"You can see me?"
Morgan Hayes freezes.
He's investigated enough hauntings to know what's normal. Cold spots. EVP spikes. Shadows at the edge of a flashlight beam.
But this?
A woman is standing in front of him-translucent, shaking, and unmistakably real.
"River," she whispers. "River Castellanos. I was a medium... and now I'm the ghost who needs saving."
Then the air turns heavy. The hallway lights blink. And a sound crawls up from beneath Thornwood Manor like something waking up hungry.
"You need to leave," River says, voice cracking. "It knows you're here."
--Morgan Hayes is a paranormal investigator and ghost hunter with one job: close the haunted gateway hidden inside Thornwood Manor and free the trapped spirits that have been suffering there for generations.
He's calm under pressure. Relentless. Precise. And openly asexual-an ace-spectrum protagonist who's never needed romance to feel whole.
Until River.
Morgan closes the gateway. Thirteen spirits finally cross.
But River doesn't.
Instead, she finds him in sleep-returning through dream visits, pulling Morgan into an afterlife connection that feels more vivid than the waking world. Night after night, their bond deepens into an asexual romance built on trust, tenderness, and the kind of intimacy that doesn't require sex to be undeniable.
Because River isn't just a spirit.
She's a murdered medium with unfinished truth-and Thornwood Manor is still hiding what happened to her.
And whatever created that gateway?
It may not be done with Morgan yet.
River's Crossing is Book One of The Morgan Hayes Chronicles: a gothic paranormal romance with an asexual lead, a haunting that won't let go, and a love story that reaches across death itself.
- Asexual romance / ace
- Ace-spectrum protagonist
- Paranormal investigator / ghost hunter
- Dream visit romance + afterlife connection
- Murdered medium
- Haunted gateway + trapped spirits
- Living x Dead
