I was starting to understand Caden's silences.
There were different kinds. The working silence, when he was reading or thinking and did not want interruption. The assessing silence, when he was watching something unfold and deciding how to respond. The careful silence, when he was choosing words that would not come out exactly right if he rushed them.
And then there was the kind I did not have a name for yet. The one that sometimes settled between us when we were working late, when the castle had gone quiet and it was just the two of us and a stack of files and the faint sound of wind against the windows.
That silence felt like something.
I wasn't ready to name it.
Luna was annoyingly eager to name it. I kept telling her to slow down.
He's your ally, I told her firmly. Your employer.
