Chapter 1

I was the long-lost Whitmore heiress, finally brought home after eighteen years in the system.

I'd been home for exactly two days when my adopted sister brought me a cake, and my mother urged me to eat it, her smile dripping with fake warmth.

[Don't eat it.]

The words flashed in red across my vision.

[It's a soul-swap curse. Your mother knows. She wants you to trade bodies with the fake heiress so you'll take the fall for Camille's enemies and die, while Camille keeps your healthy body to live in luxury.]

My hands trembled, but not from fear. I burst into tears, sobbing that I wanted to save it for my birthday tomorrow.

Later that night, I snuck back to the group home. I fed the cake to my best friend in the wheelchair—the only person in this world who actually deserved a miracle.

Now? Camille is screaming, trapped in my friend's broken, disabled body. And my mother is scrambling to undo a spell that's permanent.

They thought I was easy prey. But they forgot—I grew up in a place where you fight to survive.

————

Two days. That was how long I'd been in this house, and I still jumped every time a door opened.

The Whitmores' place was bigger than any building I'd ever slept in. Bigger than the group home, bigger than the school I'd bounced out of at sixteen.

From the window of my new bedroom I could see a lawn that looked like it had been cut with scissors and a fountain that ran all night, for no reason, just because it could. The mattress under me felt like something that shouldn't exist. I'd slept on worse. Floors, mostly. Once, a bench at a bus stop.

"Did you sleep at all?"

Margaret appeared in the doorway with a glass of warm milk. The silk robe, the pinned-up hair, the gentle smile—the whole soft-mother act.

My throat tightened. My mother. Eighteen years of wishing on birthday candles, and here she was. Real. In the flesh.

"Some," I said.

"You'll get used to it." She crossed the room and pressed the glass into my hands. "This is your home now."

I drank it. Warm. Kind. I almost believed it.

Then the door opened again and the belief died.

Camille swept in carrying a small box—white, tied with a thin ribbon, the kind of box that looked expensive without trying. Her dress was pale pink, her hair curled in waves, and she gave me a bright, practiced smile.

"Found you." She held out the box. "It's a special recipe. Just try it—trust me."

I looked down. I lifted the lid. Inside, on a square of parchment, sat a single small cake, dark and glossy, dusted with something that glittered faintly in the light.

"Go on," Margaret said, resting a hand on Camille's shoulder. "Your sister went to a lot of trouble."

I reached for it.

My vision went white for a second.

Then a line of text appeared, dead center, red against the room:

[Girl, don't eat that.]

I froze.

[That cake is enchanted. It's a soul-swap charm. Finish it, and you trade bodies with the girl who took your place.]

The words hung there. I blinked. They didn't go away.

I looked at Margaret. Still smiling. I looked at Camille. Still smiling. Neither of them had seen it.

"Something wrong?" Camille tilted her head. "You don't like cake?"

More words appeared. Fast, like someone was typing over my head.

[Your mother knows. She helped plan this.]

[Eat it and you're out of this house by morning.]

[Camille keeps your body. You get hers—the one with all the enemies. They'll find you. You'll die in a gutter.]

My hand went cold around the milk glass.

Margaret leaned in, all concern. "Nora? You're white as a sheet."

"Sister," Camille pushed the box closer, "just one bite. It'll go stale."

I looked at the cake. Looked at the two smiling faces. Looked at the words hanging there like a sentence.

They were waiting. Both of them. Waiting for me to take a bite.

Don't panic. In the group home, panic made you a target. Cry, and they hit harder. You know what to do. You know how to perform.