Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, #3)

by Suzanne Collins

feeling for some unspecified reason that he will understand.

This strategy is very old news to Finnick. It’s what broke him. “This is what they’re doing to you with Annie, isn’t it?” I ask. “Well, they didn’t arrest her because they thought she’d be a wealth of rebel information,”

“It’s just that I didn’t understand when I met you. After your first Games, I thought the whole romance was an act on your part. We all expected you’d continue that strategy. But it wasn’t until Peeta hit the force field and nearly died that I —”

The quizzical look on Finnick’s face.

“That I knew I’d misjudged you. That you do love him. I’m not saying in what way. Maybe you don’t know yourself. But anyone paying attention could see how much you care about him,” he says gently.

I drag myself out of nightmares each morning and find there’s no relief in waking.”

It takes ten times as long to put yourself back together as it does to fall apart.”

“Want a sugar cube?” he asks in his old seductive voice. That’s how we met, with Finnick offering me sugar.

What now? Does he actually think something’s going on between us? Maybe he saw me go to Finnick’s last night.

I HATE GALE

That means Snow has had Peeta in his clutches for five, maybe six weeks.

Add their names to the list of things I can never stop owing him for.

“Don’t touch them!” I yell. “They’re for me!”

Flowers not meant for one, but for a pair of lovers.

Snow knows exactly what he’s doing to me. It’s like having Cinna beaten to a pulp while I watch from my tribute tube. Designed to unhinge me.

‘Thirteen’s alive and well and so am I.’ ”

that’s when I start crying.

everything I say will be directly taken out on Peeta. Result in his torture. But not his death, no, nothing so merciful as that. Snow will ensure that his life is much worse than death.

I am broken.

But in the end, the only person I truly want to comfort me is Haymitch, because he loves Peeta, too. I reach out for him and say something like his name and he’s there, holding me and patting my back.

But everyone agrees this is the thing to do. It’s the same choice we made in the arena. To do whatever it takes to keep you going. We can’t lose the Mockingjay now. And you can’t perform unless you know Snow can’t take it out on Peeta.”

“You know who else, Katniss. You know who stepped up first.”

Gale.

Today I might lose both of them.

I try to imagine a world where both Gale’s and Peeta’s voices have ceased. Hands stilled. Eyes unblinking. I’m standing over their bodies, having a last look, leaving the room where they lie. But when I open the door to step out into the world, there’s only a tremendous void. A pale gray nothingness that is all my future holds.

It’s . . . it’s more than we could hope for!”

Outbursts are short. It’s stories that take time.

And then I do the thing that Haymitch has wanted since my first interview. I open up. “When I met Peeta, I was eleven years old, and I was almost dead.”

President Snow, thanks to you, I’m officially declaring mine today.”

“I wasn’t the only one. If a victor is considered desirable, the president gives them as a reward or allows people to buy them for an exorbitant amount of money. If you refuse, he kills someone you love. So you do it.”

“Such a young man when he rose to power. Such a clever one to keep it. How, you must ask yourself, did he do it? One word. That’s all you really need to know. Poison.”

Poison. The perfect weapon for a snake.

“No. My mother and younger brother. My girl. They were all dead two weeks after I was crowned victor.

“Did you love Annie right away, Finnick?” I ask. “No.” A long time passes before he adds, “She crept up on me.”

They collide, enfold, lose their balance, and slam against a wall, where they stay. Clinging into one being. Indivisible.

I run to meet him, my arms extended to embrace him. His hands are reaching for me, too, to caress my face, I think.

My lips are just forming his name when his fingers lock around my throat.

AHHHHHH

“A sense of being unable to judge what was true and what was false? Most people who have been stung and lived to tell about it report something of the kind.”

“So scary that he’d see her as life-threatening. That he might try to kill her. Yes, that’s our current theory.”

For someone to make Peeta forget he loves me . . . no one could do that.

“I think Peeta might get somewhat better. But . . . I don’t think he’ll ever be the same.”

We’ve no idea what happened to Effie Trinket. Peeta’s damaged, but he’s here. With us. And that’s a definite improvement over his situation twelve hours ago. Let’s keep that in mind, all right?”

I wonder if this will be the only way I sleep now, with drugs shot into my arm.

an image of Snow’s face accompanied by the whisper in my head. I will kill you.

There’s a chance that the old Peeta, the one who loves you, is still inside. Trying to get back to you. Don’t give up on him.”

Taking the fundamental ideas behind Gale’s traps and adapting them into weapons against humans. Bombs mostly. It’s less about the mechanics of the traps than the psychology behind them.

Time is allowed for people to rush to the aid of the wounded. Then a second, more powerful bomb kills them as well.

Delly means it. She genuinely likes people. All people, not just a select few she’s spent years making up her mind about.

“Because she’s lying! She’s a liar! You can’t believe anything she says! She’s some kind of mutt the Capitol created to use against the rest of us!”

Snow has stolen him from me, twisted him beyond recognition, and made me a present of him. Boggs, who came to 2 when I did, told me that even with all the plotting, it was a little too easy to rescue Peeta. He believes if 13 hadn’t made the effort, Peeta would’ve been delivered to me anyway. Dropped off in an actively warring district or perhaps 13 itself. Tied up with ribbons and tagged with my name. Programmed to murder me.

Even more than I would’ve if he’d died. The kindness, the steadiness, the warmth that had an unexpected heat behind it.