The storm rolled in just after midnight.
Thunder cracked, rattling the windows as Savannah curled up on the couch with her phone, barely paying attention to the screen. The wind howled, and with it came the flicker of lights -
Then darkness.
Total, quiet, breath-holding black.
"Great," she muttered.
She got up, pacing toward the hallway just as another flash of lightning lit the living room.
Jace was already there.
Shirtless.
His chest was slick with sweat, muscles cut from shadow and light. He held a flashlight in one hand and looked too calm, like power outages and broken rules didn't faze him at all.
She crossed her arms. "You always appear out of nowhere, or is that just your thing with me?"
He didn't answer right away. Just shined the light toward the breaker panel.
"Noah said it shorts when the rain's heavy," he said. "Probably just tripped."
Savannah didn't move.
Neither did he.
The air between them felt thicker in the dark. Like the truth lived here - not in the daylight, not in safe conversations, but here in shadows and silence and the places they avoided.
She leaned against the wall, watching him.
"You always follow orders that easily?" she asked.
His head turned slightly.
"What orders?"
"'Keep an eye on her,'" she quoted. "Noah gave you a job, and you slipped right back into soldier mode."
Jace ran a hand through his hair, water droplets clinging to his skin. "It's not like that."
"Then what is it like, Jace? Because I'm tired of pretending you don't look at me like you want to rip your own rules in half."
He stepped toward her.
One slow, dangerous step.
The flashlight beam dropped slightly, casting shadows across his jaw. "There are rules for a reason."
"Who made them?"
"I did."
"Then break them."
She didn't wait.
Didn't think.
She took the step he wouldn't - grabbed his shirtless chest in both hands, stood on her toes, and kissed him.
It wasn't soft.
It was desperate.
Hot and angry and tangled in years of what-ifs.
And for a heartbeat, he kissed her back.
His hand fisted in her hair, mouth crashing into hers like he'd waited forever and couldn't wait one more second -
Then he broke away.
Breathing hard.
Shaking.
"Don't," he said roughly. "Don't do this."
"Too late," she whispered.
He looked at her like she was both salvation and destruction.
Then he turned and walked into the dark.
Leaving her breathless, burning, and very much alone.