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I should've walked away the second he said my mother's name.
But I didn't. I stood there in that ICU room like an idiot, staring at Kane Rook while my brain tried to catch up with my mouth. The monitors beeped. The fluorescent lights buzzed. Somewhere down the hall, a nurse laughed at something mundane, and I wanted to scream at how normal that sounded.
"You're lying," I said. My voice came out flat. "My mother died when I was twelve. She didn't know anyone like you."
Kane tilted his head. The curse under his skin had gone quiet, but I could still see the faint shadow lines tracing his collarbone. "She knew a lot of people, Evelyn. Most of them are dead now. The rest wish they were."
I took a step back. My hand found the door handle. "I'm calling security."
"Go ahead." He didn't move. Didn't even blink. "Tell them you found Kane Rook. See how fast the council sends their hunters instead of hospital admin."
I froze.
Kane Rook. The name I'd heard Nora mention in passing. The missing heir. The one the council had been tearing the city apart to find for the past three years.
"You're—" I couldn't finish the sentence.
"The guy everyone wants dead? Yeah." He shifted against the pillow, wincing. "Your mother made sure of that when she shoved this thing into my chest. Said it would keep me alive long enough to finish what she started. Guess she didn't mention that part to you."
My throat was dry. "She didn't mention you at all."
"Smart woman." Kane's eyes tracked me as I moved toward the window. I wasn't looking at him anymore. I was looking at the parking lot four stories down, counting the exits, calculating how fast I could get to my car. "She knew what the council would do if they connected you to me. So she kept you out of it. Until now."
I turned. "I'm not in anything. I don't know what you think my mother did, but I'm just a paramedic. I patch people up and send them home. That's it."
"You see curses."
I didn't answer.
"You tried to pull mine out in the ambulance." Kane sat up straighter. The shadows under his skin flickered. "Most people can't even see it. You grabbed it like it was a splinter."
"I told you to stop moving." My hand was still on the door handle. I could leave. I should leave. But my feet weren't moving. "That curse could've killed you if I'd pulled it out wrong."
"It's going to kill me anyway." He said it like he was talking about the weather. "Your mother put a timer on it. Three years. I've got maybe two weeks left before it spreads past the point of no return. And when it does, it won't just take me. It'll take half the city with it."
I stared at him. "You're insane."
"Probably." Kane swung his legs off the bed. I saw the IV line pull taut. "But you felt it, didn't you? In the ambulance. The curse recognized you. It said your brother's name."
My stomach dropped.
"How do you—"
"Because your mother used the same voice on me." Kane stood. He was taller than I'd expected. Thinner, too, like the curse had been eating him from the inside out. "She pulled memories out of my head and wove them into the binding. Made sure I'd hear the people I failed every time I tried to fight it. Your brother's sick, right? Meridian flu?"
I didn't confirm it. I didn't have to. He already knew.
"The treatment's expensive," Kane continued. "Nora's clinic can only do so much. You're pulling double shifts and selling unlicensed spellwork on the side just to keep him breathing. How long before you run out of favors?"
My jaw clenched. "Get to the point."
"I need someone who can see curses. Someone the council doesn't know about yet. Someone desperate enough to take a risk." Kane reached into his jacket—the one someone had draped over the chair—and pulled out a small black box. "You need money and protection. I'm offering both."
He opened the box.
Inside was a ring. Silver band, black stone. The kind of thing you'd see in a boutique window downtown, except this one had a shimmer to it. A faint hum that made my teeth ache.
"What is that?"
"A binding contract," Kane said. "Old magic. The kind the council banned forty years ago. You marry me, you get access to the Rook family accounts. Enough to pay for your brother's treatment ten times over. Plus council immunity as long as you're my spouse."
I laughed. It came out sharp and bitter. "You want me to marry you."
"I want you to help me find the person who's trying to weaponize this curse. The traitor who sold out my family and thinks they can use me as a walking bomb." Kane held the ring out. "Your mother started this. You're going to help me finish it. And in return, your brother lives."
I should've said no. Should've walked out and called Nora and figured out how to disappear before the council came knocking.
But I looked at that ring, and I thought about Eli. About the latest bill from the clinic. About the way he'd looked at me last week and said, *I'm sorry I'm so expensive.*
"How do I know you won't kill me the second I put that on?"
Kane smiled. It didn't reach his eyes. "Because if I wanted you dead, I would've let the curse take you in the ambulance. It tried. I stopped it."
"Why?"
"Because your mother told me you'd come." He stepped closer. "She said when the time came, you'd be the only one who could see what she hid. And if I wanted to survive, I'd need you alive."
My hand shook as I reached for the ring. I didn't take it. Not yet. "What exactly did my mother hide?"
"The person who ordered my family killed. The one who's been feeding the council bad intel for years. The one who wants this curse to detonate in the middle of Vesper City." Kane's voice dropped. "Your mother found out who it was. She died before she could tell anyone. But she left a trail. One only you can follow."
I looked at the ring again. At Kane. At the curse writhing just under his skin.
"This is insane," I whispered.
"Yeah." Kane pressed the box into my hand. "But you're going to do it anyway. Because you don't have a choice."
I wanted to argue. Wanted to throw the ring back at him and run. But he was right. I didn't have a choice. Not really.
I slipped the ring on.
It burned. Just for a second. Then the silver warmed against my skin, and I felt something click into place. A thread tying me to Kane. To the curse. To whatever the hell my mother had started.
Kane exhaled. "Good. Now we need to move."
"Move? You just got out of emergency surgery."
"And the council just got a tip that I'm here." Kane grabbed his jacket. "Nora's stalling them, but we've got maybe ten minutes before hunters breach the building. The wedding's tonight. We do this fast and legal, or the binding won't hold."
I blinked. "Tonight?"
"There's a licensed officiant in the Graywick District. Owes me a favor. We go there, sign the papers, and you're officially under Rook family protection." Kane moved toward the door. He was limping. The curse was pulling at him. "After that, we find the traitor before this thing in my chest turns me into a walking nightmare."
I followed him because I didn't know what else to do. My phone buzzed. I glanced at the screen.
Nora: *Get out. Now. Council hunters just entered the lobby.*
Kane saw my face. "They're here, aren't they?"
I nodded.
He grabbed my wrist. "Stay close. Don't use any spells unless I tell you to. And whatever you do, don't let them see that ring until we're legally bound."
"Why?"
Kane pulled me into the hallway. At the far end, I heard the elevator chime. Footsteps. Too many of them.
"Because if the council finds out you're connected to me before the marriage is official, they'll kill you just to make sure the binding fails." Kane's grip tightened. "And I didn't come this far to watch you die before we even start."
The footsteps got louder.
Kane shoved open the stairwell door and dragged me inside.
We ran.