And so I'm stupid for thinking they might be useful. Because of something Johanna Mason said while she was oiling her breasts for wrestling.

And some small gnarled place inside me hated her for her weakness, for her neglect, for the months she had put us through. I had taken a step back from my mother, put up a wall to protect myself from needing her, and nothing was ever the same between us again.

I know. I was hoping," I say. "Exactly. Because you're desperate," says Haymitch. I don't argue because, of course, he's right.

You don't destroy what you want to acquire in the future.

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

My mother says healers are born, not made.

The only thing worse than fighting a giant scorpion was fighting a giant scorpion who was trying to protect her young.