Trigger Warning: This is the chapter where Eidolon sees Honey's face in the sky so… It's going to be upsetting.

Faces in the Sky:

Honeydew Wrack, District 1

Jiro Ethridge, District 2

Rusalka Darien, District 7

Ageis Sacro, District 8

Navara Audi, District 9

Asteraceae Croft, District 10

Moss Hawkins, District 11

Eidolon Wrack, 19, District 2 Tribute POV

My sister's face is the first one in the sky.

I hang my head in shame, knowing that it isn't worth looking at the other faces. It isn't worth fighting anymore. There's no point fighting for myself. I am nothing. I am an empty shell.

No. It's worse than that. I am a coward. I was too scared to protect my sister and now she's dead.

I need to die. It would solve all my problems, end all my suffering and protect anyone I love who's still alive. The problem is that I don't have any weapons.

All I can do is lie down and wait for death to take me away from this terrible place.

Houghton Field, 15, District 9 Tribute POV

I can recognise a few faces in the sky, even with my blurry vision - Jiro, the girl I'd killed, my district partner and Asteraceae.

The rest are strangers to me.

I'm a little saddened that Jiro's dead but I'd stopped thinking of him as an ally a while ago. I'm more shocked to find that all the tributes I know are dead.

When I try to think of the opponents I have left, there's just a blur in my head.

I don't know who I'm fighting. I don't think I ever knew.

Drachma Montez, 18, District 10 Tribute POV

There were a lot of deaths today. Almost as many as there were in the bloodbath. Maybe, in a regular games, I'd be annoyed that someone was stealing kills from me. But, this games, I'm aware that everyone's a lot tougher than usual. Also, my alliance is a lot smaller than usual. I'm happy with my two kills so far.

I hope that Mako's happy with his one.

There are a lot of tough tributes among the dead. A few jump out at me. Jiro Ethridge, the boy who I suspect killed a victor. Rusalka, a sign to the other tributes that our alliance has been whittled down to two members. Ageis Sacro, one of the top scorers in training.

Moss Hawkins, Silver's boyfriend.

But the living are the ones that really matter.

"Who's left?" Mako asks. "I remember Eidolon, Régine, Fawkes, Houghton and Silver. Who's the other one?"

"Sankie," I say.

"How did she make it so far?"

"She's fast and she has a strong allies."

I think about alliances. It seems like everyone left has lost one today. Even us, if Rusalka counted as one of us.

"Let's talk about our opponents," I say. "Eidolon's lost his sister. What does that mean?"

"He's dangerous and angry," Mako replies. "We kill him on sight."

"Agreed," I say. "Then there's Ageis' alliance. There are three of them left."

"But only one of them can fight," Mako says. "Régine's lost her girlfriend. I don't know what effect that'll have on her, since she's…"

"Unhinged?" I say.

"Yeah," Mako says. "But, given that she hasn't killed Fawkes or Sankie yet, she must have some sanity left. I'd say they're planning something. Especially since they've got Fawkes."

"Speaking of Fawkes," I say. "The resurrecting wonder..."

Mako laughs. "I think Rusalka lost it a little in the bloodbath. There's no way he managed to bring himself back from the dead. He was probably faking it."

"He's good at manipulating stupid Elites. That probably explains why he's in an alliance with Régine. If that alliance attacks, we should kill Régine first, before she kills us, and Fawkes second, before he can escape. We can let Sankie get away if we have to. Better her than Fawkes or Régine."

"Then there's Houghton," Mako says. "You killed his ally in front of him."

I smile at the memory of my second kill in this arena. "Aside from Sankie, he's the weakest left and he doesn't have any allies to back him up. He's probably sitting in the jungle on a pile of sponsor gifts waiting for someone to kill him."

Mako nods. "He's massively out of his depth. Then there's Silver."

I hesitate. Out of all the opponents I have left, Silver's the one that I'm hoping not to fight. The others, I can dismantle, divide into strengths and weaknesses. The tough ones are stupid and the smart ones are weak. Silver's not like that. He's not the best fighter in the arena - that's probably Mako - but he can hold his own in a fight. He's probably a contender for smartest tribute in the arena as well. At the very least, he's clever enough to keep any weaknesses secret. Silver is a mystery, impossible to figure out.

Why else would just thinking about him make me feel so confused?

"His boyfriend died today," I say. "His other allies died in the bloodbath. We outnumber him, two to one."

"We'd better hope he doesn't have any tricks up his sleeves," Mako says. "Something tells me that, when we run into Silver Oberst, he'll fight dirty."

"I think we should stay here," I say, without thinking.

"Why?" Mako asks. "There aren't many tributes left to kill."

So you aren't happy with just one kill?

