I knew I was gaping in an unflattering manner, and there could easily be cameras even here because this was the Capitol, but I didn't care.

"You wrote me those letters?" I hissed, instinctively lowering my voice although the street was deserted as far as I could see in both directions. Presumably, everyone was out celebrating the beginning of the latest Hunger Games. "You sent me the –"

Claudius clapped a hand over my mouth before I could say the word armor. "I know you have more sense than that, girl," he grated, voice harsh in my ear. "We'll talk again once the Games are over and we can go home. You're not going to do it this year." He removed his hand.

"Do what? Win? I'm not trying to win," I hissed back, trying to make out his expression in the darkness between streetlights.

"If you insist on talking even after my warning, at least keep moving," Claudius said, placing a hand at the small of my back and pushing me forward. I glared up at him – would it kill him to be a bit less rough? – but moved in the direction he was pointing us. "You're not going to succeed this year, that's what I meant," he continued. "Felix's girl is out of control. All she could talk about on the train was how the first thing she'd do in the arena was kill District Three's tributes to prove she's nothing like Salotti."

I felt a twinge of regret for my two tributes. "What does that have to do with my plan," I asked anyway. "If she's after mine, Twelve's will be able to escape the bloodbath, at least."

Claudius shook his head, the hand on my back tensing with his frustration. "You don't understand how things work in our district," he said. "Felix told Beltrane – that's the girl – to stay out of the Career alliance. I assume he was trying to make it easier for you to keep Twelve alive. Anyway, she refused. Started ranting about how Salotti was a disgrace to her district and she – Beltrane, not Salotti – was a real Career and intended to act like one."

"So you're saying one of your tributes has gone rogue before she's even gotten into the arena," I scoffed, hiding my dismay beneath a veneer of scorn. Neera wasn't a disgrace. "I thought the trainees were supposed to practically worship victors."

"They are," Claudius growled. "This one's gone and given herself a big head, though. Convinced herself she's the next Varius de Luca, only she's still planning to use weapons, as far as I know."

"Oh, hell," I sighed. "Can't you do something? Even Varius is afraid to cross you. Scare her back into line."

"I tried. I'll keep trying until the moment she steps onto her platform," he assured me. "That's not what we need to be discussing, though. I have a plan to get Gallegos off your back, but you're going to have to do exactly what I tell you. How are your acting skills?"

"Fair," I replied. "Why, what's the idea?"

"We're going to pretend you're my new love interest. Half the Capitol is scared of me, even though they won't admit it to themselves, let alone anyone else. After I won my Games, the president tried to pull his usual prostitution bullshit, and I killed everyone he donated me to," Claudius said, and I caught my breath. "He tried to have me killed, but all the Peacekeepers come from my district, and they know better than to try to bring me in. He kept trying, though, up until the day he died."

Out of morbid curiosity, I asked, "Why didn't he just poison you like he did with my mentor?"

Claudius chuckled, and the sound sent shivers of fear up my spine. "He tried. I got him before he got me."

I pondered the implications of that sentence for several moments, then choked on nothing as the words struck home. "You…you killed –?"

"Yeah," he said. "Oh, it wasn't just me," he said, perhaps sensing my incredulity. "The son – he's president now – was after his father's job for years, and when he saw the chance to off him without getting his own hands dirty, he jumped on it. The stupid boy should've had me executed as soon as he became president, but he let me live, and until he manages to remedy the situation, I have more power than I know what to do with."

"If the old president couldn't kill you, how can the new one?" I asked.

"Despite his many shortcomings, Snow is smarter than his father. He's been in charge of the Peacekeepers for years, and he has a core group that's loyal to him above anyone else. In the old days, there was something like district unity, a kind of respect that kept them from killing me. These days, half the kids in uniform weren't even alive during my Games, so they have no reason to spare me. Thankfully, Snow hasn't figured that out yet. Still, it's only a matter of time, which is why I chose this year to mentor again, and why I'm willing to risk supporting your cause."

"Then why tell Varius you wouldn't help me?"

