He sounded so polished and… sweet. Not bad, Rahul. Not bad at all. Caterina, frowning lightly, looked from him to Jaya. Jaya nodded slightly, as if to say, Go on. What will it hurt? You’d be doing the poor guy a favor.

Sighing, Caterina slid herself off the table. “Fine,” she said, swiping her gloved fingers under her eyes and adjusting her hair clip. Her cheeks were flushed; her shoulders just a bit straighter. Jaya knew her thought process exactly: Caterina could march back out onto the dance floor with a guy now. She could show Alaric she wasn’t just crumpled in a soggy heap somewhere, having been abandoned by not just Alaric but Connor, too. She was enjoying the Homegoing just as much as he was, thank you very much. She was choosing to dance with boys she’d never danced with before, to try things she’d never tried before. Alaric had done her a favor. “I suppose one dance won’t hurt.”

Jaya watched them for a moment, smiling. Then, her smile fading, she walked toward the exit to find Grey. Why had he sounded the way he had? Why had he called her instead of just talking to her in person? She had no idea what he wanted to speak to her about, but a low thrumming panic in her chest told her it wasn’t anything good.

When Jaya walked outside and around the building, her eyes feasted on Grey, standing still in the cut-glass night. The snow had dusted his shoulders and hair before it stopped falling, and with his blue eyes, he looked like Jack Frost, commanding the winter.

Jaya stepped through pools of starlight and around drifts of silver snow, watching Grey, who was looking at her. His gaze slipped to her pendant—probably noting the two rubies that remained—and then back up to her face. It was hard to read his expression in the muted light, but his blue eyes were unwavering, like he was studying her face for answers to questions he hadn’t asked yet.

“Hi,” Jaya said as she reached him, but he didn’t return her greeting. Her heart thundered.

Her eyes fell to something in his hand—his phone. “What’s going on?”

“Just doing some reading,” Grey said in a voice like granite and ice. He held his phone out to her so she could more clearly see the screen. “Recognize this?”

On the screen, she could make out an announcement. Her engagement announcement.

Jaya looked up at him, opening her mouth, not a word escaping her lips. Her system had iced over from shock. It wasn’t supposed to happen this way. She’d tried to spare him this pain as soon as she’d known what she had to do.