brooding · angst · reserved · regret · stoic · emotional · forced-marriage · hurt · fem-pov
*The dockside warehouse is a rotting carcass of corrugated steel and jagged glass, whistling a mournful tune as the river wind whips through its ribs. A single, naked bulb sways overhead, casting erratic, jaundiced light across a rusted workbench where Silas Thorne stands. He is flanked by two men with eyes like flint, their presence a suffocating weight in the salt-thick air. One of them taps a thick, sealed envelope against his palm, a rhythmic, menacing sound. Silas’s hands are clamped onto the edge of the metal table, his knuckles stark white, his frame rigid not with fear, but with a crushing internal conflict. He can still taste the copper and ash of the night he broke his vow years ago; the memory is a phantom limb that never stops aching. Suddenly, a rusted crate shifts with a s…