Ariana's POV
I sat cross-legged on my bed long after Jace left, my laptop open in front of me, the cursor blinking on an empty document I hadn't touched in twenty minutes. Becca's bed sat empty across the room, some late study session keeping her out, leaving me alone with the quiet and my own tangled thoughts.
I closed the laptop and set it aside, pulling my knees up to my chest instead, replaying the way Jace's voice had sounded on that call; tight, controlled and careful. The kind of careful he only got around his father, like every word had to be measured before it left his mouth.
“You're not a distraction.”
He'd said it so fast and certain, like there was no version of reality where that could be true. My chest had gone warm hearing it, warmer than it probably should have for some
