Jace should have walked away.
He told himself that as he gripped the edge of the bar, watching her disappear into the velvet darkness of the club.
Told himself again as the bartender slid another whiskey toward him with a look that said man, don't even bother.
But there was a strange gravity to her — something that made reason feel irrelevant.
Maybe it was the way she looked at him, like he was both a game and a guaranteed loss.
Maybe it was how he could see the bruises she pretended not to have.
Or maybe he was just too damn lonely to care.
He pushed the drink aside and slid off the stool, weaving through the crowd without thinking.
Soraya wasn't hard to find. She was at the edge of the dance floor, body moving in slow, hypnotic circles, arms lifted like she was shedding skin.
Men stared. Women too.
But she didn't see any of them.
Only him.
Their eyes locked again, and Jace felt something coil tight inside his chest.
She smiled — slow, poisonous — and he knew it for what it was: a dare.
Come closer.
See what happens.
Against every scrap of common sense he had left, he did.
She grabbed him by the shirt when he was close enough, yanking him into the pulsing rhythm of the music.
No words.
No warning.
One hand slid around the back of his neck, pulling his mouth dangerously close to hers. Not kissing him — just breathing the same charged, reckless air.
He could smell her perfume — something sharp and sweet, like cherry laced with smoke.
"You're addicted already," she said against his mouth, a breathless ghost of a laugh.
He didn't deny it. What would've been the point?
"Maybe," he said instead, voice rough. "Maybe you are too."
That earned him a real laugh — low and wicked — but her fingers tightened slightly at his nape.
"If you're looking for a heart, pretty boy, you're wasting your time," she said. "I don't have one."
"Good," Jace murmured. "I'm not here to be saved either."
And this time, he was the one who closed the gap — just a breath — just enough to taste the possibility of her without taking it.
She pulled away first, her eyes gleaming in the strobe light like some dangerous thing half untamed.
For once, Soraya didn't have a comeback.
She just stared at him like he was something she hadn't decided whether to keep or destroy.
The music swelled.
The crowd swallowed them.