Claudius laughed again. "Didn't want the kid thinking I was going soft in my old age," he replied shortly. He sighed, sobering. "I feel like our whole district is getting weak, though. I built the training system – yeah, I created the Careers," he said, catching my horrified expression. "Anyway, I started it, but Vega ran in until she died, and everything's been downhill since."

Vega, I recalled, was the victor from Two who fell between Claudius and Varius, the only female victor from that district besides Allison. Neera, my mind whispered traitorously, Neera should have been the third female victor from District Two, but she died, died saving you…

"Believe me," Claudius continued, disrupting my train of thought. "I'm not helping you out of the kindness of my heart." He laughed so coldly that I wondered if he had a heart. "I'm willing to foster rebellion with you because my district is a pale shadow of its former self, and if we're not the undisputed champions of the Games, I don't want there to be Games at all."

When Claudius had seen me safely to the door of the building where the tributes would be living until the Games, he nodded a goodbye and vanished back into the darkness. I stood staring after him for nearly a minute before I collected myself enough to key the door open and go inside.

Can I work with someone like that? I wondered. We have the same goal, but his reasons are so dramatically wrong that I feel dirty just speaking to him.

An even worse thought struck me as I stepped into the elevator, pressing the button for the third floor. How am I any better than him? At least he has pride in his district. I'm trying to make my own tributes lose in the name of some half-baked scheme that probably won't even work.

Then the elevator door chimed open and I found myself nose-to-nose with a monumentally surprised Allison. "Where the hell have you been?" she snarled, grabbing me by the front of my dress and hauling me bodily from the elevator. "I was about to go looking for you!" I noticed the gleam of a knife in the hand that wasn't clenched under my chin and my eyes widened involuntarily.

"Sorry, I got caught talking to Claudius after the parade ended, so he walked me home," I told her, breathing deeply and massaging my throat after she set me down. "Claudius told Felix he'd be with me, so I assumed you knew."

"No, Felix is celebrating his return to the Capitol by locking himself in his apartment with all the lights off and only a bottle of whiskey for company," she informed me. "Just because his tribute is out of control is no reason to abandon her completely…" she trailed off, looking at me with narrowed eyes. "Did you say you were with Claudius?"

"Yes," I told her, forcing both my voice and emotions back into their normal register. "He's the one who sent me the letters and stuff, and he has a plan to get rid of Gallegos." Only when Allison's eyes lit up did I realize my phrasing had been ambiguous at best, and I rushed to clarify. "Get him to leave me alone, I mean, not kill him. I have to pretend to be in a relationship with Claudius."

Allison smirked even more widely than usual. "Well, there are worse ideas, I'm sure. I can't think of any, but they must exist. At least Neera was only two years older than you. Claudius is more than twice your age. Never mind that he's a Career and you're…you."

"That would be a valid concern if this were a real relationship, but it's not," I reminded her. "This is the Capitol. There are odder pairs – I mean, look at Varius and Theta. All we have to do is convince everyone I'm his, and Gallegos will be too scared to come near me. Besides, I have lots of practice acting friendly toward Careers."

She narrowed her eyes, to ask another uncomfortable question, I was sure, but my tributes appeared the hall behind her, rendering further conversation impossible.

"What is she doing here?" Dane demanded, pointing an accusatory finger at Allison. "She's a Career. Why can't she stay on her own floor?"

"She's my friend," I told him sharply. "Also, she'll help you with the strength training I told you about earlier," I added, shooting Allison a triumphant smile. There, that'll teach her to make fun of my imaginary relationship. She frowned, but ushered the kids into the other room and began demonstrating stretches.

I took the opportunity to sit down in front of the TV, switching it to the channel where Tesla Monogram, currently sporting a three-piece suit patterned after some exotic black-and-white animal, was giving a rundown of the current odds on the Games. Unsurprisingly, Districts One, Two and Four topped the list of favorites, with my tributes near the bottom, followed by Twelve's.

Idly, I watched Allison leading Kirstin and Dane in a less-complicated version of her nightly routine as I returned to my inner debate about working with Claudius. I would do it; there was no question of that. Much as I hated to admit it, I'd do almost anything to get the head gamemaker off my back. Besides, if there was one thing I could count on when it came to Careers, it was their twisted sense of honor. Claudius was enough like Neera and Varius that I knew he wouldn't hurt me, not once he'd invested this much effort in keeping me safe.

