First published 2026
Ethan Ray needs money for graduate school. The night auditor job at the Holloway mountain resort seems perfect. Quiet paperwork shifts at an old Appalachian hotel should be easy work. Then the sky bleeds reddish-brown light across the mountains. Silent winds tear through trees without sound. Stone owl gargoyles begin moving on their own. At exactly 3 a.m., every clock in the building stops ticking. Ethan finds himself trapped inside with coworkers Kal and Teresa as something ancient stirs to life. The Holloway is more than an aging resort. It sits on a boundary between worlds, and whatever has been sleeping beneath is now awake. Ethan must solve the hotel's buried secrets to escape. Teresa becomes his ally and more as romance grows between them. But their visions show the same warning. Someone among them cannot be trusted. The mountains are watching, and the darkness marks everyone it touches.
Genres: romance, mystery, fantasy, horror, adult-fiction, thriller
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, eerie, mysterious, suspenseful, tension-filled
Tropes: awakening-evil, forced-proximity, paranormal-mystery, romance-amid-danger, unreliable-allies
Setting: Holloway Mountain Resort, Appalachian Mountains
Period: 3 a.m.
274 pages · Paperback · Quill & Crow Publishing House
Content warnings: death