?Chapter 891:


    I frowned, lowering my voice to a sharp whisper. “Don’t cause trouble at the mayor’s estate. This isn’t a ce where we can afford to cause trouble.”


    My warning prated his anger. Jett’s jaw tightened visibly as he wrestled with his emotions, a moment of tense silence stretching between us before he finally mastered himself.


    “Let’s go.” His voice emerged rough-edged as he curved his arm around me possessively, guiding me away.


    Before we disappeared into the night, Jett couldn’t resist throwing one final icy re over his shoulder at Alden.


    Makenna’s POV:


    Jett led me back to our quarters with measured steps, closing the door behind him. His face was a canvas of emotions—sadness etched into the corners of his eyes, anxiety pulling at his lips.


    “Where exactly did you go tonight?” His voice trembled like autumn leaves in a gentle breeze, dark eyes boring into mine with an intensity that made my heart skip.


    I lowered my head, my words escaping as faint as morning mist. “I just went out for a walk; didn’t do anything else.”


    A flicker of hurt danced across Jett’s eyes as he stepped closer, his voice weighted with sorrow. “You’re lying to me. I can see the deceit in your eyes like shadows across still water.”


    I remained silent, summoning the courage to lift my gaze and meet his. Though in his thirties, Jett still carried a hint of boyish charm—perhaps a consequence of his long imprisonment, sheltered from the world’s weathering touch. At times, this manifested as a childlike stubbornness that both endeared and frustrated.


    Now, his face wore the raw wound of betrayal like an ill-fitting mask.


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    I released a soft sigh and spoke with deliberate care. “Jett, I’ve always seen you as an elder brother. Your feelings for me might just be the aphrodisiac potion speaking through your heart.” Jett tried to deny it.


    I cut him off gently, my eyes finding refuge in the floor patterns. “I know the antidote for the aphrodisiac is hard to create—even beyond your knowledge. But the mayor’s family has wealth and connections that run as deep as ancient roots. You could use the mayor’s treatment as a gateway to discover and craft the antidote.”


    As my words hung in the air between us, the color drained from Jett’s face like water through sand, leaving him hollow and pale.


    After a moment suspended in silence, he nodded with a bitterness that spoke volumes. “Alright, I understand.”


    With that resignation hanging heavy in the air, he turned away, his normally confident steps now unsteady as he made his way to the door.


    The soft click of thetch echoed through the room like a final punctuation.


    As I watched his forlorn figure disappear, guilt crashed over me in relentless waves.


    In the days that followed, Jett carved a deliberate distance between us. Each time I approached him to discuss stealing the pass, he would conjure an excuse and vanish like morning dew under the sun’s first rays.


    Anxiety gnawed at my edges, but opportunities to speak with him slipped through my fingers like water.


    It wasn’t until several dayster that Alden burst into my space, his excitement bubbling over like a spring brook. “Ailyn, did you know? Dayton has fully recovered! To thank you for your help, he’s nning avish banquet and insists you and Edward attend.”


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