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She takes a slow breath, something sad flickering across her face. "He pretty much insisted."

"Really?"

Ang nods faintly. "I think being away for so long finally started to weigh on him."

My chest tightens. "Well… he couldn't really help that CMU was so far from Mage."

Ang tilts her head slightly. "Is that what he told you?"

"Well, yeah. And I mean it makes—"

Her expression softens in a way that makes the rest of my sentence die in my throat.

My palm flies to my mouth. "Wait."

She doesn't say anything.

"Because of me?"

Ang nods slowly.

My gaze drops to the floor. "He didn't come home because of me," I murmur. "He stayed away because he was avoiding me."

Heat floods my face, and before I even think about it, my hand reaches for her forearm like six years haven't passed between us.

Ang glances down at the contact, then back up at me.

"It's all my fault," I rush out, pulling my hand away again. "That he stayed away from you. From Vienna. All those years he missed with her. The guilt he—"

"Lenny."

Her voice is quiet but firm enough that the rest of my words die in my throat. And when I look up, she's watching me carefully, her expression softer than I expected.

"That's not exactly how it happened."

My chest tightens. "It's not?"

She shakes her head slowly. "I mean… yes. That's part of it."

Before I can apologize again, she continues.

"Jace has always been sort of a lone wolf," she says. Her gaze drifts past me as she sinks into the stool Bridget left behind. "Even when he was little. If something hurt him, he didn't come looking for comfort. He just… disappeared for a while."

I stare at the counter, flashes of him stretched out on that playground slide flickering through my mind.

"It's not what people expect from someone like him," she continues. "But it's true. He's always been okay on his own. Okay to wander."

I blink, unsure what to say.

Ang looks back at me then, something almost fond softening her expression.

"But you… you've always been different to him."

My whole body stiffens.

"And when things fell apart between you two…" She exhales slowly. "He lost the one place he didn't feel like he had to be alone."

I swallow hard.