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 Varney's Marionette Theatre?a forgotten ruin where the air still hums with old performances and the echoes of an unfinished tragedy.

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.

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.

And when it speaks her name, Lucy's world shatters.

The marionette?Gideon Lovell?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.

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.

Because the theatre isn't just haunted.

It is waiting.

And the final performance has yet to begin.