Chapter 193 ~The Silence Between Us~

Chapter 193 ~The Silence Between Us~
Aria's POV

It had been four days since I told Darius to leave, and in that time I hadn't seen him even once. Not in the hallways, not near the infirmary and not in the dining hall where I'd resolved to having all my meals. He was simply gone from every place I used to run into him by accident.
After what happened in the infirmary, I had expected him to keep pushing. I thought he would find another excuse to show up, another reason to check on me, another way to get into my space even after I'd made it clear that I didn't want him there but he hadn't. That should have felt like a win but instead it left me unsettled in a way I couldn't fully explain. More than once I caught myself checking doorways without meaning to, catching myself listening for his voice in rooms he wasn't even in.
I sat across from Maeve in the small dining area near the kitchens, half listening as she told me about the omega who'd taught her how to properly knead dough that morning. Her hands moved animatedly as she spoke, flour still dusted along one wrist she hadn't bothered to wash off yet.
"And then Bea said I was a natural, can you believe that? Me, a natural at baking. I've never made anything more complicated than boiled eggs in my whole life." She laughed, bright and easy, the kind of laugh that had become more frequent the longer she stayed here. "She wants me to help with the bread again tomorrow. I think I might actually be good at something for once."
"That's wonderful," I said, though my mind had already drifted somewhere else entirely.
I wondered if this bothersome feeling meant the bond was working on me the way I'd heard that it tended to do, pulling at something instinctual regardless of what I actually wanted. That was the only explanation that nade much sense and also let me avoid the harder question sitting underneath it.
Because if it wasn't just the bond, if some part of me actually wanted to see him again, actually wanted to know if he was doing alright after everything, then I didn't know what that said about me after everything he'd done.
"Aria?" Maeve's voice pulled me back. She was watching me with her head tilted slightly, waiting for a response to something I hadn't caught at all.
"Sorry," I said, shaking my head. "What did you say?"
"I asked if you wanted to come watch tomorrow. The bread thing." She studied my face a moment longer than necessary. "You've been somewhere else all morning. Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," I said quickly, maybe too quickly, because her eyes narrowed slightly like she didn't quite believe me. I didn't give her the chance to push further. "I'd love to come watch. What time?"
She brightened again immediately, launching into details about morning schedules and which ovens ran hotter than the others, and I let myself nod along without fully absorbing any of it. My mind kept circling back to the same place no matter how hard I tried to redirect it.
If I wanted to see him, did that mean I was ready to let him speak? Ready to listen to whatever explanation or apology he might offer? The answer was no but like plenty other things I had told myself over these past few weeks, it hadn't held up particularly well under scrutiny. However, to be completely honest, wanting to see someone and being ready to let them back into your life were two entirely different things, and I refused to let my body's confused signals convince me otherwise. The bond wanted things my mind knew better than to trust.
"Aria." Maeve's voice again, sharper this time, drawing my attention properly.
I looked up to find a guard standing near our table, someone I didn't immediately recognize, his posture stiff and formal.
"Luna," he said, inclining his head slightly. "The Alpha requests your presence at a meeting tomorrow morning. He asked that I inform you personally."
I blinked at him, caught completely off guard. "A meeting? What is it about?"
"I wasn't given the details, only the request," the guard said.
I nodded slowly, my mind already spinning through possibilities, though nothing about it made sense to me the longer I sat with it. Four days of complete silence from Darius, not a single word passed between us, and now suddenly I was being summoned to sit in a room with him for a meeting?.
"Thank you," I told the guard, and he gave a short bow before turning and heading back out the way he'd come.
Maeve leaned across the table the moment he was gone, her eyes wide with curiosity. "What was that about?"
"I don't know," I admitted honestly, staring down at the table in front of me. "But I suppose I'll find out tomorrow.”