In a somber mood, Jaya and Grey boarded the bus together at ten o’clock and took their old seats. Caterina’s thinly veiled threats echoed distantly in her ears, but Jaya found she didn’t much care in the moment. She looked at Grey sidelong as they settled in. It was strange, how different things were now. When she’d boarded the bus this morning, she’d been hell-bent on finding out what Grey Emerson was hiding. Now… well, now she knew. And it was like the wind had gone out of her sails. He wasn’t the evil sadist she’d thought he was at all. Jaya wasn’t quite sure what to do with that.

Daphne Elizabeth tromped onto the bus then and came to sit by them, looking gloomy. “Hey, guys.”

“Hi.” Jaya patted her arm. “Are you all right?”

Daph shrugged. “No. I’m feeling especially naive since Alaric chose to ride back with her.” Daphne Elizabeth sighed and looked at the both of them, shaking her head. “I don’t get it. Why can’t I leave him alone?”

“Maybe it’s the way his hair is gelled so much it looks like it’s made out of concrete,” Grey said, and Jaya elbowed him.

Daph raised an eyebrow. “Was that a joke, Grey?”

Smirking, he crossed his arms and lapsed back into silence.

“Maybe it’s time you did leave Alaric alone,” Jaya said, turning back to Daphne Elizabeth. “You’re not happy, Daph. That’s plain to see. And he isn’t treating you right—either of you.”

“That’s easy for you to say, Jaya,” Daph said, crossing her arms and looking out the window. She was clearly finished with the conversation. “But you’re not in my shoes.”

Jaya kept her silence, frustrated as she was. Grey settled in quietly as other students began piling on, everyone talking tiredly after a long day shopping and skiing. Jaya sat next to him in the neon-lit dark, her mind turning back to all that had happened that day.

When she’d caught him in her room, Jaya had not envisioned that it would end up like this: with her relinquishing the plan she’d been certain would avenge her family’s honor. But what other choice did she have? Anyone reasonable would’ve arrived at that conclusion after seeing and hearing Grey’s obvious agony. She glanced at his profile, lit pink from the neon lights on the bus, and felt a prickle of sympathy.

So now what? Where did all this leave her with her family? What would she tell them, or Kiran, who abhorred the Emersons as much as she did? What did it mean for her as the heiress to the Rao name and estate, if she was sympathetic to an Emerson?