With the war finally over and the boy with the bread long gone, Katniss can finally live her life as peacefully and as happily as she could manage with Gale. However, the ashes take a while to go away and leave space for dandelions to grow, especially with Gale's fire.
Prologue
"Do you want to know who else won't be there?"
"No, I want to be surprised."
After waking up from last night's rest, I remembered what Greasy Sae had told me the day before: "Spring's in the air today. You ought to get out, go hunting." I went to the kitchen just as she put my plate on the table. Over the eggs, I told her I was going to go hunting.
She replied by asking for some game. She also said that I might find something good, whatever that meant. I hadn't gone hunting in a while and I still felt quite weak. I don't know how she could expect me to bring back good game.
I brought out my bow and arrows and headed out, intending to exit Twelve through the meadow. On the way, I saw numerous carts filled with the bodies of the dead. When I reached my destination, I saw that people have begun to dig a massive pit in the middle of the meadow. A grave.
There was another thing that hadn't yet caught my attention: a patch of dirt, separated from the pit. It looked as though the soil had been dug out and replaced recently. I hadn't paid a lot of attention to it, and walked in its path towards the forest. I came crashing to the ground as I had tripped over a rock.
It wasn't just any rock. It was a gravestone. The slightly elevated rectangle of dried cement read: "Here lies Peeta Mellark, victor of the 74th Hunger Games. Talented and loved dearly, he was deceased in the Capitol, where he sacrificed his life so that the war might end."
After reading, all I could feel was shock. The boy with the bread, now gone. I could hardly believe it, though I realized that I had pretty much left him to die. I allowed him to create the diversion, never really considering in my conscious mind that he would die.
My throat tightened and my eyes kept a hard gaze. No tears were shed; all I could feel was guilt. So many times, he had saved my life, my mother's life, Prim's life. Even if the attempts were futile now, I still had yet to repay him. I thought I had lost him when he got back from the Capitol and tried choking me, but this was much more of a loss. Even underneath the Capitol's alterations, there was still the kind, pure Peeta, who decorated cakes and moved a country with his words. The one whose blue eyes held such promise of peace. In that moment, I knew I no longer had any chance of getting him back.
I stayed there for hours, knees bent and sitting on my heels. His face flashed through my mind. I could almost see him walking towards Prim and Madge and all the other people I killed.
Almost pulling me out of my trance was a barely audible voice. When I didn't answer, he started shaking me and calling my name. Finally broken out of my trance, I tried to apologize after attempting to swallow away the lump in my throat and bringing my gaze to the ground. It came out as a muffled and broken sound with my barely-moving lips and cracking voice.
He apologized after he noticed what I had been staring at. After a few moments of silence, he offered to bring me home.
We both stood, my legs numb from the kneeling, and I allowed myself to be taken away in the arms of Gale. Taken away from the grave of the boy with the bread, on which I placed the first dandelion of spring.