CHAPTER 415: SECRETS AND THEORIES

Arabella sent Remus on his way and watched as he shifted to his wolf form. The poor thing twisted and howled due to the pain that he clearly had yet to fully get used to and treat as his older peers.

It did ache her heart to see a child suffer but what was she to do if such was his nature? Besides, he wouldn’t remain a child forever.

Those were the thoughts consuming her mind upon entering her room. Unlike the shifting of form she’d witnessed minutes prior, crossing the threshold yielded a shift of a different kind, that of her mood.

Standing near his carving desk, Silas wiped at his tools and continued on with that activity without sparing a glance her way.

Arabella took that as him wanting to be left alone so, after a few minutes of awkwardly staring into his back, her feet led her through the curtains and towards the bathroom.

There was that sinking feeling as her eyes followed the water rush out the tap and splash against the white surface of the tub.

So odd it was, namely through the way it did not persist at the same intensity. At first, it was as though her feet no longer felt the floor beneath them, but then it flipped into the complete opposite, as if her weight was too heavy to carry alone.

"What’s on your mind?"

The shooshing and swooshing of the water was so loud that his steps had been completely eclipsed.

When his voice reached her ears, Arabella gasped and spun on her heels so fast, she had almost tumbled to the ground.

"Calm yourself," he added, his tone steady but held no hint of urgency.

"Aren’t you upset with me?" she took a few breaks between syllables here and there, sounding reluctant.

In response, Silas took the deepest of breaths before sighing, "Well, when you heart is making all sorts of threats, I can but yield,"

The knitted eyebrows on her prompted him to speak again, "Never mind that. If you are not willing to share your thoughts tonight, I won’t press for I lack the energy to argue as well,"

"It doesn’t have to be an argument," the words escaped her, stopping him in his tracks right as he’d been about to exit the bathroom, "I merely want to understand... Why? Why were you being so harsh on Remus today?"

"I’ve never been easy on him, have I?" without turning around, Silas retorted.

"It was exceptionally worse tonight," she murmured.

"He’d just told me that something was wrong with the health of my wife. How else was I supposed to take the news or react?" only his head halfway swayed her way.

"Under different circumstances, I might have agreed, but tonight... I just keep thinking that you would have handled it differently...," she trailed off, her eyes drifting to linger on the water that had already filled the tub.

"Is that so?" he finally spun around, "What do you think is so different tonight then?"

"I cannot know what it is if you don’t tell me. It is just as you keep repeating, I can’t read your thoughts and secrets through your mind alone," she twiddled her fingers together while whispering.

"Yes, indeed," a bitter sounding little chuckle escaped him, "You would know something about keeping secrets, wouldn’t you?"

With that, he left her standing there, offering no more explanations.

"What is that supposed to mean?" she hurried after him.

Silas made his way back to his carving desk, towards which Arabella followed.

"What did you mean? I am keeping no secret from you!"

The abrupt manner in which the vampire spun to meet her gaze with a glare made her freeze in place.

"Do you solemnly swear to it?"

"What?" a faint tremble riddled her lips.

"You can’t, can you? Because you know it would be a lie,"

Silas not once raised his voice, leaving it to nothing but the words to lead his message across. His cool demeanor did not help quell the twisting knots around her heart.

"What do you mean?" she took a step closer, "I am keeping no secrets from you!" her hand resting upon her chest, her voice quivered just as intensely as her chin.

"Is that so?" Silas crossed his arms and leaned back against his desk, "Then what do you call your theory about Allegra’s betrayal?"

Those words left not a single fiber of her being without a voice to scream. Eyes wide as saucers, muscles locked in their pose, Arabella’s mind went fully blank before the first thoughts among many claimed the space in her head back.

"You were listening...," she whispered as images of her earlier conversation with Ada flashed behind her eyes.

"I wasn’t trying to. It just happened," his attention turned back to the wood laying on the table behind him.

It seemed to happen more and more often in the past few days or so Arabella thought. Nevertheless, she bit her tongue on that as it was neither the time nor place to discuss it, lest it would derail the conversation further from its starting point.

"I call it exactly that! A simple, meaningless theory that should be kept from spreading without proof," her jaws had stiffened.

"And yet you went and shared it with Ada,"

"It is not the same!" she took yet another step forward but dared take no more than that.

"And what might the difference be, exactly? You trust her but not me? Is that it?" the pace at which he wiped at his tool quickened, lessening the care he exerted until one of them yielded under the pressure, snapping into two clean halves in his hand.

Upon turning around to say some more, Silas’ expression morphed when his eyes landed on Arabella’s face. It was as though he saw something that convinced him to hold his tongue still.

The fact that her heart drummed her chest as her rises remained stuck on the broken tool in his hand might have been it, she couldn’t tell for sure.

His features mellowed before his voice blared again, "I am very tired. I wish to discuss this matter no longer. Go rest, tomorrow will be just as long as today,"