Chapter 15
1/2
That look hit Jace like a bucket of ice water and snuffed out the fury burning in his chest. He watched Avery take a step back, putting space between them as if he were something contagious.
He lowered his gaze to his hands. His knuckles trembled, slick with another man’s blood, and a rush of panic and confusion swept him clean.
What had he just done? How could he let himself spin that far out of control because some guy smiled at her?
He couldn’t lie to himself anymore. It wasn’t about possession or bruised pride. It was jealousy, fear, and love.
He had fallen for Avery.
The realization made his heart race and his fingers go
cold.
The next morning, Jace pulled himself together just enough to look presentable, though the bloodshot eyes and hollowed-out look gave him away. He waited outside Avery’s apartment
building.
When she came out, Jace stepped forward without the swagger. He swallowed hard, his voice rough with nerves and, to his own surprise, almost pleading.
“Avery,” he said, working to get the words out. “If I admit I was a jerk-that I lied to you used you… If I tell you I’m serious now, and I’ve actually fallen for you…”
and
He drew a deep breath, summoned all his courage, and met her eyes, clinging to the thinnest thread of hope. “Could you give me a chance? Just one chance to start over?”
Avery stopped and finally looked at him. Her gaze lingered on his face for a few seconds, as if she were staring at the cruelest joke of her life.
Then, her mouth curved into the faintest smile, cold enough to cut. Contempt and disgust flashed in her eyes. It was sharp and unmistakable.
“Jace,” she said, calmly and steadily, each word slicing like a blade. “You say you’ve fallen for me, but it makes me just as sick as Julian’s love ever did. Get away from me. And stop showing up where I have to see you.”
She didn’t spare him another glance. She turned and walked off, as if staying for another second would get grime on her shoes.
20
Jace stood where he was, struck dumb as if lightning had split him down the middle.
Her words landed harder than any punch, grinding his courage and that tiny hope into dust. Pain and despair surged, and a second later, rage roared in to swallow them both.
“Avery!” Jace screamed after her, his voice cracking in a way that made people on the sidewalk turn their heads.
But he didn’t care. He looked and sounded like a beast that had shaken off the last of its reason.
The city at midnight felt cold and bitter in Lambain.
Jace sat on the carpet of his upscale but lonely apartment, empty bottles scattered across the floor around him.
The whiskey scorched his throat and still couldn’t numb the tearing ache in his chest.
What Avery had said earlier that day replayed in his mind on a loop, sharp as a poisoned icicle, tearing apart whatever pride and hope he had left.
His eyes were bloodshot, his hair was messy, and his designer shirt was stained with liquor. He looked nothing like the polished charmer he used to be. Despair and alcohol rolled over him in waves until he was drowning in both.
