Spotlight: Seize Today by Pintip Dunn
/
Seventeen-year-old Olivia Dresden is a precognitive. Since different versions of people’s futures flicker before her eyes, she doesn’t have to believe in human decency. She can see the way for everyone to be their best self-if only they would make the right decisions. No one is more conflicted than her mother, and Olivia can only watch as Chairwoman Dresden chooses the dark, destructive course every time. Yet Olivia remains fiercely loyal to the woman her mother could be.
But when the chairwoman captures Ryder Russell, the striking and strong-willed boy from the rebel Underground, Olivia sees a vision of her own imminent death…at Ryder’s hand. Despite her bleak fate, she rescues Ryder and flees with him, drawing her mother’s fury and sparking a romance as doomed as Olivia herself. As the full extent of Chairwoman Dresden’s gruesome plan is revealed, Olivia must find the courage to live in the present-and stop her mother before she destroys the world.
Excerpt
Pintip Dunn
"Are you sifting through my possible pathways?" he asks, his voice husky.
I freeze. But if I'm a block of ice, his fingers do their job, tracing my lips again and again until I melt. "How…how do you know?"
"Your eyes," he says. "They dilate when you're reaching into the future. I'm starting to learn when you're not here."
I blink. Nobody's ever told me that before.
"You…noticed?" I ask.
"I notice everything about you," he says easily. "So, tell me. What did you see in our possible futures?" His voice is low and liquid, and it reaches inside me and caresses parts I didn't know existed. "What did I do? More importantly, what did you like?"
Heat floods my face. "What, exactly, are we talking about?"
"I don't know." His eyes gleam wickedly. "What do you think we're talking about?"
"Future pathways," I snap. If I have to electro-whip my attention back on track, I'll do it, damn the Fates. "I see everything from me slapping you to…" I trail off, and my cheeks flame even hotter. Oh my. I can't possibly put into words the images flying through my head like a hailstorm.
"Now I'm really intrigued." He moves his hand to my hair, tugging slightly. I feel the tension all the way to my toes. "Are you really not going to tell me? Because, you know, then I'll have to guess."
"I'm not going to tell you," I whisper.
His lips curve in a mischievous grin that makes me want to tuck him in my pocket and keep him forever. And then, while I'm still reeling from his cuteness, he leans in.
I'm not ready. My mouth is partway open, and I'm in the middle of a breath. He kisses me anyway. I shut my mouth in a hurry. Lips, so soft. His back and shoulders, so hard. Holy Fates, that was his tongue. His tongue, slipping between my teeth. Sparks. So many sparks, igniting in the air around us.
"How's this?" he whispers against my mouth. "Did you see this in our future?"
I nod helplessly.
He moves closer, scooping me up and shifting me on the mattress so that he can lie next to me. Our foreheads touch; so do our knees. "And this? Was this in some of our pathways?"
I nod again, but that doesn't seem to satisfy him anymore. His eyes intent on mine, he catches my lower lip between his teeth. "Do you like it?"
Do I like it? What kind of question is that?
I've tasted every emotion in our world. I know the sorrow a mother feels when she clasps her deceased baby to her chest. I know the pride of a gold-star athlete when he stands on a podium and accepts North Amerie's highest honor. I know the rage that silences the heart of a murderer as he cuts short another's life.
I even know kisses—hot, frenzied, passionate, fumbling, sweet, aching, innocent kisses. I've seen them all in other people’s futures, thousands of kisses, millions of kisses, as varied as the pathways themselves.
And yet…and yet…I've felt nothing like kissing Ryder. Even the vision of this moment itself.
So, yeah, I like it. It scares me how much I like it.
Buy on Amazon | Barnes and Noble
About the Author
Pintip Dunn is a New York Times bestselling author of YA fiction. She graduated from Harvard University, magna cum laude, with an A.B. in English Literature and Language. She received her J.D. at Yale Law School, where she was an editor of the YALE LAW JOURNAL. Pintip's debut novel, FORGET TOMORROW, won the RWA RITA® for Best First Book. In addition, it is a finalist for the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire, the Japanese Sakura Medal, and the MASL Truman Award. THE DARKEST LIE was nominated for a Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award. Her other books include REMEMBER YESTERDAY, the novella BEFORE TOMORROW, and GIRL ON THE VERGE. She lives with her husband and children in Maryland. You can learn more about Pintip and her books at www.pintipdunn.com
