The door closed behind Agnes with a soft click, and for several moments Sid remained exactly where he was, his eyes fixed upon the empty doorway. The room was unchanged; sunlight still spilled through the tall windows of the tower, illuminating the ancient stone walls and shelves crowded with books, while Ryuchi rested lazily beside Ryuzen as if nothing important had happened. Yet somehow the silence felt different now.
A few hours ago that same room had been filled with the sound of rain, thunder, black magic, and Agnes's voice. Now only silence remained.
Sid slowly walked toward the window overlooking the Nevermore courtyard. Below, students crossed the grounds in small groups, talking and laughing as another ordinary school day began. He watched them absentmindedly, his thoughts refusing to settle on anything in particular.
Or rather, refusing to settle on anything except one person.
A quiet sigh escaped him.
"You are doing it again," Ryuchi suddenly said from across the room.
Sid didn't even turn around. "Doing what?"
"Thinking about Agnes."
The answer came so quickly that Sid almost laughed.
"I wasn't."
"You were."
"I wasn't."
"You looked at the door for nearly a minute after she left."
Sid rubbed his forehead.
"I hate that you notice everything."
"I am a magical serpent. Observation is one of my finest qualities."
"Being annoying seems to be another."
Ryuchi looked entirely pleased with that statement.
Meanwhile, on the opposite side of Nevermore Academy, Agnes sat in a classroom while a professor explained something about outcast history. Unfortunately, she couldn't have repeated a single word of the lecture if her life depended on it.
Her notebook lay open before her, but instead of notes, the page contained several unfinished doodles and the same sentence written three separate times before being crossed out.
She stared out the window.
Then looked back at the notebook.
Then stared out the window again.
A girl sitting beside her finally leaned closer and whispered, "You haven't written anything for twenty minutes."
Agnes blinked.
"What?"
The girl laughed softly. "Exactly."
Agnes groaned and lowered her forehead onto the desk.
The truth was embarrassing.
Every time she tried to focus on the lesson, her thoughts wandered back to the previous night. She remembered the storm, the fear in Sid's eyes when his power nearly slipped beyond his control, the way he had trusted her enough to let her stay, and the strange warmth she felt whenever he smiled.
That smile.
For some reason she kept thinking about it.
Not because it was rare.
Because it was genuine.
Most people smiled for everyone.
Sid smiled only when he meant it.
And somehow that made it special.
Agnes immediately buried her face deeper into her arms.
"No."
The girl beside her raised an eyebrow.
"No what?"
"Nothing."
Unfortunately, Agnes knew exactly what the problem was.
The problem was that she missed him.
And she had only left his tower a few hours ago.
Which felt ridiculous.
Completely ridiculous.
Yet the feeling remained.
Far above the academy grounds, Sid closed Ryuzen after reading the same page for the seventh time. The ancient text contained knowledge capable of reshaping entire worlds, but at that moment he couldn't remember a single sentence he had just read.
His thoughts drifted elsewhere.
Toward a girl who laughed too easily around him.
Toward a girl who somehow made the forbidden tower feel less lonely.
Toward a girl who had looked directly into the darkness of his power and chosen to stay anyway.
For a long moment he stood by the window, watching the academy below.
Then, without meaning to, he glanced toward the clock.
Ryuchi immediately noticed.
A slow smile spread across the serpent's face.
"Ah."
Sid narrowed his eyes.
"What?"
"You are waiting."
"I am not."
"You checked the time."
"So?"
"So it is barely noon."
Sid stared at him.
Ryuchi stared back.
The silence lasted several seconds before the serpent finally delivered the finishing blow.
"You wish it were nighttime already."
For the first time all day, Sid had absolutely no response.
Because the worst part was...
Ryuchi was right.
The realization irritated him far more than it should have. With a quiet sigh, he picked up Ryuzen once again and forced his attention toward the ancient pages. Black symbols stretched across the parchment like living shadows, shifting slightly beneath his gaze. Normally, he could lose himself inside those pages for hours, forgetting everything else around him.
