“He believes in you,” he said quietly.
Mara swallowed. “Yeah. He always has.”
Vaelor held her gaze, steady and sure.
“As do I.”
Vaelor set up their tent as far from the others as possible. She had told him he could go out by the fire if he wanted. But he chose to stay in the tent with her. When he laid on the bedding and opened his arms, she went without hesitation.
“I hate that they talked to my dad. He looked really tired.”
“He’ll be better soon. Once you win, he’ll get the treatment he needs.”
“How hard will the last two challenges be?” she wondered out loud.
“Hard,” he said honestly. “But we can manage it, together.”
“I would like to introduce you to my dad when this is all over.”
“I look forward to that day,” he said.
He wrapped his arms around her, letting his heat warm her all over.
And for the first time since the Games began, Mara felt something stronger than fear.
Hope.
Chapter 30
Vaelor
The next morning, Vaelor refused to leave Mara until she had fully awakened. He was going to find out from Dugan what he learned about the toxins, but he couldn’t leave her in a vulnerable state.
Mara stirred beside him, a soft breath escaping her as her eyes fluttered open. For a heartbeat, Vaelor simply watched her—still, quiet, reverent. And then she smiled.
It wasn’t a large smile, not the kind she used when she was teasing him or trying to hide her nerves. This one was small, warm, unguarded. A smile born from waking in safety, in warmth, in his presence.
And it struck him with the same force as a memory he had not touched in years.
The Crytharian sunrise.
He remembered seeing it the day he was leaving his home world. Standing on the cliffs above the Great Ocean, watching the first light break across the horizon. The sky would ignite in shimmering gold and soft blues, the water catching every color and scattering it like a thousand tiny stars. It was a moment so bright, so beautiful, so impossibly magical that even the most hardened Crytharian warriors fell silent before it.
Mara’s smile felt like that.
Soft light breaking through darkness.
Warmth blooming where cold had lived.
A quiet, breathtaking magic that made the world feel new.
Vaelor had never expected to see anything that rivaled the sunrise of his home world.
But as Mara’s smile widened—sleepy, radiant, utterly real—he realized he had been wrong.
The Great Ocean sunrise was magnificent.
But Mara’s smile…
