Chapter 24 –
I woke with a start.
Not because of the nightmares — but because Jace's hand was clamped over my mouth. His eyes, wide and shadowed in the dim flicker of the dying firelight, told me everything.
"Don't… move," he whispered.
Somewhere in the dark, something crunched. A deliberate step. My breath froze. The figure. Or… someone worse? My mind spun through the wreckage of the last few hours — the warehouse exploding behind me, the screaming engines, the burning metal smell that still clung to my skin.
Where was Ethan? Lena? My mom? My dad? The last thing I saw was him bleeding — and the figure saying my father made a mistake.
I didn't even know if he was alive.
Jace shifted his weight, his thigh pressing against mine, warm and solid despite the cold sweat on his skin. His heartbeat was pounding as hard as mine. I wanted to ask if he'd seen the figure — but his gaze darted toward the far shadows.
A whisper of fabric. A silhouette. Gone in a blink.
"Stay here," Jace mouthed, starting to move — but my hand shot out, grabbing his shirt. "No. Not without me."
We stumbled forward together, careful not to make a sound. The air between us was electric, almost painful. Every time his shoulder brushed mine, my brain fizzed with heat — the kind you don't want to feel when death could be two steps away.
Another sound. Behind us.
We spun — and collided.
Jace's arm went around my waist, pulling me flush against him to stop me from hitting the ground. My hands pressed against his chest — solid, fast-rising, burning through his shirt. The world narrowed until it was just his breath against my cheek, his mouth so close I could feel the heat of it.
"Jace…"
His fingers tightened in my hair, tilting my head back just slightly. He didn't kiss me — not yet — but the space between us throbbed with the possibility, with the danger of it. If he moved another inch, if I leaned in—
A noise. A low scrape in the dark.
We froze. Both of us turned toward the sound, and for a split second, I thought I saw them. The figure. Watching from the shadows, their smile faintly visible before it melted into black.
Then they were gone.
Jace swore under his breath, pulling me with him. We moved fast now, deeper into the night, but every step felt like we were walking into a maze with no exit. My thoughts kept spiraling — What did they want? Were they following us? Where was everyone else?
We didn't stop until the trees swallowed us whole, the only light a thin sliver of moon. Jace pushed me against a trunk, his breath ragged.
"You're shaking," he murmured.
"So are you," I whispered back.
His forehead dropped to mine, and for a moment — just a moment — it felt like the whole world had paused. No figure. No fire. No danger. Just the unbearable pull between us.
Then a voice, distant but sharp, sliced through the night:
"Found you."
And just like that, the world started burning again.