Alice POV.
The board had something written on it. She'd even copied it down. Reflexes, muscle memory, whatever. None of it mattered.
Her mind wasn't here.
It was whit the boy who'd walked into their lives like he'd always belonged and still looked like he didn't believe it.
Sebastian.
She didn't look at him now. Wouldn't. Not directly. It felt dangerous, somehow. Like lighting a match in a dry forest. Look to loong and something might catch.
She tapped the end of her paen against the desk. Once. Twice. Then stilled.
It wasn't just the bond. Not even just the power. It was him.
How he watched everyone like they were pieces on a chessboard, but didn't always want to play. How his sarcasm wrapped around moments like armor, but never quite hid the truth underneath.
She'd seen so many people. She saw people, that was her thing. Futures, gestures, patterns.
But him?
He didn't line up.
He didn't obey the rules. Not of time. Not of her sight. Not even of gravity, apparently.
And yet, she felt him like a static in her skin.
Every time she blinked, she thought she might open her eyes and find him already watching her. Not creepy, just… aware. Noticed. Like he was trying to solve her the same way she was trying to solve him, and they both didn't want to admit it was already done.
That unsettled her more than anything.
She liked knowing things. She liked knowing what came next.
But with him? There was no next.
There was only now.
And now was messy. Quiet. Sharp around the edges .
And something else.
Warm.
God, that was the worst part. Not the danger. Not the mystery. The warmth.
It wasn't supposed to feel like this.
She wasn't supposed to want to talk to him for no reason. To sit there and just be. She wasn't supposed to feel her stomach drop every time he looked at her like he didn't need a vision to know what she was thinking.
That wasn't how it worked.
Except it was.
Now.
She didn't trust it. Not entirely. Not yet.
But for the first time in what felt like forever, she wanted to.
And that scared her more than anything.
Because Alice Cullen knew how to see a future.
She just didn't know if she could handle one that mattered this much.
…
The bell rang like a sigh, not a declaration.
Chairs scraped. Backpacks zipped. Someone laughed too loudly about nothing. Just another class ending, just another weekday grinding forward.
Sebastian didn't move right away.
He let the tide of students flow around him, their chatter a kind of white noise. His notebook lay open in front of him, half filled with abstract scribbles and phantom thoughts that meant more than they should have.
He shut it slowly. No rush.
No destination either, really.
Outside, the sky was still thick with overcast light, soft, cold, pacific northwest gray that painted everything in the same bruised tones. He stepped out into it, his breath ghosting in front of him. The dampness was in the air but hadn't yet decided to become rain.
His boots hit the pavement with the same weight as his thought.
And then.
There she was.
Alice.
Across the lot, framed by the mutated gleam of parked cars and half-dead pine trees. Her hand was already on the door handle of a sleek black car he didn't recognize, and yet, somehow, she didn't open it.
She looked up instead.
Right at him.
It wasn't a long look.
But it was a look.
And it was enough.
Not a smile. Not a frown. Just something unreadable in her eyes, like the pause between inhale and exhale. Like she was deciding what to do with whatever this was.
Sebastian slowed. Didn't stop, but something in his stride softened, just for a second.
Their eyes locked.
And in that shared stillness, the whole parking lot faded, cars, trees, students, all of it.
He didn't wave.
She didn't blink.
No words. No gesture. Just a mutual recognition: I see you.
Then, like a coin flipping in mid-air, she looked away.
Door opened. She slipped inside. Gone.
Sebastian exhaled through his nose and kept walking, the ghost of her gaze still etched somewhere between his ribs.
Not contact.
But a spark.
Enough to feel the static rise again under his skin. Enough to know that whatever came next.
It was already in motion.
END OF CHAPTER 16.