Chapter 1

The poison inside me is a quiet fire, a slow burn that has been my constant companion for two years. Now, it's reaching its end, and so am I.

Two years. Two years in this gilded cage, this fortified compound belonging to Ethan Lester.

The man I grew up with. The man I loved. The man who now holds me captive.

He believes I betrayed him. He thinks that on the day we were supposed to run away together, I led a rival gang to his home, that I watched as they slaughtered his adoptive family.

He's wrong. But the truth would destroy him, so I stay silent.

Tonight, he' s putting on a show. A party. And I am the main attraction. He drags me from my basement cell into the opulent living room, filled with his men and his new woman, Sabrina Chavez.

"Show them, Maria," Ethan's voice is cold, a stranger's voice. "Show them the trick you taught me."

He presses a cold, familiar knife into my hand. The knife-throwing trick. Our trick.

My hands tremble, not from fear, but from the poison's relentless advance. I take a deep breath, aim at the wooden target across the room, and throw.

The knife misses the bullseye. It wobbles in the air and clatters to the floor.

A wave of laughter ripples through the room.

"She's lost her touch, boss," one of his men sneers.

Sabrina, draped over Ethan' s arm, gives a delicate, pitying smile. "Don't be so hard on her, Ethan. Look at her. She can barely stand."

Her words are meant to sound kind, but they are gasoline on his fire. His eyes, once full of warmth for me, are now black with hate.

"Again," he commands, his voice low and dangerous.

He forces me to do it again. And again. My vision blurs. On the fifth throw, my arm gives out completely. The knife flies wild, slicing through the air and nicking Sabrina's perfect cheek.

A tiny drop of blood appears.

Sabrina gasps, a theatrical hand flying to her face. "She... she tried to kill me."

The room falls silent.

Ethan' s face twists into a mask of pure fury. He moves so fast I don't have time to react. He grabs me by the hair, yanking my head back.

"You never learn," he hisses, his face inches from mine. He thinks this is another assassination attempt, another betrayal.

He nods to two of his men. They hold me down. He takes another knife, its edge gleaming under the chandelier lights.

"A scar for a scar," he says, his voice devoid of all emotion.

The blade cuts deep into my face, a searing line of pain from my temple to my jaw. He stops just short of my eye. The world goes white, then red.

He lets me go, and I collapse onto the marble floor.

"Throw her back in the cellar," he orders, his voice distant.

As his men drag me away, I see him rush to Sabrina's side, his touch gentle, his voice full of concern.

Back in the darkness of my cell, the pain from the gash is nothing compared to the fire flaring in my veins. The poison. It' s accelerating.

I press my hand to my stomach, feeling the internal agony.

Two days. The doctor on my last mission told me it was undetectable, untreatable. A parting gift.

I have two days left to live.