[Edith's POV]
She stood alone on the roof.
It was where she went when she didn't want the others to hear her thoughts, or feel the tension bleeding off her. Up here, the wind was cold, and the stars were clearer. The world felt smaller.
But her mind wasn't quiet.
Because Kane Hanma was in it.
Not just in it pulling at it.
She had tried, at first, to dismiss him as a curiosity. Something to analyze. To measure. His strength. His silence. The way even their vampire instincts reacted to him with caution… and attraction.
That was what unsettled her the most.
Not that he was powerful.
But that they all felt it.
Rosalie came home quiet, shaken. Alice had returned late, her expression unreadable. And though none of them said it out loud… Edith knew.
They were being changed. All of them.
By him.
And he hadn't even said much at all.
Edith's fingers tightened around the railing. She didn't like feeling out of control. She didn't like how Kane looked at her not like prey, not like a challenge but like he knew something she didn't. Like he was always one step ahead.
She'd caught him watching her once, across the cafeteria.
Not staring.
Just aware of her.
And in that one glance, she had felt something tighten low in her core some instinct she'd buried centuries ago. Some want she didn't know how to name.
She closed her eyes and breathed in the night air.
He hadn't approached her yet. Maybe he was waiting. Maybe he knew she was the most guarded. The most cautious.
Or maybe he was just patient.
That made him even more dangerous.
Footsteps echoed behind her. Light ones.
"Alice," she said without turning.
"She doesn't stop thinking about him," Alice replied quietly, stepping up beside her. "None of us do."
Edith didn't answer right away.
Finally: "It's not right."
Alice leaned on the ledge beside her. "It doesn't feel wrong either."
Edith glanced at her. "He's not one of us."
"No," Alice said. "But he doesn't feel human, does he?"
Edith's silence said enough.
They both stared out into the dark trees, where Kane's house stood like a quiet secret.
"Rosalie's unraveling," Alice murmured.
"She's strong. She'll pull herself together."
"Are you?"
Edith looked over at her, eyes narrowed.
Alice didn't flinch. "Are you pulling yourself together, Edith? Or are you just pretending better than the rest of us?"
There was no answer.
Not yet.
Because Edith Cullen had spent her whole second life in control.
And Kane Hanma was the first person in a hundred years who made her wonder what it would feel like to let go.