Moonlight and Marionettes

<p>Black Hollow is a town of quiet whispers where shadows stretch longer than they should and secrets linger in the bones of its abandoned places. But none are more haunted than <em>Varney's Marionette Theatre</em>-a forgotten ruin where the air still hums with old performances and the echoes of an unfinished tragedy.</p><p>Lucy Lovell has spent her life watching the theatre from the safe confines of Lovell Manor warned never to cross its threshold. But when a mysterious invitation appears-signed only with a name she should not know-she can no longer ignore the pull.</p><p>Stepping inside the theatre's decayed grandeur she finds more than just dust and forgotten memories. A marionette sits at the center of the stage unnervingly still. Larger than the others too lifelike in its carved elegance. Its glass eyes gleam with something unnatural.</p><p>And when it speaks her name Lucy's world shatters.</p><p>The marionette-<strong>Gideon Lovell</strong>-is not simply a puppet. He is something more. Something bound in wood and whispers cursed to remain within the theatre's walls. But he remembers Lucy even though she has no memory of him.</p><p>As she digs deeper into her family's past Lucy uncovers a long-buried performance-one that ended in blood and magic a contract sealed beneath moonlight. But the truth is tangled in the strings of the past and unraveling it may cost her more than she is willing to give.</p><p>Because the theatre isn't just haunted.</p><p>It is waiting.</p><p>And the final performance has yet to begin.</p>