be defeated by hatred.

And some kisses are not promises of love—but invitations to death.

In a house where the dead remember and love comes at a terrible price, Mara must make the ultimate choice: save the man who has captured her heart, destroy the darkness that binds them, or become the next ghost haunting Blackthorn Manor.

Enter Blackthorn Manor, where every secret bleeds, every shadow watches, and love may be the deadliest curse of all.

THE KISS OF THE DAMNED — A Gothic Horror, Dark Romance, and Psychological Thriller.