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“Lyra… wait.”

20

JACE

“Lyra—wait.”

The word left him before he could stop it, sharp and gruff. Not pleading—he didn’t plead—but there was something in his voice that had her halting mid-step.

She spun, her curls catching the wind, eyes blazing like stormlight.

“You want me to wait?” she snapped. “After everything? You swoop in, save the day, saynothing, and now you want me towait?”

Jace braced himself, every instinct screaming to stay still. To shut down. To control the moment before it cracked him open.

But he didn’t move.

Didn’t run.

Didn’t retreat behind the careful armor he’d been wearing since his father disappeared into shadow and he’d been left to carry the weight of the whole damn pack on his back.

Because this wasn’t a pack issue.

This washer.

“I didn’t mean for it to happen like this,” he said quietly.

Lyra laughed, a bitter, heartbroken sound. “You mean with magic attacks and half-truths in the woods?”

He stepped closer, just enough that her breath hitched, but not enough to spook her again. “I meant me... us. I didn’t want to hurt you.”

“But youdid,” she said, voice shaking. “And you keep doing it. So either tell me the truth, or let me go because I can’t deny that I feel something as well, even before the other night. But this… This is toxic.”

Jace’s jaw clenched.

The silence stretched between them, taut and unforgiving.

“You’re my mate.”

Her breath caught.

And in that tiny pause, the whole forest seemed to go still.

“Say that again,” she whispered.

“You’re my mate,” he repeated, the words scraping past his lips like they cost him something. “I’ve known since the first day you walked into the Keep.”

She blinked, slowly. “Then why—why all this? Why act like I’m some stranger barging into your territory?”

He exhaled harshly, turning from her, dragging a hand through his hair. “Because I can’t claim you.”

Her face twisted. “Can’t orwon’t?”

He spun back toward her, voice rising. “You think this is easy for me? You think I don’t want to mark you—pull you close and never let go?”

“Then whydon’tyou?” she shouted.

“Because everything I touch, I ruin!” he snapped.