She was trying to understand him. You offered yourself because you were afraid. He said, "Fear shouldn't bind anyone. Not you. "Not him."
He nodded toward Taza. Saving your boy wasn't a bargain. It was the right thing to do. Seiya absorbed the words carefully, as though testing their weight before deciding whether to believe them. Everything she had lived through told her one thing.
The man sitting in front of her was showing her another. That contradiction unsettled her more than she expected. You don't want me," she said. " It was not quite a statement. It was a test.
Wade met her eyes directly. What you offered me wasn't a real choice, and no man worth much should accept something like that. The air between them changed, tightened. Seiya had expected rejection before. She knew what contempt looked like.
She knew what pity looked like. But she had never expected refusal born from respect. She searched Wade's face for deception, calculation, hunger, some hidden intention waiting behind his words. She found none, only restraint, and the kind of strength she did not know how to judge. Her fingers curled lightly into the dirt beside her.
You think I'm weak? "No." The answer came without hesitation. You carried your son across country most men wouldn't have crossed alone. You're worn down.
That isn't the same thing as weak. The words struck deeper than anything else he had said. Since losing Nako, no one had called Seiya strong. She had crossed land where being alone meant every day became another negotiation with danger. Every mile demanded something from her.
every night forced her to wonder whether she and Taza would still be alive by morning. Wade shifted his weight. You can stay until he's strong again," he said. " After that, you decide what happens next. Seiya blinked slowly.
The idea itself seemed foreign. Choice, a decision that belonged to her. No one had given her much of that since the conflict that took her husband from her. My life hasn't had choices, she murmured, only running or facing whatever came after me. Never staying.
Wade looked towards the distant ridge, giving her confession more space than his eyes could. Then let this place be different, he said. At least for now. Seiya lowered her gaze toward Taza. The boy reached for her hand.