Blackthorne Inn rests quietly after midnight, its floorboards settled, its lamps dimmed, its old bones breathing in the dark. But when the landline rings at exactly 12:00 a.m., Ivy Blackthorne knows something is wrong.

The caller never speaks.

Not at first.

Just silence.

Heavy. Intentional. Listening.

By the second night, the inn feels colder.

...

Blackthorne Inn has always been a place of warmth, tradition, and familiar faces. And few guests are more beloved than Janis and Greg Kholler, who have celebrated their anniversary at the inn for twenty years. But when they arrive this year, something is wrong.

Greg is different.

His smile is too bright.

His temper snaps without warning.

His...

Blackthorne Inn has always been alive. Ivy Blackthorne grew up hearing its creaks, its sighs, its quiet warnings. But after her parents’ sudden death, the house feels different—colder, watchful, almost grieving.

When Ivy returns to run the inn alone, she expects dust, silence, and the ache of memory. She doesn’t expect a stranger who walks its...