Jace looked startled, but then shook his head and heaved a deep sigh. He suddenly looked 30 years older than he really was, with his pained eyes and tired expression. Something told me that maybe I wasn't so off track.

Jace suddenly looked to me, as if realizing I was still there, and smiled gently. His green eyes glittered, the pain gone from them as if seeing me had somehow refreshed his mode. And boy, did he look refreshed. His eyes trailed up and down my body, drinking me in. It was just like the first time we had met, back at Aunt Silka's house. I shivered despite myself, suddenly.

Jace seemed to take no notice, and said quite huskily:

"You do look beautiful today, Lyra." I grimaced at this, for his eyes stared into mine so hungrily I thought maybe he might eat me up right there and then. But then something made me stop and look closer; the hunger wasn't lust. It was a bloodthirsty hunger, seeking to kill and destroy. I shivered even more violently, and it took my whole willpower to stay in that chair. I started fidgeting, and Jace finally seemed to come to his senses. He blinked a few times, dazed, then his attention returned to me.

"I-if you might pardon me, Lyra. I have some-some things to take care of." I would have been convinced, had it not been for the strange fear in his voice. What was he about to do that he stopped himself from doing...

I sat boredly in the living room, changing TV channels as a hobby. There was absloutely nothing else in the mansion to do, despite the massiveness of it. Then my eyes wandered to the table beside the doorway. The necklace still glittered on it, and I glanced around on instinct. There was no light whatsoever that could make the necklace glitter. Yet there it was, twinkling like a star from the distance. At this point, I was not even surprised anymore.

I gently got up and the TV remote dropped out of my hand and clattered to the floor. I was transfixed, never taking my eyes off the necklace. I needed to see it, touch it, just get closer... I took a step. Then another. Excitement began to build inside me the closer I got. I was only a step away and I reached towards it greedily like a small child towards a toy, and my finger was about to make contact with it when a hand grabbed mine and pulled me back quite violently. Max's eyes bore into mine, and I tried to free myself, flaying my arms about.

"Let me go! I need to-" Something soft pecked my forehead, and I stopped, processing it. Did he just... I looked to Max for an explaination, but he was busy grabbing the necklace and curling his hand into a fist. Golden powder fell from between his fingers, and I realized what he had done. He had broken the necklace and put so much pressure on it that it had turned into powder. He leaned in afterwards and hissed in my ear:

"Don't you dare touch anything again. " And then he let go of my wrist, glared intensly with burning passion, and stomped off upstairs. I heard a slam somewhere upstairs and dazedly staggered back to the living room, picked up the remote, and sat back down on the sofa.

What the hell just happened?