A Dark Paranormal Romance · Book One

Where I End
& He Begins

Since childhood, a charred corpse has followed Santino Merlino everywhere. The first time he lets himself love someone, it may be what finally breaks the claim … or what lets the thing through.

Euphoria meets The Conjuring
Where I End
& He Begins
J.C. Ardent
Cover reveal coming soon
The Premise

A claim made in childhood.
A love that breaks it.

Some debts aren't signed in ink. Sonny's was signed in fire, before he was old enough to understand what he'd lost.

Stephanie Balaskas has spent her life holding the line — guarded, capable, the one who manages everyone else. Then she meets a guitarist who sees the version of her she stopped showing anyone, and who carries a shadow that has wanted his soul since he was a boy.

What grows between them is the one thing the dark can't fake and can't steal. It's also the one thing that might pry the claim loose — if it doesn't open the door wider first. Beneath the university, in catacombs no one is meant to find, something has been waiting a very long time for them to come close enough.

Twin flames. Chosen. Damned.

GenreDark Paranormal Romance
SeriesBook 1 of a Trilogy
ReleaseOctober 2026
For readers ofLaRoux · Quinn
Stay in the Dark

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The Author

J.C. Ardent

J.C. Ardent writes dark paranormal romance for readers who like their love stories with teeth — where desire and dread share the same breath, and the happily-ever-after has to be fought for through something far older than either lover.

Where I End and He Begins is the first book of a trilogy. You can find J.C. on TikTok and across the BookTok community, conjuring atmosphere one shadow at a time.