The cold night air blew, gently nipping at my wrists, the kind of chill that makes empty spaces feel even emptier.
No voices.
No noise.
Just me and the council president walking in silence.
Sophia walked a step ahead of me, with straight posture and eyes forward. But every so often she glanced my way.
My throat felt raw. My mind wasn't focused on the fact that I was alone with someone who could be considered the most beautiful girl at school.
Instead, my thoughts were replaying—jittery flashes of the cosmic scan, the crushing pressure, the pain seared into my nerves.
Walking without a care, she still didn't say anything, but I could tell she knew more than she let on. And that was unsettling.
Finally, she spoke.
"Aiden," she said softly. "What happened today during lunch?"
Her question hit like a hammer. Of course she'd want an explanation. It was Sophia. She was the type of girl to leave no stone unturned.
I swallowed, "I... don't even know where I'd start."
A half-truth.
The safest kind.
She slowed just enough for me to catch up beside her. Her blue irises weren't as sharp now. "You went pale," she said. "You stopped breathing. Your eyes, they weren't focused on anything in front of you." She narrowed her eyes, studying me calmly.
I looked away. "There's a lot on my mind."
"That much is obvious." She stopped walking entirely, stepping in front of me.
Her gaze pinned me in place. "But you weren't simply overwhelmed. Something happened to you."
I didn't answer.
Sophia waited—calm, patient, unblinking—like she could stand there all night
and pry the truth out of me without saying another word.
The silence stretched.
Her eyes didn't move off my face.
It was too much.
Too deliberate.
"What is your deal?" I thought—her stares, her timing, her questions felt like dissection.
And before I could stop myself—
"Why do you care?" I blurted.
She just stared without a word.
"I didn't—" I scrubbed my face. "Why are you analyzing me in the first place? You've been watching since the other day. And I noticed you at lunch today doing the same thing."
I exhaled sharply. "It's like every word I speak; you take notes in your mind like I'm some puzzle you're dissecting. Why are you trying to act like..." I shook my head, "anything I do actually matters to you?"
She took one step towards me. "Aiden," she said slowly. "I pay attention because something is wrong. And you clearly know more than you've told me."
I met her eyes. "And so do you Sophia."
Her breath faltered.
Barely.
But I caught it.
"Explain," she said quietly.
"I'm not stupid," I said lowly, "You weren't being nice when you stepped in with Camden. You noticed I was different and that was your incentive for getting involved. You watched me that day. You watched me at lunch, not Maya."
Her long white lashes lowered, but she said nothing.
"And now I'm starting to doubt if you were really out here to clear your head. Maybe you knew I would come back after my night shift." I clenched my jaw. "I don't know how much of that is true, but I do know that you are a hard person to trust."
I sighed, the tension escaping my body. "You're hiding something," I said softly, "The same way I am."
She took yet another step closer. "You think I am investigating you."
"You are."
She didn't fold her arms, or look offended, or give any of the human reactions a normal person might. "No. Investigation isn't quite right. Investigation implies distance. Detachment. A goal or outcome I intend to reach."
Her eyes rose back to mind, steady and unnervingly calm.
"I am not investigating you. I am observing you."
I let out a humorless laugh. "And that's better somehow, isn't it… class rep?"
"It is. Because observation means I have not reached a conclusion, and I do not have a specific purpose in mind. Though there is something I am wondering about... The real reason—"
Tch-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta
We both froze, her eyes widening. The first real emotion I've seen her express.
"Aiden. Do not look behind you."
My muscles locked in place. Every instinct screamed at me to turn around.
But her voice held me steady.
[DANGER: You Are Being Hunted. Avoid Combat.]
[DOOMCYLE: Probability - Possible]
A cold pulse shuddered through my spine.
"Sophia," I whispered, my voice barely pushing past my teeth. "What is—"
She raised a finger to her lips.
A warning.
She leaned in, her breath brushing my ear and whispered, "Do not react. Do not acknowledge it. There is a wraith following us."
My blood turned to ice.
Wraith.
"Keep your posture relaxed," she said, as if we were discussing homework. "If you stiffen, it will notice."
Relaxed.
Right.
Relaxed... with something breathing down my back.
"I'm going to describe its distance," she murmured. "Not its shape."
"Why not its shape?" My whisper came out strangled.
"If I describe it," she said slowly, "you will imagine it."
That didn't help.
That did not help.
Sophia's eyes flicked again.
"It is three steps behind you," she said. "And… leaning toward you."
A tremor crawled up my back. I felt it physically — like fingers hovering an inch from touching.
"They don't… see like we do," she continued. "They sense... Mana."
There was a short pause.
"Aiden," she whispered, "it's following you. Not me."
My lungs seized.
She took a half-step closer, positioning herself beside me, angled slightly toward the nearest lamp post — the only bright, warm circle of safety on the path.
"We're going to walk," she murmured. "Left foot first. Smoothly. Do not run."
I nodded, barely.
"Good," she whispered. "Now go."
I stepped forward.
The gravel shifted under my shoe.
And behind me—
tch-ta-ta… tch-ta-ta…
Wet clicking, like bones tapping stone.
Her face didn't change, but her pupils contracted, as if she felt the tiniest amount of fear.
"It's accelerating," she breathed. "Keep. Walking."
We moved faster.
The clicking behind me grew loud, quicker.
tch--tch-ta-ta-ta-ta
My lungs clawed for air, my body struggling to draw a breath. Every part of me wanted to sprint, to scream, to whip around and shove whatever was there away from me.
Then I felt something gentle and warm.
Her hand.
Her fingers interlocked with mine, and I felt the slightest of tugs, encouraging me onward.
"Almost there," she said quietly, as we neared a city street illuminated under night lights. "They hate light. Once we're there it will stop unless provoked."
Provoked.
TCH-TA-TA-TA-TA
The clicking intensified, as a wave of frigid air tickled the back of my neck.
It's breathing on me.
Closer.
Closer.
As my foot crossed into the golden circle beneath the light, warmth washed over my skin.
Something jerked behind me.
The clicking stopped.
Silence.
"It's watching you. Don't. Turn."
We stood there facing each other, suspended in yellow light.
Waiting.
Then, after a long, slow moment—
tch…
tch-ta…
…retreating.
The clicks faded into the dark, swallowed by the night.
Sophia finally exhaled.
Her voice was steady again, but quieter.
"Aiden," she said, her gaze cutting back to mine with grim certainty.
"Wraiths track mana. Large concentrations of it. And you have a great deal of it."
My stomach dropped.
Her eyes held mine, serious, sharp, almost frightened for me.
"That wasn't possible. I didn't… I wasn't—"
I thought she was just sharp.I was wrong. She was dangerous.
What does she really know?
"Aiden…" The yellow light above us flickered, and her fingers tightened around the hem of her skirt. "You're… a system bearer, aren't you?"