Darius and Katniss stood to one side of their favorite ash tree, the sun high overhead and the meadow grasses swaying about them. Prim had run back into Panbank to tend to the babies, and to ensure Peeta did not panic when he found Katniss no longer confined to the hut.
Darius presented Katniss with the extraordinarily crafted necklace he had made for her.
"That?" she asked.
"It is best to choose something small for a power source. Something easily hidden. Further, I made this, and it has protections and power within it that will further safekeep it from those that wish to destroy it."
"It is just…"
Katniss turned the necklace's delicate chains about her fingers. The pendant hung heavily in the midst of the gold webbing, a solid disk, with its twisted olive tree engraved upon it and the branches stooping under the weight of an owl. They were Athena's emblems, not hers.
"It's just not… me."
"Do you have any better ideas?" Darius asked.
"No, I do not," said Katniss
"Well, let us begin."
Katniss clutched the necklace in her fist and closed her eyes. She tried to pull the power in her forward the way she used to feel Seeder within her. At first, it felt like nothing, empty, just as it had felt since Seeder's death. Then, eventually, there was a building heat in her chest.
"That's it," Darius said. "Concentrate."
As Darius spoke those words, he felt that something was off. He looked up, then across the expanse of the meadow. There was nothing, no one, but still, he felt that something was not right.
It felt like an itch at first, like something that was there, near, but he could not identify the feeling.
He turned his head toward town.
Katniss was oblivious, her body straining over the necklace.
Above them the sunshine waned. Darius looked upwards and watched as dark gray clouds accumulated.
Thresh? he wondered.
Run, was the answering thought to his. It was Annie.
Something akin to terror settled within his stomach.
"Katniss," he said, the word sounding strangled even to him, and he grabbed at her shoulders.
It was only just a moment too late.
The next instant Katniss wailed as she felt something grab within her belly, and then both she and Darius were hauled forward, as if pulled by strings. They fell to their hands and knees and the necklace was dropped somewhere within the tall grass.
A pair of feet appeared before Darius' bowed face.
"Darius," said a male voice. "A pleasure."
Darius shuddered.
"Darius," Annie said, somewhere behind him. He attempted to rise and face her, but the foot pushed his head back down.
Next to him Katniss struggled, as if she were tied up with visible strings. "Annie!" she cried. "What is going on?"
"Don't struggle," Annie said. "Thresh… now?"
Thresh's deep voice resonated nearby: "There's no reason for this."
"What?" said the man. "You mean this?"
Katniss stopped struggling. Everything about her froze, and Darius watched anxiously as her arms gave out entirely and she hit the ground. Only the creases in her forehead betrayed her pain.
"Stop!" Darius shouted, his struggling renewed. "Release her!"
"Darius," Thresh warned, but he was silenced by the man's delighted laughter.
"This is the replacement for Chaff, is it? This is the woman you've been trying to hide from me?" The man spun about with a loud sigh of amusement. "This is the island you've been hiding from me?"
"You have no place here," Thresh said. "The woman is of no concern to you."
"But why ever not?" The man crouched in front of Darius and Katniss, placing a hand against Katniss' shoulder.
"Peeta," Katniss whimpered, still curled up in pain.
"Hush," Darius breathed in return, but it was too late.
"Peeta!" the man echoed. "Oh, he is here? I would love to meet him. Where is he?"
Neither replied, not even Thresh, and the man hissed in displeasure.
"If you do not tell me..."
The threat hung there, until he suddenly grasped Katniss by her jaw and at once a scream poured out of her.
Darius acted without thinking. He fought against the power holding him down and punched the man square in the nose, knocking him back and breaking his hold on her.
Katniss fell back to the ground, unconscious.
Darius pulled back his fist, readying to hit him again, but Annie rushed forward and grabbed his elbow.
"Stop!"
He turned back to look at her. There was blood running out of her nose.
"You're hurting me," Annie said. "Stop."
The man roared with laughter as he got to his feet.
Darius turned back to him, and caught sight of the oh, so, mighty Poseidon in the flesh.
Poseidon was not much taller than Thresh, standing within the meadow, but he was unquestionably stronger and older. He exuded a power only the old gods could. In appearance, he lacked. He had only the most basic of garbs, and a small tuft of platinum blonde hair atop his pale face. His once stingingly blue eyes seemed dulled, and his lips were an offsetting shade of strawberry pink.
Most notably, however, was neither his power or appearance, it was the string Darius could feel between Poseidon and Annie. The string was painfully taunt, as it always was.
Thresh stepped between them, bearing down on the older god with his massive dark frame. "You will return home this instant," Thresh said.
Poseidon smirked. "What are you going to do, make me?"