I ran my fingers over the smooth surface of my angel necklace, wishing I didn't still feel like I was betraying my district.

"How're you doing?" Allison asked the next morning after Dane and Kirstin had departed for training. The pair had detailed instructions to befriend the boy and girl from District Twelve and avoid all the Careers.

I exhaled loudly. "Been better," I admitted. "Between knowing I have to send those kids into the arena to die and Claudius saying that I'm not going to get a victor for Twelve this year, I'm not feeling like such a hotshot rebel, you know?"

She nodded. "Much as I hate to say it, he's probably right about Beltrane. She was one of those kids who always trooped along behind Neera, practically worshipped the ground she walked on. Neera never noticed, of course, she was too caught up in her training. To Beltrane, Neera's intentional loss was like a personal affront. Now she'll do anything to succeed where, in her mind, Neera failed."

I hate Careers, I thought tiredly, though I knew that type of generalization wasn't fair.

I leaned my forehead against Allison's shoulder and mumbled, "Why couldn't it have been your year to mentor?"

"Hey, if the girl won't listen to Claudius, there's no way she'd back down because I asked nicely," Allison said.

"And since when do you ask nicely?" I shot back, sitting up straight again.

"Good point. Still, trust me when you say that this one's not something I can fix."

When training ended and my tributes came back upstairs, Claudius stepped off the elevator with them. He strode forward and took me in his arms, and I barely remembered that we were in a pretend relationship in time to play along.

"Memorie," he murmured, and I wanted to congratulate him on sounding so much like he was really in love.

"Claudius," I acknowledged, stepping back after what I deemed a believable interval. "What brings you here?"

"Do I need a reason to visit you?" he asked. The smile that followed looked decidedly unnatural on his stony face, and I decided to warn him against smiling the next time we were in private.

"Memorie, why is he here?" Kirstin asked, and I was forcibly reminded of the tributes' presence. Dane was dividing his glares equally between Claudius and Allison.

I reached down and threaded my fingers through Claudius', marveling again at the size of his hands. "This is Claudius, another friend," I said defensively, and immediately winced. What was I supposed to call him, though? My boyfriend? I doubted that would be sufficient to make Gallegos back off, and we hadn't had time to discuss the details of our false relationship last night.

"I'd say we're a bit more than friends, dear," Claudius said easily, trying out that awful smile again. I hid my grimace beneath a rather manic grin, which I fixed on Kirstin and Dane.

"Ah, right. Of course. At any rate, we were just leaving. You can tell me how training went when I get back. In the meantime, do your stretches with Allison," I told them.

"But we just spent the whole day training!" Dane protested.

Claudius fixed Dane with a truly terrifying glare. "You're lucky you aren't my tribute," he said brusquely. "I'd make you spend the entire night sparring if you spoke to me like that." And he swept toward the elevator, dragging me with him.

Once the doors slid shut behind us, I dropped Claudius' hand like it was on fire. "Okay, let's figure some things out right now," I said. "What exactly is the nature of our supposed relationship?"

"For now, we're simply a mutually interested couple," he replied. "As soon as we can make it look realistic, we'll up the ante. Move in together, maybe. Can you handle that?"

"You're sure this will make Gallegos leave me alone?" I asked. He nodded. "Then yeah, I can handle it. Don't you think you're taking this a bit far, though? All I have to do is help Twelve win. You're risking everything."

Claudius shrugged minutely. "I told you, I'm dead anyway as soon as Snow figures out the Peacekeepers are loyal to him, not District Two. I intend to do some good before I reach my expiration date." That was a morbid outlook, but I supposed Careers didn't become Careers by cowering in the face of death.

He guided me out of the elevator and toward the glass double doors the led out to the street. "Where are we going?" I asked.

"Just walking," he replied. "I haven't been here in years, so I'm not sure which buildings are bugged. I know for a fact the Training Center and the victors' apartments are, and it's safe to say the holding cells are wired too. That's what we call the rooms where the tributes stay before they go into the arena. Sorry if that offends your delicate sensibilities," he added.

