Chapter 827

Did Yara tag along with Jace just to make sure she could crash here?

“I want the cream soup silky smooth. Oh, and remove the onions from the food after cooking—I like the taste, but I’m not eating them. And maybe—” I started listing my demands when Yara spun around, raising an eyebrow at me.

“Wow. Jace really spoiled you, huh?” she said, shaking her head. “You’re so picky.”

She wasn’t done. “And FYI, I’m not your personal chef. Don’t want onions? Pick ‘em out yourself.” With that, she waltzed into the kitchen.

Clearly, she was hinting at something, so I decided to follow—casually, of course. On the inside? I was dying to sprint. But if she was playing it cool, so would I.

By the time I got to the kitchen, she was already prepping the ingredients, her knife skills surprisingly pro-level.

“Impressive,” I said.

“It’s called independence,” she said, hitting me with a mini-lecture. “Just because someone spoils you doesn’t mean you can’t handle yourself.”

Okay, point taken. But even though I wasn’t as skilled in the kitchen as she was, I was perfectly capable of being independent.

“Fair enough. Guess I should help out. Wouldn’t want to feel guilty eating all this,” I said, rolling up my sleeves and starting to rinse the veggies.

The sound of the fan and running water made for great cover—perfect for sneaking in a real conversation.

“You touched the urn, didn’t you? Where’s the stuff Hayden left inside?” I asked, keeping my voice low.

“Why would I touch that creepy thing?” she replied with a scoff.

We didn’t have much time, and Cole could send someone to barge in any second. Frustrated, I pressed harder. “Yara, I’m serious.”

“And so am I,” she retorted. “The urn’s exactly the way Hayden gave it to me. I handed it over untouched. If I’m lying, may I be cursed or whatever.”

Classic Yara—she was blunt.

Thinking back to the urn and how weirdly dramatic it had been, I realized she probably wasn’t lying. There was no way she’d go through the trouble of setting it up like that.

Chapter 827

Still, it was all so… extra. Hayden had given me rings before he disappeared, and now another one had shown up in the urn.

What was his deal with rings? Couldn’t the guy just give a proper goodbye gift?

“What’s got you so worked up about the urn anyway?” Yara asked.

“There was a ring in it,” I muttered, half-annoyed. “He made it feel like some twisted Valentine’s Day gift.”

Yara snorted. “A ring in an urn? Only he could come up with something like that.”

I ignored her and thought out loud. “If it wasn’t you, then what was he trying to do? Was this just some kind of weird joke?”

“Where is it? Let me see,” she said, eyeing my hand.

I was wearing a ring, but not the one from the urn—this one was from Hayden, after his “death” but before he showed up as “Xander.”

“It’s with Cole now,” I said flatly. “He probably smashed it to pieces.” Cole had already smashed the urn, so the ring wouldn’t have been spared.

“Let him smash it. Hayden can just make you a shinier one,” Yara teased.

I rolled my eyes. “Not the point, Yara.”

This convo was turning out to be a waste. She wasn’t lying, which meant the urn had been exactly the way Hayden left it. But that left one question: was Hayden lying to me?

Later, lying in bed, I stared at the ring on my finger. Suddenly, a thought hit me. He’d designed this ring himself.

Could he have hidden something inside it? Like a data sync device?

A jolt of excitement shot through me. I sat up.