I turn toward Section 118.
Just a glance.
Just enough to let my eyes skim through the rows.
Someone stands near the aisle.
A shape.
A silhouette.
Tall.
Still.
Facing the bench instead of the ice.
My breath catches mid-inhale.
I blink.
A fan moves in front of them.
When the crowd shifts—
he’s gone.
Gone.
Like he was never there.
The horn blasts for intermission and the entire arena jumps to its feet.Noise slams into me.Lights flicker.Trainers rush onto the ice.
But all I feel is the cold crawling up my spine.
I look down the bench.
Finn is watching me.
Kael too.
Atlas’s stare is already cutting through the crowd.
They know something happened.
They just don’t know what yet.
The rest of the arena gleams and cheers and sways with the pulse of the game—
—but all I can see is that one empty space in the stands.
And the way my body recognized a presence before my mind did.
The way fear remembers a silhouette long after it’s gone.
