“Thia!” That ferocious growl made Sumi’s heart leap. “Enough!”

“No, it’s not. I’m sick of listening to him attack you all the time when he knows nothing but the lies his selfish mother has told him. If he’s old enough for Endurance, he’s old enough to know the truth.”

Hauk moved faster than Sumi would have thought someone so large could manage. He towered over Thia with enough fury that the girl finally took a step back and swallowed. “The past is done. Leave it where it belongs.”

Thia gestured toward Darice again. “But —”

Sucking his breath in audibly, he bared his fangs to her. “There are other things to focus on right now.”

Thia held her hands up in surrender. “Fine.”

Hauk retrieved another blaster from the ground near Thia’s feet then handed it off to Sumi. “We need to break camp. There’s nothing on them to say who or what hired them, or how they found us. For safety’s sake, let’s assume they have friends who might miss their stench.”

The kids ran to collapse their tents while Hauk headed for his.

Sumi went over to the bodies to search them herself. True to his words, they had no marks whatsoever.

But that didn’t make sense. Kyr wouldn’t have sent amateurs when he had an entire army of highly trained assassins at his disposal. Her own tracking device had been temporarily disabled so as not to alarm or alert Hauk to her mission or make him suspicious.

She knew Hauk wouldn’t be tagged.

Which left her with another thought.

Sumi headed to the tent that Hauk was quickly stowing in his pack. “Are the kids chipped?”

He shook his head. “Their parents know better. They wouldn’t risk an enemy tapping the signal and using it to trace them.”

“Do you know who the assassins were targeting?”

He glanced over to make sure the kids weren’t in hearing range before he spoke to her in a low, hushed tone. “They were after me. It was my tent they beelined to, and I heard them talking about it.”

“But they gave no clue as to who sent them?”

He shook his head. “My enemies are many, and it’s really not unusual for me to be attacked.” He ran his tongue over his right fang as he glanced back toward the bodies. “I just don’t know how they found me here. That’s what’s bugging the shit out of me.”

And not the fact they tried to kill him while he slept.

Okay…

She checked the charge levels on her weapons then hesitated as she realized exactly how skilled Hauk really was at his brutal craft. “Did none of them get a shot off before they died?”

“No,” he said simply.