He didn’t deny it.
Anchora stepped closer, lowering her voice. “Vaelor… you deserve happiness. You deserve companionship. You deserve the female you clearly love.”
His throat tightened. He looked away.
Love.
Yes.
He loved Mara.
He had known it the moment he thought he’d lost her in the ice forest. The moment he found her again. The moment he stepped out of the circle so she could win.
But love didn’t matter if she didn’t want him.
Anchora sighed, her breath warm in the cold air. “If you will not reach out to her… then perhaps someone should do it for you.”
He stiffened. “Anchora—”
She held up a hand. “You are my clan leader. But you are also like a son to me. And I will not stand by while you waste away on this mountain peak, pretending you are whole when you are not.”
He clenched his jaw. “It is not your place.”
“Perhaps not,” she said gently. “But I will do it anyway.”
He turned sharply, but she was already walking away, her cloak trailing behind her like a shadow.
“Anchora,” he called.
She didn’t stop.
She didn’t look back.
And Vaelor stood alone on the mountain peak, the wind howling around him, the sunrise blazing across the sky—beautiful and distant and cold.
Just like the life he had returned to.
He closed his eyes.
Mara…
Her name echoed in his mind, soft and painful.
He survived the Games.
He survived the storms.
He survived the labyrinth.
But this—
This quiet, aching loneliness—
He wasn’t sure he could survive that.
Not without her.
Chapter 45
