The more likable he is, the more deadly he is.” -Katniss Everdeen

Maybe I'll be like the man in the Hanging Tree still waiting for an answer.' Gale who I have never seen cry has tears in his eyes. To keep them from spilling over. I reach forward and press my lips against his. We taste of heat, ashes and misery.

So it's you and a syringe against the Capitol? See, this is why no one lets you make the plans.

It's the first gift that's always the hardest to pay back.

I wish Peeta were here to hold me, until I remember I'm not supposed to wish that anymore. I have chosen Gale and the rebellion, and a future with Peeta is the Capitol's design, not mine.

Something inside me twists as I remember another voice. Rue. In the arena. When I gave her the leg of groosling. “Oh, I've never had a whole leg to myself before.” The disbelief of the chronically hungry.

As coal pressured into pearls by our weighty existence. Beauty that arose out of pain.