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"You're lying." My hand closed around the ICU door handle. "My mother died when I was twelve. She didn't know anyone like you."
Kane Rook didn't blink. The curse under his skin had gone quiet, but dark lines still crawled along his collarbone. "She knew a lot of people, Evelyn. Most of them are dead. The rest wish they were."
"I'm calling security."
"Go ahead." He stayed propped against the hospital bed, one hand pressed to his bandaged chest. "Tell them you found Kane Rook. See how fast the council sends hunters instead of hospital staff."
My fingers tightened on the handle.
Kane's mouth curved without humor. "That's right. You know the name."
I did.
The missing heir. The man the council had hunted across Vesper City for three years. The monster blamed for his family's massacre. The reason council enforcers still searched every border and train station in the district.
"You're—"
"The guy everyone wants dead? Yeah." Kane shifted, then flinched when pain cut across his face. "Your mother made sure of that. She shoved this curse into my chest and told me it would keep me alive long enough to finish what she started."
"She never mentioned you."
"Smart woman."
"Don't call her that like you knew her."
His eyes followed me as I moved toward the window. Four floors down, the parking lot looked small enough to jump into if I was desperate. I wasn't that desperate. Not yet.
"She knew what the council would do if they connected you to me," Kane said. "So she kept you out of it. Until now."
I spun around. "I'm not in anything. I'm a paramedic. I patch people up and send them home. That's it."
"You see curses."
I said nothing.
Kane sat straighter. The shadows under his skin stirred. "You grabbed mine in the ambulance."
"I told you to stop moving."
"You pulled at it."
"Because it was choking you."
"Most people can't even see it."
"Most people would've let you die. You're welcome."
For half a second, his stare dropped to my mouth. Then it snapped back to my eyes.
The room felt smaller.
Kane swung his legs off the bed. The IV line pulled tight, and I took one step forward before I could stop myself.
"Don't," I warned.
"You worried about me?"
"I'm worried you'll rip out the IV and bleed all over the floor. I don't clean up after arrogant patients."
"It's going to kill me anyway."
He said it like he was commenting on hospital coffee.
I stopped.
Kane pulled the IV from his hand. A bright bead of blood appeared. "Your mother put a timer on the curse. Three years. I've got two weeks, maybe less, before it spreads past the point of no return."
"And then?"
"Then it won't just take me. It'll take half the city with it."
My mouth went dry. "You're insane."
"Probably." He stood, swaying once before catching the bedrail. "But you felt it in the ambulance. The curse recognized you. It said your brother's name."
My stomach dropped.
"How do you know about Eli?"
Kane pushed away from the bed. He was taller than I expected and thinner than he should've been, like the curse had been eating him from the inside out.
"Your mother used the same voice on me," he said. "She pulled memories out of my head and stitched them into the binding. Every time I fight the curse, I hear the people I failed."
"You didn't answer me. How do you know Eli's name?"
"He's sick. Meridian flu. The treatment costs more than you make in a month. Nora's clinic is keeping him alive, but you're working double shifts and selling unlicensed spellwork to cover the rest."
My jaw locked. "Careful."
"How long before you run out of favors?"
"Get to the point."
Kane crossed to the chair where someone had left his black jacket. His limp was worse now, but he refused to show it. He reached inside the jacket and pulled out a small box.
"I need someone who can see curses," he said. "Someone the council hasn't found yet. Someone desperate enough to take a risk."
"And you think that someone is me?"
"I know it is."
He opened the box.
A silver ring rested inside. Black stone. Clean lines. Expensive-looking. But the second I saw it, my teeth started to ache.
The stone gave off a faint hum.
"What is that?"
"A binding contract. Old magic. The kind the council banned forty years ago."
I laughed once. It sounded ugly. "You brought a cursed ring into an ICU?"
"I brought you a way to save your brother."
"You want me to marry you."
"I want you to help me find the person weaponizing the curse. The traitor who sold out my family and plans to turn me into a bomb in the middle of Vesper City."
He held the box toward me.
"You marry me," he said, "and you get access to the Rook accounts. Enough to pay Eli's treatment ten times over. You also get council immunity while you're my spouse."
I stared at him. "You say that like it's a business deal."
"It is."
"You're dying. Your enemies are hunting you. And your solution is to drag a paramedic into a fake marriage?"
"Not fake. The binding has to be real."
"That's supposed to make me feel better?"
"No. It's supposed to make you understand what's at stake."
I stepped closer to the box, then stopped. The heat coming off him reached me before I touched anything. His breath caught, quiet but noticeable, when I came within arm's reach.
His eyes stayed on mine.
"How do I know you won't kill me the second I put it on?" I asked.
Kane lowered his voice. "If I wanted you dead, I would've let the curse take you in the ambulance."
"Why didn't you?"
"Because it tried."
The answer landed harder than it should've.
Kane stepped closer. His hand came up, stopping beside my wrist without touching me. Close enough that I felt the warmth of his palm.
"I stopped it," he said.
"Why?"
"Your mother told me you'd come."
My pulse jumped. "She told you I'd come?"
"She said you'd be the only person who could see what she hid. And if I wanted to survive, I'd need you alive."
