Yeah, new girls flirting with him was normal. But something about Jaya Rao struck him as very slightly off. It was like she was playing a part, not truly flirting because she found him attractive. And then there was the fact that she had transferred in this late into her high school career, little sister in tow. Lastly, there was the matter of the necklace. Why did she have a ruby pendant shaped like a rose that her father had gotten in Dubai, of all places? Given the story of the stolen ruby and the curse her family had placed on his, that was too big a coincidence. A Rao so willing to befriend an Emerson would be rare enough. But a Rao wearing a ruby rose pendant, being overfriendly and registered for the same classes as him? Something was definitely not right.

Grey studied her, but didn’t see guilt or sadistic smugness. Just some B-grade flirting. His eyes dropped to the pendant again—and he froze. “A ruby’s missing,” he said, his voice sounding faint and wooden even to his own ears.

The words of the curse sizzled in his brain.

As the glass rose dims,

So the hope of redemption

Eighteen years, one by one,

Until what’s left is none.

Each ruby on Jaya’s pendant represented a petal of the red rose. Was this what the curse had meant all along? Eighteen petals, falling?

Jaya, unaware of the frantic pounding of his pulse, glanced down. “Yes, I know; it went missing yesterday. I’ll have to get it replaced soon.”

“How many rubies are there?” Grey asked, his voice weird and wooden again.

“Eighteen,” Jaya said. “Well, seventeen now, I suppose.”

Eighteen. Just like the curse. And once they’d all fallen… Grey would die. Just as his father had always said. Here it was, the countdown, right in front of his eyes. After all these years, it was real. The curse was real. Grey felt his face pale.

“Are you all right?” Jaya asked.

Grey couldn’t even bring himself to nod.

Jaya

There was something about Grey’s expression that reminded her of a person in shock. She’d once seen a picture of a survivor of a horrible car crash, and they’d had the same wide eyes, the slightly sallow face, the expression like they couldn’t quite believe this was reality.

Why did he care so much about whether or not she lost a ruby, anyway? She’d expected him to be a lot more focused on Isha or the Raos’ disgrace, even in a circumspect manner. But Grey Emerson seemed strangely obsessed with her pendant.

“Good morning, royals and noble-type people!”

Grey and Jaya looked up at the same time to see Daphne Elizabeth flitting toward them. Leo and Rahul followed behind at a statelier pace.