Thresh did not answer. He continued to stare at him, and Poseidon's smile became one of triumph.
"Nothing," Poseidon sang. "Poor little Thresh, too weak to face Annie and I. Does it pain you, my king?"
Annie sighed. "Poseidon, please. Just this once..."
"You used to like fun. Don't you remember?" Poseidon said. He stepped around Thresh to thread his arm through Annie's.
The image of the two arm and arm brought back a lot of memories for Darius. Annie had been Poseidon's favorite nymph, before the Enlightened... before the power... before Annie almost killed Poseidon and won.
Poseidon ruffled Annie's hair. "Oh, I've come so far to meet him, Annie. Will I meet him today? I have found the island…"
Pain spread across Annie's face. "I did not wish for you to."
"Why not?" Poseidon said, his voice a fraction deeper.
The answer was a thought: Desperation has corrupted you.
Poseidon snorted. "If it has corrupted me, then it has corrupted you, too. We share, remember? You wanted my gift, and you have part of it, now, does it not please you as much as you thought it would?" When Annie did not answer, he tugged at her arm and said, "Oh, how clever you were befriending me first, my precious nymph. But I am more clever, aren't I? Do you remember my finest moment? Huh?"
"This isn't necessary," Thresh said.
"Then get it over with," Poseidon taunted, as he always did. "Kill me."
Thresh looked to Annie in a despairing way.
Katniss suddenly gasped awake, and Darius tried to grab at her, but she rolled away from him and got to her feet. She saw Poseidon and flinched.
He won't kill you, Darius murmured for her mind, and he knew she heard it when she stiffened.
He declined to say hurt, because all he could really promise was that she would not die.
"Poseidon, please," Annie said again. "Please... be reasonable."
If Annie begged it now, she had begged it a hundred times, and near all the rest of the Enlightened had, too.
Poseidon did not care what they said.
He was as unrestrained as he had been since Annie tried to topple him.
Poseidon turned about, still clinging to Annie's arm, dragging her with, and smiled upon the reinforcements that Thresh had called to the meadow.
All of the Enlightened circled them, grim-faced.
Beetee stepped forward. "You can continue to play your games, Poseidon, and you can continue having your childish fits, lashing the sea all you wish, dragging Annie down with you and insulting us, just because you can, but this is not your land to play in. Not here."
"It's Clove's, right?" Poseidon replied, unperturbed by Beetee's accusations.
He knew that he was being troublesome to them. He reveled in it. Paining them and having them chase after him and hang off of all his actions seemed to be all he could do now that his old brethren were dead and gone.
His eyes sparkled as he rested them on the distant rise of hills.
"Clove has been busy building her couple's godwell, huh?"
"Yes," breathed Annie. "Her and Peeta... she has Artemis' gifts and he has Hades'..."
Dark suspicion snaked into Poseidon's eyes. "Will they be stronger than us?"
"Does it matter?"
Something whipped up through Annie and she gave a sharp cry, before sagging into Poseidon's arm.
"Will they be stronger than Thresh?" Poseidon said, harsher that time.
"Yes."
"And this is what you have complained to me of? I am making messes that distract you from them?"
"Peeta and Clove?" Thresh said, shaking his head. "No. They are a problem, yes, but they dim behind your antics. Both are problems, but it must please you to know you are the bigger of the two."
"It does please me."
"As everything does."
Poseidon laughed, proving his point. "But do not deny it, you've obscured this place from me. Why?"
Thresh looked to the other Enlightened.
Rue caught his eyes and lowered her head, and so on it went... Delly, Gloss... Wiress, Haymitch... he stopped on Annie.
Annie was staring up into Poseidon's face, their eyes locked.
Darius shuddered to feel the tug-of-war there.
"Ah," Poseidon finally breathed, releasing Annie's arm, and stepping back. "It's just been for him, then."
"I do not wish it," Annie said, and her legs shook so badly she sank to the ground in one fluid movement. "I do not wish it," she said, again and again, rocking back and forth. "I do not wish it."
That was when Darius sensed another's coming. He was the first to feel the mortal aura pushing its way into their midst. It was light, though. It was unassuming, slow, non-aggressive.
"Cinna."
Katniss noticed him second. She eyed Poseidon uncertainly and took a few steps in Cinna's direction, but even if she could have slunk her entire way out of the meadow, beyond the surrounding Enlightened, Poseidon sensed, or at the very least heard, Cinna's approach.
"Who's that?" he said, instantly interested.
"Poseidon," Thresh warned, and in Darius' mind Thresh said much, much more than that.
Katniss took a few more steps toward Cinna, daring to turn her back on Poseidon.
