“Let me get you some soup.”
She grimaced. “Can I eat something else besides soup?”
“You don’t like the soup?”
“I do, but it gets boring after a while.”
He hesitated a moment. “Let me sniff your food pouches first.”
She nodded with relief.
Vaelor sat a short distance from the fire, the cold biting at his skin, but his thoughts were far sharper than the wind. Dugan’s words echoed in his mind, each one a spark against dry tinder.
It came from Earth.
The toxin.
The thing that had made Mara collapse in his arms, trembling and pale.
The thing that had nearly stopped her heart.
Blaine had done that.
Vaelor’s hands curled into fists again, knuckles whitening. Every instinct in him screamed to hunt Blaine down, to finish what he’d started in the canyon, to make him pay for every ounce of pain he’d caused her.
But Dugan’s warning held him in place like chains.
If you attack him, you’ll be disqualified. And she will be too.
The truth was a blade he hated, but it was a blade he could not ignore.
Across the fire, Mara sat with her arms wrapped around her knees, staring into the flames. She was already furious with Blaine—furious enough to shake. Being shoved into the open during the Predator Walk had rattled her deeply. She hadn’t said much since, but Vaelor could feel the storm inside her.
If she knew Blaine had poisoned her too…
She would confront him.
She would demand answers.
She would walk straight into danger without hesitation.
And Blaine—coward that he was—would lash out again.
Vaelor couldn’t allow that.
He exhaled slowly, forcing the tension from his shoulders. The decision settled heavily in his chest, but it was the only one that protected her.
He would keep the truth to himself.
For now.
He would carry the weight of it, the fury of it, the promise of it—until the final challenge was done. Until there was no rule, no penalty, no threat of disqualification standing between him and the justice Blaine deserved.
Then—and only then—would he give Blaine the reckoning he had earned.
The human male sat beside Dugan, talking and talking. The Cyborg ignored him and stared at the fire.
Vaelor’s gaze drifted back to Mara. She looked small in the firelight, but he knew better. She was strong. Fierce. Determined. And she trusted him.
