She levels a look at Max that's steady and unimpressed. It's a silent simmer down, a peevish reminder of her earlier statement that they were too busy fighting internally to coordinate.

"They'd be stupid not to. That's why they keep us in the Games, to keep us from building a coalition. And that would work except that they keep bringing us back, so the stakes are different." People become fire-forged friends rather than corpses. It isn't like the Victors from the Arenas where only one walked away alive.

"What I want to know is if, when the chips are down, we'll all have each others' backs. And who else to keep an eye out for."