A Court of Ashes ↠ Peeta Mellark [3] ✓

15 ; Beginning of the End

{this is the last chapter before the epilogue}

It's like a split second frozen in time. Emberly is turning towards President Snow, and staring into his snake like eyes and the affect is almost as painful as being shot by her own mother.

He's well groomed and finely dressed as ever, but weighed down by heavy manacles, ankle shackles, and tracking devices. In the bright light from above, his skin is a pale, sickly green. He holds a kerchief, spotted with blood in his left hand.

"I was hoping you'd find your way to my quarters." He says, voice simple but the message is as long and terrifying as Emberly's life's been so far in Panem. "There are so many things to discuss but I have a feeling your visit will be brief. So, first things, first." 

He stops himself to cough into his kerchief, making more red spots stain it. Emberly silently watches him, thinking that this is all for show. He begins with a long inhale. "I wanted to tell you how very sorry I am for your brother."

Pain does two things to a person. The first way: they give up, forgetting what they're fighting for. Forget to stop living in the darkness that's swallowed them whole. Second: they get angry. A blind rage that forces them to act out irresponsibly.

Emberly feels both at the same time. It's two conflicting emotions, one of them makes her want to crumble to the floor and cry until Peeta finds her and whispers in her ear that everything is going to be alright. The second one, makes her want to jump onto President Snow and choke him until the life fades from the snake eyes he possesses.

"So wasteful, so unnecessary. Anyone could see the game was over by that point. In fact, I was just about to issue a surrender when they released those parachutes." President Snow continues, and he must sense her confusion because he starts speaking once more. "Well, you really didn't think I gave the order, did you? Forget the obvious fact I had a working hovercraft at my disposal, I'd have been using it to make an escape. But that aside, what purpose had it served? We both know I'm not above killing children, but I'm not wasteful. I take life for very specific reasons. And there was no reason for me to destroy a pen full of Capitol Children. None at all."

The next coughing fit, Emberly supposes, is a distraction so she can absorb the words he'd just spoke to her. Her mind is spiraling into paranoia, body not trusting anyone, not even herself. Peeta, Katniss, Gale, Noah, Johanna, Annie, everyone is now a suspect in her brain of being a traitor.

"However, I must concede it was a wonderful move on Coin's part. The idea I was bombing our own helpless children instantly snapped whatever frail alliance my people still felt towards me. Especially when you'd saved that little boy in front of them. There was no real resistance after that. Did you know it aired live? You can see Plutarch's hand there. And in the parachutes. Well, that's the sort of thinking that you look for in a head Gamemaker, isn't it? I'm sure he wasn't gunning Primrose Everdeen or Seth Sage, but these sort of things happen." President Snow informs, dabbing the blood from the corner of his mouth with the kerchief.

These sort of things happen.

The words make Emberly feel sick to her stomach. She thinks of all the children who'd died in the arena around her. The children before her that Noah, Johanna, and Finnick had to kill only to be killed by the very man who'd promised them freedom.

President Snow sighs amongst her stony silence. "My failure, however, was listening to your mother. Listening to her as she convinced me to let the district's destroy one another, and then step in to take the power with Thirteen barely scratched. Make no mistake, Lana was intending to take my place from the very beginning. I shouldn't have been surprised. It was, however, Thirteen that started a rebellion which caused the Dark Days and the grief that haunts you and your friends families now. But I wasn't watching Lana. I was watching you Emberly Hawke. The girl who actually believed her mother was a good guy. I'm afraid we have both been played for fools."