Chase Sterling always felt like furniture. The kind you don't notice, the kind that's easy to shove in a corner and forget. He was used to it: people looked right through him, brushed him off like lint. But it only takes one phone call to erase a lifetime of being overlooked. When his estranged family meets a tragic end, Chase suddenly finds himself in charge of the sprawling Sterling fortune. Turns out, riches aren't the only thing the family left him. There's a curse running through his blood, warping love into something hungry and dangerous, impossible to escape.

Vivian Ashford never set out to blow Chase's life to smithereens. Just one decision (a sharp, ruthless move at graduation) was all it took to set their worlds spinning out of control. While Vivian soaks up the Hollywood limelight and collects red-carpet headlines, Chase slips into his new role as Manhattan's most intimidating heir. But no matter how far they run, something keeps yanking them back together, like a stitch in an old wound that refuses to heal.

The ritual room in my New Orleans home is prepared exactly as the grimoire instructed. Black candles at each cardinal point, burning with flames that don't flicker despite the wind howling through gaps in the old house. Salt circle drawn with precision, symbols carved into the wooden floor beneath it. And in the center, the bowl of blood and bone and ingredients I'd hoped never to use.


I've been preparing for this moment since Chase's eyes first went black at the Aspen lodge. Since Stage Two possession activated and the curse began evolving into something I couldn't control. The hybridization is progressing faster than any documented case, Chase's personality merging with the curse's sentience until neither is fully separate anymore.


Chapter 102 - The Curse Tightens