Page 53 of Gathered Sparkle

Nicholas glances down at me, suspicion flickering in his eyes.

“That’s… pretty cool,” Koen says after a beat.

“As if you’d care.” Nicholas huffs.

“Right…” Koen smirks faintly, his tone turning defensive. “I don’t.”

Oh my God. They are worse than children.

A soft chuckle comes from beside me, and I glance up to see Ace standing there, Good Lookin’—Jinx—still cradled in his arms. “If I’d known it was you asking for help with parkour, I would’ve told you not to even try it.”

I squint at him. “Why?”

“Because I remember someone who ate dirt every second try while skateboarding back in the day.”

I glare at him, though the corner of my mouth twitches. “That was years ago.”

“Sure was,” Ace agrees, but there’s a teasing lilt that makes my heart skip. “But some of us will never forget. You screamed like a dying baby goat.”

“Hey!” I gasp, half offended, half delighted. Seeing him like this, teasing me, it’s like a piece of the past slipping back into place.

Sylus laughs behind me, the sound breaking the tension even further. “A dying baby goat? You’re kidding.”

Ace shakes his head solemnly. “Not kidding. High-pitched, echoing. It was a sound to behold. Kind of haunting, really.”

I groan, my head falling back in mock despair. “You’re such an ass.”

“And yet…” Ace shrugs, “… you’re still here.”

The room feels brighter like we’ve finally broken through the tension that’s been choking us. “Guess I must’ve missed you or something.”

“Or something,” Ace echoes, his ice-blue eyes locking onto mine for a beat too long.

Nicholas clears his throat behind me. “The point is, I don’t know what to do. Do you think I want to be here? But I can’t go home. When Veronica checks the CCTV and sees me carrying Levi’s ass out of the Heights…”

“Yeah.” Koen crosses his arms. “We don’t know what she’ll do when she figures out that you chose our side for this.”

“I did not chooseyourside,” Nicholas snaps.

Ezra arches a brow, leaning back against the counter while he waves a hand around. “Yeah? What would you callthis,then?”

Nicholas glances at me, and I say it for him. “He chose to helpme.”

“Which is the same damn thing, given you’re on our side.” Sylus shrugs.

“It’s not the fucking same.” Nicholas lets out a sharp, bitter laugh. “I would gladly walk out of here if I could.”

“You can,” I reassure him. But then all eyes snap to me, and I hurry to explain, “While I was looking for Levi, I found a security guy and… well,hypnotizedhim.”

Koen’s head tilts, his brows lifting. “You didwhat?”

“Yeah.” I flash him a smug smile, shrugging, only to hiss at the pain that shoots through my arm again. “It’s not as hard as you make it out to be.”

“All right, show-off.” Koen huffs, clearly amused.

“Anyway,” I continue, turning back to Nicholas. “He blacked out the security system. If you got out before me, chances are huge that Veronica will never find out you were there.”

“Right,” Ezra jumps in. “That matches the testimonies of the security personnel. That the CCTV went black.”

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