Jaya turned back to him and stepped forward, her pulse high. “Then what? Why are you in here? It is not okay to go into someone’s room when she isn’t there. Do you understand that? I could have you expelled.”

“I was…” Grey looked away and pushed a hand through his hair, not finishing his thought.

Jaya walked over to her open dresser drawer. Nothing seemed to be rifled through. The velvet bag was still there, right on top, unmoved.

“I’m sorry,” Grey said quietly, his face leaching of color.

“For what?” Jaya walked closer to him and narrowed her eyes. When he was silent, she pressed on. “Grey. You can’t just walk into my room without permission and not answer my questions. This is unacceptable!”

His mouth opened and then closed again, his fists clenched at his sides. “I know.”

But he didn’t say anything else. “Were you looking for things to send to the tabloids?” Jaya asked, her voice hard.

“No!” He looked genuinely shocked. “I would never do that. Never.”

In spite of her extreme skepticism toward all Emersons (indeed, she even doubted most of them were fully human), she believed Grey. He looked… physically sick. Like someone who was too swept up in their own thoughts to go snooping around for salacious gossip. “What, then?” she asked, unrelenting. He’d been in her room without her knowledge. She deserved to know why. “My dresser drawer is open. What were you looking for?”

After a long pause, both of them staring at each other, Grey spoke, so softly she could barely hear him. “Your ruby pendant.”

“Why?” Why had he been so obsessed with her pendant from the beginning? What was going on?

Outside, the bus horn honked three times.

“That’s the warning,” Grey said faintly. “They’re leaving in five minutes.”

They studied each other, and for once Jaya let her expression mirror his once-more impassive one. “Fine,” she said. “But you’re coming too. We can finish this conversation in Aspen, when you tell me why you were skulking around my room.”

“I wasn’t skulking.”

“That’s the least important part of everything I said.”

Finally, Grey nodded once. “All right.” He walked forward and brushed past her, striding out into the hallway.

Jaya watched his retreating figure for a moment, then reached into the drawer and pulled out the black velvet bag. She peeked in briefly—the necklace was still ensconced safely inside. Slipping the bag into her coat pocket, she followed Grey Emerson down the hallway, her mind churning.

Grey