Bridgette Fletcher is a dry-witted apothecary’s daughter burdened by duty, small-town gossip, and a curse she doesn’t believe in. When she discovers a half-dead woman in the woods during a storm, she brings her home. Unbeknownst to her, Elisabeth Schwarz carries a darkness far older and more seductive than anything the town of Wychurst has seen before.

As the women grow closer, Bridgette finds herself torn between what she knows and what she feels. Elisabeth is ethereal, unfathomable, and increasingly unignorable. When the ancient salt well runs dry and townsfolk begin to die, Bridgette must confront her growing desire and the rising suspicion that something unnatural is stirring.

Caught between love, fear, and the haunting pull of her own past, Bridgette is forced to do the one thing she swore she never would: descend into the abandoned mine and face the demons that live beneath - and within - her.

For readers of Sarah Waters and V.E. Schwab, As the Black Lily Fades is a historical gothic novel exploring forbidden intimacy, moral ambiguity, and the quiet horror of transformation.