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The lick of flames made sweat dew along my skin, the oppressive heat bitin’ into me even from the safety that Aubrey had created in her sacrifice.

There wasn’t any time to hesitate. I had a choice to make.

Win or lose.The end was so close. The cool air from outside hit my front, the flames licked my back. I just had to choose which one I wantedmore.

Which one I was willing to give more for.

So why did both options feel like losing?

I could leave her. Run for the exit, maybe even kill Elijah while I had the chance. The flames would consume her, burning her smooth skin and gorgeous blonde hair. Her screams would be forever replayed on the soundtrack of my win as I walked out of the maze. I’d spend the rest of my life watching the footage of me turning my back on the first thing in my life I’d ever chosen for myself.

If I left her there, if she died because I’d chased after Elijah… I’d never forgive myself. Of that I was entire certain… But was it enough to turn my back on everything I’d ever known?

It’d only been a couple hours since we first met. Since I finally got my fill of her delicious sweetness. Since I first saw just how open and willin’ she was to accept the parts of me I hid deep inside.

The length of time might’ve been short, but the connection was undeniable.

Written in blood and ashes.

Especially when we were separated, or I saw her in danger. It was like my body and heart had a mind of their own. They’d ignored everythin’ I should do in favor of savin’ her.

And yet… I hesitated.

I’d entered the Games for a reason.

And if I helped her and that treacherous cunt won instead of me? I’d never be able to face it. I’d have to go back to the Ranch, my entire family and the Church watchin’ as the last of the Weston line lostto one of their own brothers in faith.

A disappointment.

An embarrassment.

How would anyone still believe in the Ranch’s effectiveness if their own child couldn’t win the maze? If they chose failure in favour of mercy. Turned their back on the very tenets we espoused?

I'd never live it down.

My body was movin’ before I’d fully made my decision, the knife that Ella’d used to threaten me finding my hand and clicking open the moment it was free of my back pocket.

Save her, or win. Are these really my only two options?

I looked back at Aubrey, barely able to make out her shape behind the flames. Her screams were loud in my ears, panic seepin’ through the air to lick at me as surely as the heat.

The fear.

It hit me hard, but the sweet, cool air from the opening of the maze was beckonin’ like I was a lost child and it was a house made a’ candy.

I turned back to Elijah as Aubrey let out a pained moan. She’d stopped yelling at me. Stopped cursing me. Her coughs even beginning to quiet in my hesitation.

Screams and cheers were still pouring in from the opening, the sound of thousands of clapping hands roaring in my eyes. Behind me, the flames were rumbling. My own breath echoing in my ears as I faced Elijah, everything else slowly fading into the background.

“Are you comin’, or what?” Elijah asked with a cheeky grin that showed off his crooked teeth. “Second place ain’t so bad, Cammy.”

He looked worse for wear. His face covered in blood—I wasn’t sure whose—and dirt. The side of his cheek’d been split, showin’ just how close he’d been to dyin’ when Aubrey’s trap went off.

Just like we’d been taught, he was still goin’, no matter that exhaustion was pulling his shoulders down. Just like I was. We were too close to the end of the maze to stop now.

But he’d made a mistake. He’dunderestimatedme. How far I was willin’ to go.

“Sorry, Eli,” I called, throwin’ the knife with the kind of precision that came from years of target practice. “Only one of us is crossin’ that finish line.”