Where the shadows melt

n the drafty, silent corridors of Blackwood Manor, there is only the frost until Clara arrives.

She is merely a maid, hired to tend to a house built on old secrets and unyielding architecture. But to Julian, the brilliant, deeply troubled young master, Clara becomes something far more dangerous: his absolute light. What begins as a master's quiet observation quickly spirals into a fierce, suffocating obsession to possess her completely, transforming the grand manor into a beautiful, gilded cage.

Yet, behind the locked doors and immaculate registries of the Blackwood lineage lies a secret. Clara carries a past she cannot outrun, and Julian's devotion hides a calculating dark that threatens to consume them both.

Can a captive truly civilize a monster, or will the cold house swallow them whole before the winter ends?

{Original story}