I elected not to dignify that with a response. "What about buildings in the districts? Chard and Felix seemed pretty sure their homes weren't bugged, and everyone acts like my apartment is safe."

"Allison swept your apartment for listening devices and destroyed all the ones she found," Claudius said. "I assume the other victors did the same. That doesn't mean you should drop your guard. If anyone from the Capitol is allowed to be alone in your apartment for even a few minutes, you should do another scan. Better yet, I'll do it."

Which part of this is an act? I wondered. And how much is real? One second, he's the picture of a bloodthirsty Career, and the next, he's talking about protecting me as though it were second nature. I looked up at him as I'd done the previous night, but the sunlight did nothing to render his face less inscrutable. Then I thought, Maybe they go together, the violence and the protectiveness. Neera was the best bodyguard anyone could ask for, Allison stayed with me to make sure I wouldn't kill myself, and even Varius acts like he's shielding Theta from all the bad things in the world.

Because it was evening, the sidewalks were lined with people, most sporting outlandish clothing and eye-wrenching color combinations. Claudius secured my hand in the crook of his elbow again, and I noticed that people were looking at us as we passed. Like everything else, this casual walk was actually a calculated maneuver on Claudius' part.

"You're not like the other Careers," I said, biting my tongue immediately afterward because I'd intended to keep that observation to myself.

"I wasn't a Career in the truest sense of the word, if that's what you mean," Claudius agreed warily. "I never trained for my Games. I was Reaped; I didn't volunteer. But I won, and that's what matters."

That wasn't what I'd meant at all, but his response was interesting anyway. I intended to share his words with Allison, because surely if Claudius considered winning the Games the true mark of a Career, then she would have to stop considering herself a failure because of her training score.

"Does that mean Neera wasn't a real Career in your eyes?" I asked guardedly, not sure myself what I wanted the answer to be. "She didn't win the Games."

"Yes, she did," Claudius replied. "Oh, the idiots here have their heads shoved too far up their asses to see it, but she won. Everyone in the Capitol – down to Gallegos and Snow themselves, mind you – they all think you got extraordinarily lucky, nothing more. Half the districts probably think the same. They're saying you seduced Salotti and she miscalculated badly enough during the fight with her district partner that you ended up the only one alive. Anyone who's ever trained in Two knows better."

That was good to know. I'd been operating under the assumption that no one but Varius and Allison understood the extent of Neera's plans, and then only because Varius had nearly been her father and Allison was sharper than other Careers.

Even that wasn't entirely true anymore, though. Claudius had to be a genius at manipulation, a master of blackmail and other underhanded dealings, to have pulled this off. He had assassinated a president, for shit's sake, and lived to tell the tale. It would be doing him a disservice to assume he was unintelligent.

And it would be risky, I reminded myself. Allison scolded me for being too willing to trust people I didn't know, and I thought she was right. That had saved me in the arena and again in the hospital, when I'd accepted Varius as a surrogate mentor of sorts, but it could easily get me killed now.

Claudius was dangerous in ways I couldn't even imagine. He commanded the loyalty of the victors from his district, and though they'd acted without him in joining my cause, I had no doubt they'd desert me at once if he issued an ultimatum. He had power in the Capitol, too, and could draw on that power to have me killed if he tired of our deception. Worst of all, his reason for aiding me seemed spurious at best, even taking into consideration the seriousness with which District Two regarded matters of honor and duty.

"If we're not the undisputed champions of the Games, I don't want there to be Games at all." Claudius' words came back to me as clearly as the nightmare in which he'd nearly drowned me in his blood, and I shuddered at the combination of the two memories.

"Are you cold?" he asked, feigning solicitousness.

"A little," I replied, and he shrugged out of his jacket and draped it over my shoulder. If anything, the gesture drew more eyes to us, and I gave him a surreptitious smile of approval. "How long before Gallegos hears about us?" I asked, making sure to keep the smile in place so passersby would assume we were discussing something frivolous.

"If he hasn't heard by the end of the day, I'll be surprised," Claudius said. I sighed and leaned more heavily on his supporting arm, not entirely faking my warm feelings.