“You two always throw the best parties,” he calls over the storm.
Jase huffs out a breath beside me. “You’re late.”
Ethan smirks slightly. “Traffic.”
Typical.
But his expression shifts almost immediately.
Serious now.
Focused.
He steps closer.
Eyes flicking between us.
“You activated something you weren’t supposed to,” he says.
Not a question.
A statement.
I hold his gaze.
“Yes.”
Silence stretches for half a second.
Then—
“Good,” he says.
That catches me off guard.
Jase too.
Ethan nods once toward the house.
“Because whatever you just sent up the chain?” he continues, voice low, “it hit.”
My pulse spikes.
“How hard?” Jase asks.
Ethan’s expression darkens.
“Hard enough that people are already disappearing,” he says. “And not the ones you want.”
Not good.
Not good at all.
I glance back toward the table inside.
The device still running.
Still connected.
