Page 129 of Tower of Ash and Darkness
And then Iseeher.
Bright blue eyes meet mine as she steps out of the east wing staircase,and the world stills. She’s composed, poised, every inch the perfect facade. But I can see the cracks if I look closely enough. I’ve always been able to see them.
She stops short, her gaze leveling me with a calm that feels too practiced.
Every unspoken word inside me builds into something ready to burst, and the image of her with Jason, smiling at him like he’s her entire world, burns in my mind. It’s unbearable.
“He doesn’t deserve you,” I bite.
Her eyes snap to mine, blazing with fury.
“And you do?” she fires back, her tone cold and cutting.
I take a step closer, unable to hold back, my voice dropping to something harsher.
"I saw the way you looked at him tonight," I growl, the words bitter on my tongue, laced with something darker, something I can't swallow down. "The way you let himtouchyou—like he belongs there, like you were made to fit against him."
I let out an agonizing breath, shaking my head, but the image is burned into me, a wound that won’t close.
"How fuckingperfectyou looked together. How natural it seemed—his hands on you, your eyes on him."
My jaw clenches, my voice rough and uneven as I take a step closer.
"Do you even realize what that did to me? Watching you, standing beside him like you were always meant to be there, while I?—"
“You don’t get to stand here and act like this is aboutyou,” she snaps, her voice trembling with anger.
Her words cut deep, but I refuse to back down.
"Jason doesn’t see you—not the real you," I bite out, my voice razor-sharp and bitter, something I can’t swallow down. "He’s using you, Lailah. And you’re too damn smart, too perceptive not to see it."
Her laugh is bitter, echoing in the room like a slap.
"And you see me?" she challenges, her voice rising, trembling with fury. She takes a step closer, her blue eyes burning into mine.
"You," she spits, her tone cutting, "who disappears whenever it suits you? You, who broughtherhere?" She pauses, her words spiked with venom. "The womanyoufed from. The womanyoukissed."
Her voice cracks slightly, but she presses on, relentless.
"You stand here and talk about Jason like you have a right to—like you’re above him—but what of her, Casper? What does she mean to you?"
"She means nothing!" The words spill harshly from my throat, but I don’t care. I need her to hear it, to believe it.
Lailah’s eyes flash, fury and something deeper burning beneath the surface.
"Do you know who else said that to me, Casper?" she spits, her voice trembling with anger, rising like a storm ready to break. "Jason. He said the exact same thing when I confronted him about the other woman." Her breath hitches, her chest rising and falling rapidly.
She means nothing.
The words feel like a blade driven straight through my back. Her eyes lock onto mine, furious and unrelenting.
“Do you know what it feels like to hear that from the men who claim to care about me? Do you have any idea what it’s like to be told, over and over, that I’m supposed to believeshe—whoever she is—doesn’t matter, when I know damn well she does?”
Her voice cracks on the last word, but her gaze doesn’t falter. It burns into me, filled with hurt and fury, daring me to answer, to justify what I’ve done. But I can’t.
“Do not stand before me and speak of nothingness, Casper,” she says, her voice trembling. “Because I don’t believe it. Not from Jason. Not from you. You don’t get to use that excuse.”
Her words hit harder than I expect, knocking the air from my lungs and leaving me reeling.
