Jace couldn’t sleep.
The moonlight spilled in pale streaks through the slats of his dormitory window, and yet the shadows inside him were deeper, darker, and louder than any night sky.
Elias's voice echoed in his mind.
“Rei and Lucian are lovers..”
That one sentence had shattered something in him.
She had chosen Lucian. Unequivocally. Willingly.
And not just emotionally.
Jace wasn’t a fool. He saw the way Lucian touched her sometimes, like it was a reflex—like her body belonged to him. He saw the lingering glances. The way Rayne would look up at him when she thought no one was watching, like she’d been claimed and was glad for it.
And Lucian? He didn’t even try to hide it anymore.
Jace gritted his teeth, sitting up in bed.
He’d protected her since she came ito the Academy. As a t
