Ares's POV
The soft click of the hidden panel closing should have been the only sound in the room. Instead, I heard her breath… sharp, caught in her throat like glass.
I stopped in the doorway, my hand still on the handle, and let my eyes adjust to the dim light. Jasmine stood at the far end of the room, frozen. The wall safe gaped open behind her like an exposed wound.
And in her hands… the photo.
The photo I'd kept buried in that safe for years.
Her face… hers, younger, sharper around the edges, still cloaked in the arrogance of Crestfall Academy… stared up at her from the faded image. And now her present self looked at me with the same fire in her eyes, only tempered by betrayal.
I didn't move. Didn't breathe. The silence between us thickened, heavier than any shouted accusation.
"Why…" she asked, her voice steady though I could see the tremor in her grip, "do you have this?"
The question wasn't really a question. It was a demand, a blade pressed to my throat.
