“The winter sun slipped behind snow-clotted clouds as the pair of black mares pulling the carriage turned a bend in the road. After a long train ride and a longer hackney ride, Nathaniel Throne at last spied the rock-strewn beaches that lined the coast of Berwick-upon-Tweed.”

And so begins the story of Nathaniel Throne driven to this place in anguish over his brother’s disappearance, tormented by the ghosts of the Wright Mansion, and terrorized by the mistress of the manor.

From the publisher:
A coastal mansion, a missing brother, and a legacy of violence—some doors are locked for a reason.

In “Blue Bride,” Alicia Cay reimagines the classic Bluebeard fairy tale through a gothic, gender-flipped lens. When Nathaniel Throne arrives at a secluded coastal mansion searching for his newly married and now missing brother, he steps into a chilling mystery steeped in violence, memory, and saltwater sorrow. Dreamlike, eerie, and emotionally resonant, this story blends fairy tale echoes with the slow, relentless pull of the sea—and the past.

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My story, “Blue Bride” is available as a reprint in this haunting anthology, Haunted Places from Blackbird Publishing ~ Edited by Jamie Ferguson. (April 2025)

Available in paperback and kindle at Amazon.

Check out my author interview with Blackbird Publishing HERE.

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Interview excerpt:
What does “haunted” mean to you—and how does that idea show up in your story?

I think the most common definition of haunted makes us all think of ghosts or spirits that cannot rest, and they do show up in this story. Personally though, I prefer the more psychological version of what haunted can mean—the torments created in our minds when we’re left alone in the dark.

I hope the latter definition shows up for the readers through the mysterious back stories of these characters. I mean, what happened to Anna that this is what she’s come to be? What must it have been like for Luella growing up with Anna; to be raised by a mother who hacks her lovers to bits and involves her daughter in luring in new victims? Then there’s our MC, Nathaniel; driven to this place in anguish over his brother’s disappearance, tormented by the ghosts of the Wright Mansion, and terrorized by Anna. But perhaps worse than all those things is how we leave Nathaniel at the end of the story. He’s put the spirits to rest, but he will forever be a haunted man because of what he’s done.

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About Haunted Places, Volume II in the Haunted series from Blackbird Publishing:

Some places you leave behind. others never let you go.

Step into forgotten train stations, lonely lakesides, hidden ballrooms, and crumbling mansions—spaces where the past lingers and the walls remember. Haunted Places gathers fourteen ghostly tales woven from memory, mystery, and the uncanny.

In these stories, grief hums beneath the floorboards. Hope flickers like a lantern in an abandoned hall. Love, regret, and quiet magic drift through the rooms and rivers we thought we’d left behind. The past drifts just out of sight, brushing against the present like mist across a threshold.

Step carefully—some doors are still ajar.

~xo