Today was different.
Today every few minutes his mind wandered.
A particular laugh.
A particular voice.
A particular pair of eyes that somehow looked at him without fear.
Sid closed the book again.
"That was less than three minutes," Ryuchi observed.
"I know."
"You are getting worse."
"I know."
The serpent actually looked concerned now.
"Sid..."
"What?"
"You have survived ancient curses, forbidden rituals, magical disasters, and an entire semester of Nevermore students."
Sid raised an eyebrow.
"Your point?"
Ryuchi's golden eyes narrowed.
"You seem unusually defeated by one girl."
Sid threw a nearby piece of parchment at him.
Ryuchi dodged effortlessly.
Unfortunately, that only made the serpent more amused.
Far below the tower, Agnes was suffering through exactly the same problem.
Lunch had arrived.
Students filled the courtyard and dining hall with noise and conversation, but Agnes barely noticed any of it. She sat with her friends, occasionally nodding when someone spoke to her, but her attention drifted constantly.
At one point she realized someone had asked her the same question three times.
"Agnes."
"Hm?"
"You didn't hear a word I just said."
"I absolutely did."
"What did I say?"
Agnes confidently opened her mouth.
Then closed it again.
Her friends immediately burst into laughter.
"Unbelievable."
Agnes dropped her head onto the table.
"Leave me alone."
One of the girls leaned closer.
"You've been distracted all day."
"No I haven't."
"You just tried to answer a question nobody asked."
"That happened once."
"It happened twice."
Agnes groaned louder.
The conversation moved on eventually, but her thoughts didn't.
As she stared out one of the tall windows of the dining hall, she found herself looking toward the distant tower where Sid lived.
The forbidden dormitory.
From this distance it appeared small against the mountains behind Nevermore, yet somehow her eyes kept finding it.
She wondered what he was doing.
Probably studying.
Probably reading.
Probably pretending not to think about her.
The last thought made her smile.
Because she knew him well enough now.
He would absolutely pretend.
And he would absolutely fail.
The smile remained for several seconds before she realized she was smiling.
Immediately she looked down at her plate.
Unfortunately, it was too late.
One of her friends had noticed.
"Oh."
Agnes froze.
That single word was dangerous.
Very dangerous.
Slowly she looked up.
The girl across from her was grinning.
Agnes already knew where this was going.
"No."
The grin widened.
"Yes."
"No."
"Who is he?"
The question landed like a magical explosion.
Agnes nearly choked on her drink.
Several students turned.
The girl's smile became even larger.
And suddenly Agnes wished she possessed black magic powerful enough to erase memories.
Hours later, the sun had begun its slow descent toward the mountains.
Golden light stretched across Nevermore Academy, painting the stone buildings in warm shades of amber and gold. The air felt calmer after the previous night's storm, and students gradually finished their classes as the afternoon faded into evening.
Inside the tower, Sid stood near one of the windows.
A book rested open on the desk behind him.
Unread.
Ryuzen lay closed beside it.
Also unread.
Ryuchi had given up pretending otherwise.
"You have checked the clock six times."
"It was five."
The serpent stared.
Sid sighed.
"Fine. Six."
The serpent looked victorious.
A dangerous silence followed.
Then Ryuchi spoke.
"She usually arrives after sunset."
"I know."
Another pause.
"You checked yesterday too."
Sid turned slowly.
"Would you like to continue living here?"
Ryuchi considered the question carefully.
"No."
"Thought so."
Outside, the sky slowly darkened.
The first stars began appearing above the mountains.
The academy grounds grew quieter as students returned to dormitories and evening routines.
And for reasons neither fully understood...
Two people found themselves watching the same sunset.
One from a classroom window.
The other from a tower window.
Both pretending they weren't waiting.
Both failing completely.