The Curse of the Red HairA Novel of Ancestral Horror, Identity, and Flame

When Maud Delacroix sings, the shadows listen.

In the velvet depths of New Orleans, beneath the flickering lights of *The Scarlet Mirage*, Maud lives a life balanced on the edge of beauty and sorrow. Her red hair, her voice, her presence—are captivating. But they are also a warning.

Because every woman born of the Delacroix bloodline carries a curse.

And Maud has just awakened hers.

After uncovering a hidden family relic—a mirror that doesn't reflect, a locket that burns with unseen fire—Maud is pulled into a nightmarish realm known only as **the Rift**. There, she confronts not only the ghosts of her ancestors, but a shapeless entity that has haunted the Delacroix women for centuries.

Marked by a force that sees her as both sacrifice and heir, Maud begins to unravel. Her music changes. Her dreams whisper. Her blood remembers things her mind cannot. And as the entity grows bolder, clawing its way into the waking world, Maud must make an impossible choice: embrace the darkness within her lineage... or burn it clean.

Joined by Carlos—a loyal companion marked by the same horrors—they descend into catacombs, forgotten cemeteries, and ancestral dreamscapes, seeking to break a curse older than memory itself. But as Maud draws closer to the truth, she discovers that the Rift was only the beginning... and the **Hollow Choir** has already begun to sing.