"You're asking me to trust a dead woman and a wanted criminal."
"I'm asking you to trust what you already felt."
"I felt a curse trying to eat through your chest. That's not exactly a marriage proposal."
"It's the closest thing you're getting."
I snatched the box from his hand.
Kane didn't let go right away. His fingers closed over mine. Warm. Firm. The contact lasted one beat too long.
Neither of us moved.
Then I pulled free. "What exactly did my mother hide?"
Kane's expression hardened. "The person who ordered my family killed. The one who's been feeding the council bad information for years. The one who wants this curse to detonate in the center of the city."
"And my mother knew who it was?"
"She found out. She died before she could tell anyone."
"Convenient."
His stare turned sharp. "Watch your mouth."
"Or what? You'll threaten me again?"
"No." He leaned in, close enough that his breath brushed my cheek. "I'll tell you the rest."
My grip tightened on the box.
"She left a trail," he continued. "One only you can follow."
"Why only me?"
"Because she made sure the clues would respond to your bloodline."
"You keep saying that like I'm supposed to know what it means."
"You will. Once we're bound."
I looked down at the ring. The black stone pulsed once, faint and dark.
Eli's last clinic bill flashed through my mind. So did his tired smile when he'd whispered, *I'm sorry I'm so expensive.*
Damn him.
Damn my mother.
Damn the fact that Kane was right.
I lifted the ring. "If this kills me—"
"It won't."
"If it hurts him—"
"It won't."
"If you lie to me—"
"You can kill me yourself."
I looked up. "That's a promise?"
"That's a guarantee."
The ring slid onto my finger.
Pain flashed through my hand.
I sucked in a breath. "Kane—"
The black stone flared. Silver heat raced up my arm, crossed my chest, and snapped toward him.
Kane grabbed the edge of the bed. A rough sound tore from his throat.
The dark lines under his skin lit up.
Then the room went still.
A thread pulled tight between us. I felt it behind my ribs, thin as wire and twice as sharp. Kane felt it too. His gaze dropped to the ring, then lifted to mine.
"Well?" I demanded.
He took one careful step toward me. "Now we're connected."
"That wasn't in the sales pitch."
"I don't do sales pitches."
"You definitely do threats."
His fingers closed around my ringed hand. The curse under his skin quieted at once.
Kane stared at our joined hands.
"That's new," he muttered.
"What is?"
"It stopped hurting."
The words came out too soft.
I felt his thumb move once over my knuckles. A tiny touch. Barely there. Still, my breath caught.
He noticed.
Of course he noticed.
His eyes lifted, and the space between us tightened.
"Don't get ideas," I said.
"About what?"
"Anything."
"You're the one still holding my hand."
I yanked free. "Get to the next disaster."
Kane's mouth almost curved. Then his phone buzzed.
He checked the screen. Whatever he saw wiped the humor from his face.
"What?" I asked.
"We have to move."
"You just got out of emergency surgery."
"And the council just got a tip that I'm here."
My eyes went to the door. "How long?"
"Nora's stalling them. Maybe ten minutes."
"Ten minutes until what?"
"Until hunters breach the building."
He grabbed his jacket.
"You can't walk out of here."
"I can walk."
"You can barely stand."
"Then stay close and catch me."
I hated how easily the words made heat climb my neck.
Kane saw that, too. His gaze paused on my face before he turned away.
"The wedding's tonight," he said. "We do this fast and legal, or the binding won't hold."
I stared at him. "Tonight?"
"There's a licensed officiant in Graywick District. He owes me a favor. We sign the papers, and you're officially under Rook protection."
"You're planning a wedding while bleeding through your bandages."
"I'm planning our survival."
"You call this survival?"
"After the ceremony, we find the traitor before the curse turns me into a walking nightmare."
My phone buzzed.
Nora: *Get out. Now. Council hunters just entered the lobby.*
I showed Kane the message.
His face went cold. "They're here."
"No kidding."
He reached for my wrist. I jerked back.
"Don't touch me."
"Stay close. Don't use any spells unless I tell you to."
"You don't get to order me around."
"I do if you want to live long enough to save Eli."
The elevator chimed down the hall.
One set of footsteps.
Then another.
Then several more.
Kane's hand closed around my wrist again. This time, I didn't pull free. His grip was firm, his thumb pressed against my pulse. The ring heated between us.
"Whatever you do," he whispered, "don't let them see that ring until we're legally bound."
"Why?"
He pulled me into the hallway.
"Because if the council finds out you're connected to me before the marriage is official, they'll kill you to make sure the binding fails."
The hunters were getting closer.
Kane shoved open the stairwell door and dragged me inside. "And I didn't come this far to watch you die before we even start."
"You keep saying things like that, and I'm starting to think you actually need me."
His eyes locked on mine in the dim stairwell.
"I do."
For one dangerous second, neither of us moved.
Then voices shouted from the hallway.
"Kane Rook!"
He pulled me down the stairs.
We ran.
The ring burned with every step. Kane's breath grew rough beside me, but he didn't slow down. Neither did I.
One floor below, a door slammed open.
Kane shoved me behind him and reached for the stairwell lock—
The door above us burst inward, and a voice shouted, "Kane Rook, step away from—"