Chapter 6: Silas
511 Words
The second complication arrived on a Wednesday afternoon, and his name was Silas Voss.
Aria knew who he was before he introduced himself — she'd done her research in the eleven days between meeting Lucien and rejecting him, thorough and methodical, because that was how she handled things she didn't understand. Silas was the Beta. Lucien's younger brother. Reputedly the warmer of the two, which wasn't a high bar but apparently meant something in pack politics.
He browsed for eight minutes before drifting toward the counter with the studied casualness of someone who'd been told to be subtle and hadn't quite managed it.
"You're Aria Cole," he said.
"I work here," she said, "so yes."
Up close, the resemblance to Lucien was structural rather than emotional — same bone structure, different expression. Where Lucien's face was composed to the point of opacity, Silas's was openly curious, warm in a way that read as genuine rather than performed.
"I'm Silas."
"I know."
He looked mildly startled. "You know who I am?"
"I researched your brother before I made a significant decision about my life. That included his family structure." She held his gaze. "Did he send you?"
Silas opened his mouth. Closed it. "He told me not to come. I'm choosing to interpret that as a suggestion."
Against her better instincts, something at the corner of her mouth threatened movement. She kept it contained. "What do you want?"
"To understand you," he said, with a directness she hadn't expected. "Because Lucien doesn't show what he's going through — he handles things internally and presents control because that's what he was trained to do from the time he was twelve and our father started grooming him for succession. I know that's not your problem." He paused. "But I've known him my whole life, and I've never seen him like this. I'm trying to figure out if you made a decision or a mistake."
"What's the difference?"
"A decision," Silas said carefully, "I respect. Even if I disagree."
"And a mistake?"
"Is something that can be corrected, if someone's honest with you."
Aria studied him. "Tell me something true, then."
He considered it seriously. "He doesn't understand what he did wrong. He knows he did something that made rejection feel like the only option to you. He's been going back over every interaction trying to find it." A pause. "He won't tell me that. I can just tell. It's the kind of thing that keeps a person up at night."
The shop was quiet around them.
"That's a true thing," Aria said finally.
"Is it useful?"
"I don't know yet."
Silas bought a worn copy of a Neruda collection — chosen at random, she suspected — and left without pushing further. She watched him go and stood for a long time after with Lucien's name in the air between her and the empty doorway, thinking about a man reviewing every interaction in sequence, searching for the exact moment he'd gone wrong.
She went back to shelving.
It was the only thing she could do
- Writer
