This audiobook is narrated by a digital voice.

The castle loomed against the storm-darkened sky like a monument to forgotten sins, its Gothic spires piercing the churning clouds that had gathered over the Bavarian countryside. Evangeline Blackthorne pulled her traveling cloak tighter as the carriage wheels clattered across the ancient cobblestones, each revolution bringing her closer to a destiny she had never chosen but could no longer escape.

She had received the letter three weeks ago, delivered by a messenger dressed in midnight black who had vanished as quickly as he had appeared. The parchment bore the Ravencroft seal—a raven with outstretched wings clutching a thorned rose—and contained news that would forever alter the course of her carefully ordered life.

"Lady Evangeline," the letter had begun in elegant script, "You are hereby summoned to claim your inheritance at Ravencroft Manor. Your presence is required by the next new moon, lest the legacy pass to another. Come alone. Trust no one. The blood calls to blood."

It was signed simply: "M. Ravencroft, Last of the Line."

Now, as lightning split the sky and thunder rolled across the mountains, Evangeline questioned the wisdom of answering such a cryptic summons. She knew nothing of the Ravencrofts save for whispered rumors in her village—tales of dark magic, forbidden knowledge, and a family cursed to walk between the worlds of light and shadow.

The carriage lurched to a halt before massive iron gates that stood open as if in expectation of her arrival. The driver, who had grown increasingly nervous as they climbed higher into the mountains, refused to look at her as he unloaded her single trunk.