Aria
He looked at Ash first, then his eyes moved to me, and something in the way he went still told me he'd been preparing for this moment and it was still hitting differently than he expected.
I looked at him.
He looked at me.
There were things sitting in the air between us that neither of us had the right words for, and for a moment neither of us tried.
Sylas broke first.
"I'm glad you're okay," he said. Quiet. Simple. Like the words didn't cover half of what he meant, but they were the only ones he had.
"Thank you," I said. "For everything you did. Ash told me."
He shook his head slightly, like he was brushing it off, but he wasn't quite managing it. "You don't have to thank me. I would have done anything for you." He paused. "Anything."
The way he said it was gentle and honest and a little sad all at once, and I heard everything underneath it and I didn't pretend I didn't.
