POV: Elena
The laughter lingered between us for only a moment before Jace pulled away from the curb and merged into the afternoon traffic.
For a while, neither of us spoke. The silence wasn't uncomfortable anymore. That realization caught me off guard. When we had first moved into the Calloway house, every quiet moment had felt like a battlefield waiting for someone to throw the first punch. We had argued over everything—whose turn it was to use the bathroom, who had left dishes in the sink, whether he listened to music too loudly, or whether I was capable of relaxing for five minutes without opening another textbook.
Now the silence simply... existed. I wasn't sure when that had changed. "You've been spending a lot of time in the library," Jace said, his eyes fixed on the road. "My pro
