The Pale Convent
A blizzard swallows the road on the seventh evening, and by the time the carriage reaches the iron gate of a remote mountain convent, there is no turning back. Annalise Ashworth has been sent to this place, an inheritance she did not want and cannot refuse, arriving in a storm that seems to rise up to meet her. The porter nun lets her in without a word. Mother Agnes greets her with a smile that does not reach her eyes. Sister Magdalena, who seems to know her name before she offers it, escorts her to a cell that has been prepared in advance. The convent is old, cold, and wrong. The chapel nuns keep their heads bowed in prayer long after the bells have stopped. Father Maro drinks too much and speaks in Latin when pressed. Sister Vira and Sister Ilona whisper to each other in a tongue Annalise does not recognize. In the east wing, Countess Elisabeta wanders the corridors by night, speaking to someone no one else can see. The carriage driver refuses to leave the gate, but he will not say why. As the storm deepens and the iron gate locks fast, Annalise begins to piece together the truth: the convent is not a refuge. It is a penance. And the sisters have been waiting generations for a woman of her bloodline to arrive. When the chapel floor begins to crack and something pale stirs beneath the stone, Annalise must decide whether to flee into the killing blizzard, or stay and learn what the sisters truly want from her.