Chapter 3

My jaw felt like it was being crushed.

I stared up at the stranger wearing Cole's face.

Five years. This is who I loved for five years.

For another woman, he didn't hesitate for a second.

"..."

A sound clawed its way out of me.

Cole eased his grip slightly, a flicker of hope crossing his face. "Good. Say it. Once you do, it's over. We're both fine."

I looked at him.

At the countdown flickering above his head.

[5. 4. 3...]

"Cole."

I exhaled.

"I wish your building..."

Cole held his breath.

"...stands forever. Strong as bedrock. Never falls."

His face collapsed.

The script erupted:

[WHAT?! A reverse blessing?!]

[Wait—she's cursed, not blessed. Good words from her mouth mean NOTHING—]

[Oh no. Oh no no no. The female lead has no buffer now. The beam is actually dropping!]

Cole let go of me and scrambled for his phone.

It was already ringing before he got it out.

His hands shook as he answered.

"Iris? You okay?! Are you hurt—"

From the speaker: chaos. Shouting. A siren starting up somewhere.

"Cole..." Her voice was small and trembling, the voice of someone who had just been grazed by something enormous. "I'm so scared... a beam just came down... it missed me by inches..."

Cole's knees nearly buckled.

"You're okay. You're okay, you're okay—"

He kept repeating it, half prayer, half unraveling.

I watched him from the bed with cold clarity.

My reverse blessing hadn't shielded her. But it had disrupted the equation. Without a genuine curse to feed the transfer, Iris's plot armor couldn't hold.

She'd gotten lucky. Just lucky.

Cole ended the call and turned to me.

The look on his face was terrifying.

"You did that on purpose."

He moved toward the bed slowly. "Do you have any idea how close she came? One centimeter, Zoe. One centimeter and her face—"

"That was an accident," I said.

"Accident?"

He laughed—a short, ugly sound—and reached out and ripped the IV from my arm.

Blood welled at the needle site. I winced but kept my expression flat.

"Since you won't curse anything," he said, pulling me off the bed by the wrist, "you're coming to the site. You can look those workers in the eye."

"You can watch what your silence almost cost."

"Cole. I'm still a patient—"

"You'll live."

He cut me off, already dragging me toward the door. "Compared to what Iris went through, you're fine."

The script drifted past in a stream:

[Is he serious? She literally vomited blood an hour ago!]

[Poor female lead, that must have been terrifying. The stand-in is so cruel, refusing to help.]

[Excuse me?? No one OWES the female lead their body—]

[The last one needs to sit down. The stand-in is literally a tool. Tools don't get opinions.]

I was shoved into the car.

Cole put his foot down. The speedometer climbed.

My stomach rolled. I pressed my hand to my mouth and held on.

The system's voice came through thin and fraying:

Vitals at 30%.

Host. If you don't fight back, you will die in this car.

I looked at Cole's white-knuckled grip on the wheel.

Then I looked out the window at the blur of traffic beside us.

Fine.

"Cole," I said quietly. "Slow down."

"Or—"

I caught his eyes in the rearview mirror.

"We're going to crash."