"Out of the seven tributes who died today, six of them died in the jungle and the other one was running from something. I'm willing to bet there are some pretty nasty hazards in there. My last arena was a jungle, remember? There were a lot of mutts."

Mako shudders. I realise that I've found his weakness. It must've been pretty nasty, getting killed by a tiger.

"How do we get kills?" He asks.

"We are in the safest area of the arena," I say. "Sooner or later, the other tributes are going to figure it out and move in. Maybe they've already realised it and they're waiting at the edge of the jungle, waiting for us to move away so they can claim the beach. What if we made it look like we're going into the jungle to hunt but stay near the edge? If anything attacks us, we can make a run for the beach and, if any of the tributes make it to the beach, we can strike."

"That's an excellent idea," Mako says. "Let's do it."

I smile, thinking of all the tributes remaining who could be a threat. I'm hoping I never have to fight Silver on my own. Eidolon is so powerful that I'd probably need Mako's help to kill him. Fawkes and Régine have the advantage of being in an alliance and they have the perfect combination of brains and brawn. Once one of them dies, the other will be left vulnerable.

Once it's just myself, Mako, Sankie, Houghton and one of the Threes remaining, I won't have to worry about those threats anymore. I'll have to worry about a different threat.

Mako.

I've never thought of Mako as an opponent, always as an ally. But I know that we won't be allies forever. I know that, in a fair fight, I don't stand a chance against him. I've watched him practicing with a sword in training.

But with the element of surprise and in an environment that I'm used to and makes him feel weak, I could kill him without too much trouble.

I intend to keep Mako in the jungle for as long as possible.

Régine Maurin, 18, District 3 Tribute POV

It's hard to keep track of the faces in the sky. According to Sankie, if we don't move fast, we're not going to make it out of the nine o'clock segment before the hazard hits. We're not fast enough.

Fawkes is putting all of his effort into moving quickly but, if anything, he's been slowing down ever since Sankie warned us we might not make it. He's pushing himself too hard, running out of energy. I offered to carry him a few hours ago but he told me he was fine.

Silver glances up at the sky and swears.

"What's wrong?" I ask.

"Jiro's dead," Silver says. "I saw him run into this section in the bloodbath. Maybe he was the cannon at nine in the morning."

"Well, it's only Jiro," I say. "Maybe if it'd been someone tougher, we'd have a real problem."

"Jiro might have been weak but he was cautious," Silver says. "Whatever killed him must've been dangerous. Besides," he lowers his voice. "Jiro was tougher than Fawkes. Maybe we can fight it but he can't."

I nod.

"Guys!" Sankie cries. "We're almost there! I can see the boundary!"

I look ahead and I just see trees, the same trees I've been looking at for the last eight or so hours. I have no idea how Sankie's sense of distance and direction got so good but I'm glad it did, otherwise we'd all be lost.

"Where is it?" I ask.

"That tree," Sankie points forwards. There are so many trees, I can't tell what she's pointing at. "Do you see it?"

I shake my head. "Run ahead and stand on the other side."

I look down at my watch. We have ten minutes left.

"Actually," I say. "I think we should all run."

Sankie's the first one to make it to safety. Silver and I are only a few metres away when she calls out that she's made it. Maybe it's because she's fast. Maybe it's because Silver and I have both been looking over our shoulders to see how Fawkes is doing. He's not that far behind us.

We have five minutes to run a few metres. I'm sure we'll make it, even in less than ideal conditions.

Then Fawkes cries out. He falls to the ground. Silver and I both freeze.

"I'll deal with him," Silver says. "You get to safety, use your arrows."

I nod and start running. I don't know why I'm taking a step back from protecting Fawkes and letting Silver do it. Maybe it's my old battle instincts. The warrior with the sword charges into danger. The warrior with the bow covers them from a distance. I trip once but recover quickly. Finally, I rush past Sankie, into the ten o'clock section. I check my watch before raising an arrow to my bow.

I made it with just under a minute to spare.

There's no way Fawkes and Silver are making it. They're not that far away but that distance seems so wide. Silver has given up on trying to get Fawkes to walk and has just picked him up. Fawkes doesn't seem to mind.

I can tell when it hits nine o'clock. There's a fluorescent blue blur sailing towards Fawkes. I shoot. My arrow stops the small, blue creature mid-flight.

"It's a frog," Sankie says.

I almost laugh. "Dangerous frogs?"

"Yeah," Sankie says. "I read somewhere that you can get poisonous frogs in the jungle."

She sounds like her usual cheerful self, no sign of fear or trauma. I suppose it's because she's across the line of safety. But I've broken out in a cold sweat, even though I'm safe.

