I reach for the tray slowly.The broth is warm, and it smells good.Familiar.My throat tightens painfully.I sip carefully, quietly.Every swallow feels strange.
Silas doesn’t move or speak.He just watches me with something like reverence.When I finish half the bowl, he exhales like he’s been holding his breath the whole time.
“It’s a good start,” he murmurs.
I set it down.“I’m tired again.”
He nods and stands.“I’ll let you sleep.”
A spike of panic shoots through me.My voice catches.“Silas, wait...”
He stops instantly, turning back, eyes sharp.“Yeah?”
“Don’t leave.”The words tumble out before I can stop them.
I blink at him, startled by my own voice.My heart slams against my ribs.What am I doing?Why am I asking that?I should want him gone.I should want space.But I don’t.At least not from him.
Not when the nightmares still cling to my skin.Not when the bond flickers painfully.Not when the world feels too big and too loud and too unfamiliar.Not when he’s the only thing anchoring me.
Silas inhales slowly, chest rising.A deep, controlled breath that screams with unspoken emotion.“I’m not going anywhere,” he says softly.
He returns to the chair, closer than before.Not touching.Not reaching.Just ...being there.I slide under the blanket, curling on my side so I can keep looking at him.
My leopard lifts her head for the first time since the cage, sniffing the air toward him.Hesitant but curious.Silas watches my movements like they’re sacred.Like I’m something precious instead of something broken.Like I matter.
“Sleep,” he murmurs.“I’m right here.”
I don’t trust easily.I don’t trust wolves.I don’t trust promises.But something in his voice sinks into me like sunlight warming cold stone.My breathing slows and my eyes close.And for the first time since the Hunters took me I sleep without seeing the dark walls of a cage.
Because Silas is here.And whether what is between is broken or not, for once, I’m not alone.
Chapter Five
Silas
Aria sleeps.
