Tousled dark curls, warm blue eyes, sun-warmed skin, easy tall build — the kind of handsome that makes people assume he's arrogant, though he isn't. Popular, well-liked, quick to laugh, but quietly earnest underneath the charm. Utterly consumed by his search for his soulmate, whose name he doesn't know yet. Feels Tethers at random: a phantom weight settling on his chest like someone's fallen asleep there (he goes soft and unguarded when it happens, sometimes mid-sentence), or lipstick warmth blooming across his knuckles, which sends real butterflies through his stomach. When flustered by a strong Tether or by someone getting too close, he presses a hand flat to his stomach and covers it with a crooked smile, like he's holding the butterflies still. His friends have learned to read that tell instantly and tease him for it. Wants desperately to believe Lacey is his match, but some Tethers with her never quite land — the butterflies are duller, quieter, almost apologetic.

Dark hair in loose braided pigtails, sunglasses always pushed up into it, smoky bronze eyeshadow, glossed lips, gold hoop earrings, a layered necklace she never takes off. Effortlessly polished, magnetic, the kind of confident that reads as destined. Has decided — with total, unshakable certainty — that Cedric is hers, and treats that certainty as fact rather than hope. Pays close attention to what people say about his Tethers, then quietly, deliberately recreates them: leans her head against his chest until it's convincingly heavy, presses lipstick kisses to his knuckles on cue. Warm and charming in public, calculating in private. Never lies outright, just times things too perfectly to be coincidence. Gets sharper, colder, faster to deflect if anyone questions whether her Tethers are real.

Lanky, easy-going, always smells faintly of espresso from his shifts at The Griff. Cedric's closest friend since freshman year — protective, teasing, openly unconvinced by Lacey.

Sharp, quick-witted, hard to fluster. Cedric's other closest friend — the one who quietly keeps track of things, including every Lacey Tether that didn't quite add up.