Darker And Colder

3.02: Ashes

Chapter 34
Katniss's POV

My nails are bitten down to the rim as I take the elevator down to special defence.

The floors are cold and dull, just like the rest of 13. Except Peeta. Peeta brightens it up, with his blond hair, bright blue eyes and shining smile that can hide the pain and tears of everything we have been through.

But I know I can't think like that now. He's gone. No, Not gone- Hijacked.

I still have to go to twelve, though. I left Willow, who seemed rather quiet, with my mother.

I go through the doors into special defence and immediately think I need to go back to hospital when I see not just one but two people in wheelchairs. One of them is Beetee, but I can't be seeing double because the other one seems taller in the chair and doesn't have glasses or a beard. My heart skips a beat when I see a small hint of gold lining the top of his eyes.

"Cinna," my brain doesn't register that my legs are running, or that my arms are hugging him. "I thought you were dead."

"No. I was kept in the Capitol though. Thirteen rescued me." There are two visible scars on his face and a needle that goes from his arm through a tube to a bag of sickly green yellow liquid and a few switches. "I wanted to give you this."

In his hands is a black book. A sketchbook. He places it in my hands and I carefully open it to the front page. It is a sketchbook, with Cinna's sketches in it- sketches of me. In flames, wedding dresses, the Mockingjay dress.

Then some kind of armoured black gear. The book is filled with different variations of this suit. Scrawled in the back is I'm still betting on you, girl on fire.

"Thank you." Right now, with Peeta hijacked, knowing Cinna is alive and supporting me helps.

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The suit is the perfect fit- Cinna's work usually is.

Beetee has made me a bow. Finnick has a trident. There was another crossbow that was going to be for Gale, but he has been 'Temporarily Suspended' from authority due to the 'minor setback' of him nearly killing Peeta. They made an axe for Johanna, but she isn't coming today. Annie has been said too unstable to come, and Finnick didn't want her getting in any danger anyway. There was a knife on the wall too- made to be like the other weapons, a black handle and silvery black blade. They didn't mention it or who it's for.

So it's for Peeta.

I am strapped into a seat on the hovercraft. Plutarch tries to run me through the propos again.

"So Cressida will talk to you, ask some questions, and you have to answer with what we feed you through the earpiece, which is your parts of the script we wrote. And just so you know, we recommend you say it was a miscarriage. Don't want Snow to use the baby to get to you again."

I nod. I can't let Snow know about Willow, about another path he could use to drive me over the edge.

The hovercraft lands and as soon as I step out, there is ash everywhere. It has been months since the Capitol dropped the firebombs here, but it is still warm and fresh smoke lingers in the air.

Cressida begins to speak to me, and a loud voice pierces my ears.

"Ow."

Messala comes to fix my earpiece, and Cressida speaks again. "So Katniss, how have you been doing in thirteen?"

I repeat the words from my ears. "I am fine. My family are fine, and my friends are fine, safe from the Capitol. So now I know that we need to defeat the Capitol's hunger." It seems stupid, and Haymitch actually starts laughing. Fulvia - Plutarch's assistant - gives him a glare with furrowed eyebrows. "You think that's gonna make the districts long to fight with the Mockingjay?" He says.

"Well what do you suggest?"

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Peeta's POV

It is quiet in here. Until a voice hits me in the head. Washes over my brain.

It washes through until I am left with one thought:

I need to kill Katniss.