Maybe Sankie has forgotten all about how she died but I can't forget that, out of the five people in this alliance, four of us have died with poison in their veins. Including Ageis. Especially Ageis.

I have to hope that Silver doesn't make it a full set.

There's another blue blur. I shoot again. The closer Silver gets to us, the more time that passes, the more there are. Remarkably, I hit every target. Maybe my fear of watching my allies get hurt is making my senses sharper.

When Silver is just a few steps away, he stops and cries out in pain.

"Come on, Silver!" I cry. I want to rush to help him but I know I need to stay here, where I can shoot the frogs attacking my allies without being distracted by frogs attacking me. With Silver using both arms to carry Fawkes, he can't defend himself.

Silver looks me in the eye. He's grimacing with pain but he manages to limp the last few steps. Once he's across the invisible line, he drops Fawkes to the forest floor and grabs his sword. Carefully, he uses the flat of the blade to flick a frog from the back of his left calf back across the line before it can do any more damage. Then he sinks to the ground to examine the wound.

"Shit…" he mutters, looking at the red, raw flesh from where the frog had melted his skin away.

"Sorry," I say. "I must've missed that one."

"It's okay," Silver says. "It came from behind. If you'd tried to shoot it, you would've probably hit me. At least none of them got Fawkes."

"Are you sure?" I ask. Fawkes looks pretty badly hurt but I can't tell if it's because of the frogs or because of his leg.

"If one of them got Fawkes, we would know," Silver says, deadly serious. "I need to look at his leg."

"You're hurt," I say.

"He's hurt worse."

"We have less than ninety minutes to get out of here," Sankie says. "This is the wave section. It gets big at about half ten but I don't want to stick around to see if it gets deadly earlier."

"We're not going to make it," Silver says. "I might as well look at Fawkes' leg before we don't make it."

Silver moves closer to Fawkes. I kneel down beside him and gasp when I see the damage that's been done to his leg. Shards of bone are poking through the skin.

"What happened?" I ask.

"It was already broken," Silver says. "He didn't rest it so it just got worse and worse."

"How am I supposed to rest it?" Fawkes asks, his voice tight with pain. "We're in a giant death clock that throws acid frogs at us every hour and you expect me to just stop walking?"

"That is exactly what I expect you to do," Silver says. "From now on, one of us is going to carry you until we make it to the tree."

He climbs to his feet and winces.

"You okay?" I ask.

"I'm fine," he says, clearly not fine. I wonder how I came to be in an alliance full of people who can't accept it when they're injured.

"Maybe it'll help if you wash the acid away," Sankie says. "We could use the seawater. We're actually closer to the beach than we are to the next section," her eyes widen. "We could make it to the tree section in time if we went closer to the beach. The sections are thinner closer to the Cornucopia so it'll take less time to cross them."

"That's a good idea," I say. "Let's go."

Carefully, I lift Fawkes up from the forest floor. Silver looks grateful but he doesn't say anything. He's limping but it doesn't slow us down much. It takes us about twenty minutes to reach the edge of the trees.

"The beach looks pretty exposed," Silver says. "Maybe I should go alone."

"Are you sure?" I ask.

"I can still fight," Silver says. "Besides, none of the other tributes know we're allied. If Eidolon or Houghton attack, you could probably kill them in one shot from here but, if it's two Careers, you'll need to take Sankie and Fawkes and run."

I nod, thinking of Binah's flower. If Silver gets attacked, helping him in any way will put Fawkes in danger. I might not be able to save all my allies but I'll be able to save Fawkes. He's the top priority. Any doubt that he was the top priority died with Ageis.

"Okay," Silver says. "I'm going. Don't give me any of that last goodbye bullshit. I'm definitely coming back."

"Aww," Fawkes says. "I was going to say that I'm glad you were the last person who ever kissed me."

Sankie laughs. I allow myself a small chuckle. With the amount of times Fawkes has almost died during these games, I'd forgotten about how Silver had saved him from drowning.

Silver gives Fawkes the middle finger and walks away.

"I miss him already," Fawkes says.

I watch Silver walk down the beach and wade into the water. But I notice another movement from the other side of the Cornucopia.

Drachma and Mako. The Careers.

They're heading towards Silver. They've seen him.

They haven't seen us.

I take one last look at my ally before running through the jungle, towards the lightning tree.

I can't save everyone. I'll have to save who I can. It's what leaders do.

This chapter has changed a lot since my first draft. In my first draft, Eidolon's POV was a LOT more upsetting and Fawkes' alliance didn't have that run-in with the frogs that forced Silver into Career territory. At this point in my first draft, Ageis was still alive and in the Career alliance and Silver was the one killed by the mutt so I've made a lot of changes. There's going to be a major battle next chapter - Silver vs the Careers.