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His face lost several shades of color. “Tell me you didn’t follow her.”

“Into the alley,” I admitted. “Not after she vanished.”

“Christ.” He dragged a hand through his hair. “Of course you did.”

“What the hell is going on? Why won’t anyone talk about her?”

Mack glanced toward the open garage door, grabbed my arm, and pulled me into the alley behind the building. He checked both ends before speaking.

“Carolina Fortman is off-limits, Logan. Completely and absolutely off-limits.”

“Everyone keeps saying that, but nobody will tell me why.”

“Because her mother is Jacqueline Fortman.” His voice dropped. “High Priestess of one of Arrhythmia’s most powerful covens and the most powerful witch in three counties.”

The name struck something inside me.

Not recognition exactly. More like the faint creak of a door that had been locked for a very long time.

“Jacqueline,” I repeated.

Mack watched my face. “You remember her?”

“I don’t know.”

His expression shifted from concern to disbelief. “Logan, she’s the one who cursed you.”

The words hit me like a physical blow.

I stumbled backward and caught myself against the brick wall. “What?”

“Jacqueline cursed you shortly after you arrived. That’s why you’re clumsy. Why everything around you turns into a goddamn disaster.”

“No.” I shook my head. “I’ve never met her.”

“You have.”

“I think I’d remember pissing off the most powerful witch for miles.”

Mack stared at me for a long moment. “I thought you did.”

“Did what?”

“Remembered.”

Something inside my mind splintered.

The locked door cracked open, and a memory forced its way through.

Not all at once. It came back like glass working its way out of a wound, one sharp piece at a time.

My maker had dumped me at the Arrhythmia town line three nights after turning me.

No speech. No dramatic vampire blessing. Not even a pamphlet titled Congratulations, You’re Dead. Just a duffel bag, two blood packets, and a handwritten note that said:

THEY HANDLE PROBLEMS LIKE YOU.

“Good luck,” Vivienne had said through the open car window.