Bound by the Dead - The Witch Who Raised me, #1

Mason thought he left the shadows of his past behind when he opened his cozy corner shop, blending family warmth and dreams with the aroma of coffee and the buzz of arcade machines. But the shop's success stirs something ancient and restless across the cemetery road—and inside Mason himself.

After encountering a restless spirit and unlocking his Vulism, a rare spiritual sensitivity Mason believed he had buried forever, he teams up with Naomi, a determined medium with her own scars and gifts, to help spirits find peace. But their journey is far from a simple ghost rescue.

When a new threat emerges in the form of The Widow in White, a vengeful spirit terrorizing a small town, Mason is forced to confront the deepest wounds of his past: his manipulative grandmother who raised him in secrecy, activating his Vulism to use him in dark rituals that left his childhood haunted. The further Mason and Naomi go into the town's secrets, the more Mason realizes the witch who raised him is not only tied to the haunting but is a thread pulling him toward a terrifying truth about himself and his purpose.

As the dead demand justice, Mason must embrace the gift he once ran from to free the souls bound by fear and regret—while reclaiming his freedom from the one who first stole it.