For a moment, neither of us speaks.
Then: “You done?”
I blink. “Done with what?”
“Acting like you can win every fight down here.”
“I wasn’t?—”
“You were.” His voice is flat, controlled. “And if youkeep doing it, you’re going to get yourself killed before I can help you.”
Heat crawls up my neck—part anger, part embarrassment. “She was threatening me.”
“She wastestingyou,” he corrects. “And you failed.”
“I stood up for myself?—”
“You gave her exactly what she wanted.” His gaze sharpens. “You showed her you’re reactive. Emotional. Easy to bait.”
“I’m not going to just take it,” I say.
“I’m not asking you to take it,” he replies. “I’m asking you to be smarter about when you fight back.”
“And when is that?”
“When you can win. You don’t know when you’ll round a corner and she has two or three other guys or girls with her. You think you can take them all?”
Silence stretches between us. He has a point.
His gaze softens. Not gentle. Just... less sharp. “Tell me about before,” he says.
The shift catches me off guard. “Before what?”
“Before the Hunt. Before you decided to walk into the Rot.”
I wrinkle my face at him. “Why does that matter?”
“It matters.”
I hesitate, studying his face, or what I can see of it behind the mask. “There’s not much to tell,” I finally say. “My father was the mayor. He got blamed for Rothwell’s collapse. After that...” I trail off. “After that, people stopped talking to us. Stopped looking at us. We became pariahs. He disappeared, was disposed of. Murdered. I had nothing going for me, which is why I guess I signedon to the Hunt.”
Sting’s gaze doesn’t waver. “Family?”
“Nope.”
“Friends?”
I let out a bitter laugh. “Not after everything fell apart. People I thought I knew just... disappeared. Friends turned their backs on me.”
“No one left?” he presses. “No one at all?”
Something in his tone makes my pulse quicken. “Why are you asking me this?”
He doesn’t answer right away. His eyes search my face, calculating something I can’t read.
“Sting,” I say, sharper now. “Why are you asking?”
Finally, he speaks. “Because someone came looking for you.”
