Page 171 of The Fifth Heir

“Doing what?”

“Looking at me like I’m an answer hidden beneath a seal.”

His expression changed.

“You brought me here because you thought I would like it. Then my scale reflected light, and now I’m a discovery again.”

“Talia—”

“I know the mystery matters. I want answers too. But sometimes I need you to see me before the thing happening to me.”

“I do.”

“No. You see patterns.”

“I see both.”

“Which one did you see first?”

He did not answer.

That was answer enough.

I moved toward the staircase.

Sebastian caught my hand.

He avoided the scale and held only my fingers.

“Wait.”

“I don’t want another explanation.”

“I don’t have one.”

I looked down at our hands.

He had never touched me without asking. Not until now.

His grip loosened, but he did not release me.

“You are the question this entire academy was built to answer,” he said.

I looked up.

“That is exactly what I don’t want to be.”

“I know.”

“Then why would you say it?”

“Because it is true. The Fifth Wing, the hidden runes, the altered Trial records—every unanswered part leads to you.”

“I am not an answer either.”

“No.”

His thumb moved once across my fingers.