Aria couldn't sleep that night.
She stared at the photograph over and over again, trying to find a lie in her mother's smile. But it was genuine. Peaceful. Before the guilt. Before everything shattered.
"Why would she hide this from me?" she whispered.
Xander sat across from her, silent.
"She was trying to protect you," he finally said. "Or maybe she didn't want you to hate her."
But Aria couldn't stop thinking about Rael. His arrival had stirred something in the camp—suspicion, curiosity… and for some, hope. His knowledge of strategy and network infiltration was unmatched. Within two days, he had a seat at Kell's war table.
Too fast. Too smooth.
Then one of the outer posts was attacked.
No alarm. No warning. Just blood and smoke.
And yet Rael had insisted that particular post be left unguarded the day before.
Aria brought her suspicions to Kell, but he brushed them off.
"We need him," Kell said. "Until we know more."
But Xander wasn't as forgiving.
"People are dying, and we're waiting on 'more'?"
That night, Aria crept into the comms room—and found a hidden device transmitting encrypted pings.
To the enemy.
She froze.
A step behind her.
Rael.
"You were never meant to find that," he said softly.