I fished out the last crumpled bills from my pocket, hoping to find somewhere to sleep for the night.

But the moment I stepped toward a small motel, the woman behind the counter spat in my face.

"You're that little con artist from the news, aren't you? Get out!"

I hadn't eaten all day.

The wounds on my body had already begun to fester, oozing with infection. I pressed my palm to my forehead. It was burning. My legs refused to carry me another step, and I crumpled beside a dumpster in a narrow alley.

People passed by. The ones who recognized me hurled rotten eggs and slop water, aiming straight for my open wounds without a shred of hesitation.

I missed the quiet of the mountain. I missed my mentor.

But I knew I couldn't leave.

Tomorrow was Ian Delgado's birthday.

When he'd had his hand around my throat earlier, I'd already felt it — his pulse, erratic and fractured beyond repair.

I needed to see that moment.

The thought dragged me to my feet. I braced one hand against the wall, clenched my teeth, and staggered forward.

I made it one step before the world went black.

I woke to the familiar scent of medicinal herbs.

Fighting through the soreness that wracked every inch of my body, I gritted my teeth and sat up. Alaric Abbott was beside me, carefully applying a poultice to my wounds.

"Mentor Alaric, I can't go back yet..."

His eyes were full of ache as he tended to the festering, inflamed gashes across my skin.

"I know. You want to wait until his birthday..."

He never finished the sentence.

A commotion erupted outside. The door exploded inward, kicked clean off its hinges, and over a dozen men stormed into the room.

They pinned me down. The one in front drew a knife from inside his jacket and drove it straight into Alaric's heart.

I screamed, a raw, animal sound, and lunged toward him.

But the moment I got to my feet, Ian walked through the doorway and backhanded me to the floor.

He stared down at me with pure revulsion.

"So that's why you've been hanging around. The little fraud has a hideout."

He planted his foot on Alaric's wound, the one still weeping blood, and ground down.

"Talk. He's the one who put you up to all of this, isn't he?"

"Get off him!"

I crawled to Ian's feet, grabbed his ankle with trembling hands, and forced the words out.

"If it weren't for him, you'd already be dead! Let him go!"

Ian looked down at me, shaking and broken at his feet.

A twisted smile curled the corner of his mouth.

"Sure."

He pulled out his phone and tossed it at my knees.

"Record a video admitting you're a fraud. Then I'll let the old man go."

"Clara, don't — don't record it..."

Alaric's eyes were bloodshot, fixed on me, his head shaking over and over.

But before he could finish, Ian ripped the knife from Alaric's chest and plunged it down again, this time near the artery in his neck.

Blood erupted in a geyser, painting the air red.

I threw myself toward Alaric, every limb shaking, but Ian caught me and held me back.

"So that's a no, Clara? Then I guess the old man bleeds out today."

"I'll do it. I'll record it."

Ian watched the video and smiled, satisfied. He finally agreed to send Alaric to the hospital.

The ambulance had barely pulled up to the emergency entrance when a young nurse rushed over and shoved a thick stack of forms into my arms.

"Miss, the patient is critical. You need to go pay right now!"

My mind went to my frozen bank accounts, and my body locked in place.

"Hurry! If you don't pay now, he's going to bleed to death!"

The nurse kept pressing. I forced my stiff legs to move and slowly turned to face Ian, who stood behind me.

"Ian. All my accounts are frozen. Could you..."

Ian had his arm draped around Nadia's slender waist, laughing with unbridled arrogance.

"Sure, I'll help. But if you're going to beg, you'd better beg properly."

He raised an eyebrow at me.

"Your people have been conning the Delgado family for nearly a century. You think one little video settles that? Get on your knees. Apologize to me and to every Delgado ancestor."

I looked at Alaric, his robes already soaked through with blood.

I couldn't afford to waste another second.

I dropped to my knees at Ian's feet, my voice shaking.

"I'm sorry. I deceived you—"

Nadia cut me off, her voice dripping with saccharine sweetness.

"Just 'sorry'? That's hardly enough. You need to kowtow."

"What are you looking at me for? Nadia told you to kowtow. Are you deaf? A hundred times!"

Under Ian's mocking gaze, I slammed my forehead against the ground.

"One... two..."

My skin split open. Blood ran down my forehead, streaking across my face, pooling on the floor beneath me. I lost all feeling long before I finished.

