Where the Dark Things Bloom by A. eM.

Prequel Novella for All the Things We Buried

Dark psychological gothic romance, taboo, step-siblings trope.

She was never supposed to leave, he was never supposed to stay.
When her estranged father dies, Lenore Thorn returns to the one place she swore she’d never set foot in again- a crumbling gothic mansion on the edge of a town that whispers her family’s name in fear.
Her only intention is to sell it and leave for good. But someone is already there.
Dorian Thorn, her stepbrother, never left. Raised beside her but never truly her brother, he has always been possessive, cruel, and unreadable.
He tells her the house is still theirs, that she belongs here and to him.
She resists his cold touch, his hungry gaze, and the way he speaks of their past in riddles.
But when she discovers the darkest secrets that hide behind the walls; blood rituals, missing children, a locked room her father forbade her to enter- she realizes Dorian isn’t the one keeping her here.
The house won’t let her leave.
And neither will he.