Darius moved between the two, just in case, and called out, very loudly, "Cinna! Run, go! There is danger. Send for –"
Before Cinna knew who to send for, Poseidon reached out to Darius and shoved him. Instead of going down, Darius rolled expertly back to his feet, and with just the brush of his hands he set the tall grass afire. It burned rapidly, circling Poseidon's feet.
"You think this will hold me?" Poseidon asked, amused.
"If I make it," Darius replied, and Thresh's voice in his mind whispered: now.
With the raise of his arms, the fire grew ten paces taller.
Poseidon threw it back with his power. It sent flames circling outward. Many jumped back from its reach. Darius stood ground but watched with unease as some of the fire dropped down to the rest of the grass and began to spread beyond what he told it to.
Annie was on her knees, rocking, sobbing, saying over and over, "Please, stop, Poseidon. Please, stop."
As she always did.
Primrose sat nursing her daughter. Achates sat on the floor, occasionally attempting to get to his feet.
Prim smiled, excited to tell Katniss of his ambitions.
She waited for Peeta, but secretly hoped Katniss would return before he did. She would rather let Katniss explain her miraculous healing to him. Further, she did not think he would be glad to return home only for Katniss to be missing again.
Prim comforted herself with the knowledge that at least Peeta would sense Katniss was merely in the nearby meadow, and therefore, in no danger.
Then she jerked back in shock as Cinna came rushing into the room.
"Prim!" he cried. "Come quickly!"
"Cinna? What is it?" Prim placed her daughter aside and secured her robe, then approached him and touched his arm in an attempt to soothe him. "What ails you?"
"It's –" He was gasping for breath. "Katniss –"
Primrose did not wait to hear the rest. "Stay with the babies!" she said, as she pushed past him and sprinted for the ash tree.
"Tell me," Clove said, standing before Peeta in the completed megaron, "are you ready to make this godwell? I can forgive you for your behavior this last week, but you must reassure me that you are committed to this, to us. We must put all our foolish disputes aside."
Peeta hesitated.
Her lips tightened in displeasure. "I know you do not love me."
"I love Katniss," said Peeta.
"I know." Clove turned her back to him. "Suppose I can accept this… suppose I will allow her a place beside us, as well as that mut– child you have produced together. Suppose I allow all of the bad between Katniss and I to simply disappear?"
"One could suppose these things… but at what cost, Clove? There is always a cost."
Peeta thought of his father and his country of origin. She had promised him immortality and power as a boy, and that had been at the cost of everything he had known. What price would there be for Katniss? How could it get any higher?
Clove scoffed.
"I simply ask for a child in return… a daughter."
"Clove…"
She turned back to him suddenly, her face animated. "It is all I want. You can have your happy little family, with your mortal wife and half-bred children. All I ask is for something of mine. A prodigy. There could be peace at such a small price, my prince."
"No price is small with you," Peeta said.
"I know you do not trust me," she said, closing the distance between them. She clasped him by his shoulder. "But you know me. It has been years, Peeta. You know my ambitions, my dreams… and this child has been my motivation since my foremothers set me on this path. Without an heir to continue the lineage, how will my foremother's forgive me? What purpose was all this scheming?"
Peeta's face betrayed no emotion as he thought.
Internally, Clove seethed, and her hand slid down to rest against his bicep.
"Peeta, you owe me," she said. "You would not be where you are today without me. Your people would still be slaves. Your dearest companions would be scattered across the world. I have even united you with your soulmate, supposedly, and while it was done unintentionally, can you not foster even the smallest amount of gratitude for me?"
Peeta rolled his eyes at that, threw up his hands and turned his back to her.
"You tried to kill my 'soulmate' many times," he said. "Don't patronize me."
Except, while Peeta thought Clove was being genuine with her compromise, he was wrong.
His guard was down.
Peeta thought Clove might have finally respected him. He thought his show of power, even while frightening her, had finally made her realize that he was in fact his own person, with his own thoughts and ambitions. He thought her capable of true emotion, and that had always been his flaw: his belief that deep down that Clove might have some empathy.
He thought they were companions, at the very least.
But he would always be a tool to her. A piece in her game.
Clove's hand still rested against his bicep.
Abruptly, Peeta's gaze flickered over his shoulder and toward the window. "Do you smell that?" he asked.
"Smell what?"
An odd expression flitted over Peeta's face. "Katniss," he said.
"What of her?"
"She's... upset."
Exasperated, Clove's grip on his arm tightened and she summoned a band there, and just as Peeta was about to notice – "Mother!"
Both their gazes swung to the door. "What is it?" they said in unison.
The village woman at the door snapped her gaze between the two, before settling on Clove's familiar face.
"Oh, Great Mother, the meadows. They've caught fire."