Finally, I reached a hundred.

I staggered to my feet and threw myself in front of Alaric, screaming at Ian through a raw throat.

"That's enough! Go pay the bill!"

"Sure thing. Let me just run home and grab the money..."

Ian let out a soft laugh and turned to leave.

I lunged forward and seized his ankle, locking my eyes on his, teeth clenched so hard they ached.

"You're doing this on purpose. Ian, you—"

"Oh, oh, oh. That's not how you beg, is it? Do you want the money or not?"

The strength drained from my fingers around his ankle.

"Yes. I want it. Please, just hurry..."

Ian came back an hour later. He tossed the payment receipt into my lap.

I scrambled to my feet and shoved it into the young nurse's hands.

All I got in return was her quiet, helpless sigh.

"It's too late. He's already gone."

My whole body trembled. I threw myself at Ian and swung my fist straight into his face.

"You animal! You did this on purpose! You killed my mentor! I'll kill you—"

Ian caught my wrist in a vise grip.

His eyes were nothing but cold malice.

"Kill me? Clara, how about you pay back what you owe the Delgado family before you start making threats."

He threw a stack of bills at my feet.

"My family supported your people for nearly a century. Since you've already admitted you're a fraud, I think it's time we settled the accounts."

"And if you refuse to pay..."

He held up his phone, the video I'd recorded hours ago playing on the screen.

"Everyone's going to see this."

"Not just you. Your dead mentor, too. And all those fellow disciples of yours."

I stood there shaking, jaw clenched so tight my teeth ground together.

"I'll pay. After your birthday. I'll pay every cent."

"After my birthday?"

Ian scoffed.

"Who's going to wait that long? You have the debt and you won't pay? You think you can stall me?"

"Ian, I don't have the money. My bank accounts have been frozen—"

"Fine. Since you won't own up to it, don't blame me for what comes next."

His men rushed forward, bound my hands, and shoved me into a car.

At first, I didn't understand where they were taking me.

But when the car turned onto that narrow, winding mountain road, the blood drained from my face.

It was the road to my mother's grave.

Whenever someone in our family was buried, a piece of uncut jade of immeasurable value was placed in the coffin alongside them.

I had told Ian this secret the day we set our wedding date.

Ian dragged me to the foot of my mother's grave.

He waved a hand at the bodyguards behind him.

"Dig it up."

"Ian Delgado, you animal!"

I stumbled toward him, half-running, half-falling over my own feet. But before I could get close, a shovelful of dirt from my mother's grave hit me square in the chest.

A few yards away, Ian waved his phone in the air.

"Clara, you'd better behave yourself. One little slip of my finger, and this video goes live..."

Through the nauseating sounds of Ian and Nadia pawing at each other, I saw my mother's bones.

And there, in the open grave, the burial jade. Fifteen years underground, and it still gleamed like the day it was placed there.

Ian's eyes lit up with greed. He snatched the jade and tucked it inside his coat, then tossed my mother's bones out of the grave one by one, scattering them across the dirt like garbage.

"Ian Delgado, you'll die for this!"

"Whether I die isn't up to you."

Nadia sauntered forward, all languid grace, and seized my chin between her fingers.

"In less than an hour, it'll be Ian's thirtieth birthday. Tonight is when your little scam finally falls apart."

An hour later, I was brought to Ian's birthday gala.

A massive screen behind the stage displayed his heart monitor in real time. Everyone in the city knew about the Delgado curse, and the ballroom was packed shoulder to shoulder. They had all come to see whether the century-old curse was real.

Nadia took Ian's hand and led him up onto the stage. She turned, gesturing to the enormous clock on the wall behind them, her voice bright and coy.

"Less than one minute to go! Tonight, I, Nadia Henson, will shatter this so-called curse once and for all! Everyone, bear witness!"

The ballroom fell deathly silent.

Every pair of eyes locked onto the clock and the heart monitor on the screen. The second hand swept toward twelve. The EKG line kept its strong, steady rhythm. Ian stood there looking healthy, his complexion ruddy and warm.

The clock struck midnight.

The ballroom erupted in cheers. Even Mrs. Delgado broke down in tears of joy, pressing both hands over her mouth.

She had just stepped onto the stage, arms reaching out to pull her son into an embrace, when Ian collapsed.

No warning. No stagger. Just a dead weight dropping straight to the floor with a sickening thud.