SILO POV
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He found her at the east wall, the hour they'd claimed together since the gate, except tonight the claiming felt different — heavier, the specific weight of a conversation he'd been avoiding finally arriving at the door.
She looked up when he sat.
"You have a face," she said.
"I need to say something," he said. "And I need you to let me get through it without deciding it's smaller than it is, the way I've apparently been doing about your feelings."
Something shifted in her expression — surprise, quickly managed.
"Okay," she said.
He looked at the compound rather than at her, the specific cowardice of a man finding it easier to say hard things to a fixed point than to the person they concerned.
"I've been spending a lot of time with Arden," he said. "The investigation
