arden_east
When Elara Vale returns to Blackthorn Hill, she tells herself it's simple: find her missing sister, get out. But nothing in this town is simple - not the name on the blood-marked envelope, not the detective who begs her to leave, and not Rowan Mercer, the dark-eyed stranger who knew Vivian's secrets before Elara knew he existed.
Vivian didn't run. She was close to something - a pattern of missing girls, buried records, and a powerful family whose name makes an entire town go quiet. Now Elara is pulling the same thread, and the same people who made Vivian disappear are watching her do it.
Rowan is dangerous. He's also the only person in Blackthorn Hill who might be telling the truth. As Elara and Rowan are drawn deeper into the town's darkest machinery, the line between protection and obsession begins to blur - and the question stops being whether Elara can trust him, and starts being whether either of them will survive long enough for it to matter.
Some towns keep their secrets in locked rooms.
Some keep them in unmarked graves.
Blackthorn Hill keeps them in both.