The next day, a messenger arrives at the hospital to tell Peeta, Haymitch and me that we have been summoned to a meeting at the President's mansion with Coin. None of us want to leave Effie's side, but all surviving Victors are required. We make our way back to the mansion in silence.
We enter a plain room with a round table at its center. Johanna, Beetee, Annie, and Enobaria are all sitting around it. I had guessed Commander Lyme never made it out of 2, but I am shocked at how few of us there are. I think back to the Quarter Quell reapings, the pools of victors in 1, 2, and 4. Even Johanna was one of many in 9. How are they all gone now?
From behind me, Coin speaks, "The Victors were hunted after the Arena blew up. The Capitol killed those they thought may have an allegiance to the rebellion, and the rebels killed those they suspected were aligned with the Capitol. I suppose there could be more of you in hiding somewhere, but so far I've been unable to locate any. This is our quorum."
Peeta, Haymitch, and I take our seats with a bit of trepidation. I smile at Annie, who is rocking back and forth in her seat and suckling her hair like a child. She doesn't smile back. I take her hand in mine and squeeze it tight.
"I've asked you here to settle a debate. As you are aware, we've been unable to locate President Snow. Most of us assume he was killed during the fall of the Capitol, but others worry he's escaped. As such, there is a feeling of unease among the people of Panem. Hundreds of his accomplices have been tried and await their deaths, but there is a concern that this will not provide the closure that killing Snow may have. As such, we have devised a secondary course of action that we believe is fair, and will provide some finality to the citizens of our new nation. A final Hunger Games, with the tributes being reaped from the children of the Capitol. While Snow is gone, we have acquired his granddaughter. The bloodline shall be purged."
The blood in my veins begins to boil. Hasn't there been enough death?
"They already saw their children slaughtered," I say with a burning deliberation.
"How's that?" Coin asks.
"Are you kidding me?" I glare at her. Coin shakes her head at me, clearly oblivious. "Their children were just blown up! In front of their eyes! Dozens of them!" I scream at her. Peeta takes my hand.
"Haven't we seen enough death? Enough children in this world extinguished?" Peeta asks.
"Those children were murdered by Snow, and it was hardly the same display that another Hunger Games would draw." Coin retorts.
"Display?!" I'm out of my seat now, and both Haymitch and Peeta are up, trying to sit me back down. "DISPLAY?! My sister died in that explosion!"
"Snow's explosion, Katniss. He took Prim away from all of us. That girl was in the hearts of each citizen of Panem. And we deserve vengeance." Coin states calmly.
"You? You think you deserve vengeance for Prim?! You didn't even know her!" I'm fuming now, rattled and angry. How dare she use my sister as an excuse for another Hunger Games! My sister, who couldn't bear to hunt with me for fear she'd hurt some innocent animal. Who abhorred violence and death so much that she dedicated her tragically short life to healing.
"Are there any other opinions?" Coin states, opening the matter to the other Victors.
My mind starts churning.
"Was this Plutarch's idea?" asks Haymitch.
"It was mine," says Coin. "It seems to balance the need for vengeance with the least loss of life."
I tune them out. My mind is racing. Coin was so quick point out Snow's guilt in the bombing that killed my sister, but Snow was already dead by that point. Coin doesn't know that, but I do. Perhaps he ordered the attack in advance, but… the delayed explosion. My thoughts double back to the day in Special Weaponry, with Gale and Beetee. Gale is describing a trap that plays on human sympathies. They are reviewing designs… the first bomb kills the victims, the second kills the rescuers. I remember Gale's words: "Beetee and I have been following the same rulebook as President Snow." I start to choke on the vomit rising in my throat.
"Katniss, are you okay?" Peeta asks.
Gale's absence. He's already put two and two together. He hasn't been around me because he can't. He knows Prim's blood is on his hands. His hands, Coin's hands. My eyes dart to Beetee, who is calculating the pros and cons of a Capitol Hunger Games in his complex mind. I remember Gale referring to the refugees as "collateral damage," as if they weren't even people anymore but a necessary sacrifice to the cause. I remember back to 13, his special communicuff. His loyalty to Coin, him defending that woman. In the end, I wasn't part of Snow's game. I was part of hers.
"Let's take a vote." Coin declares, hearing no further discussion on the matter. I have no idea what has been said.
"No!" bursts out Peeta. "I vote no! What was the point of the War? We can't have another Hunger Games!"
"Why not?" Johanna retorts. "Seems like a fair shake up to me. I vote yes." Peeta pleads at her with his eyes. I cannot understand the bond shared between the captured Victors, but I know they trust each other in ways I can only begin to imagine. Johanna intentionally avoids his stare.
"As do I," says Enobaria, but I can tell she is only seeking to nurse a need for violence that makes me uneasy even sharing this room with her. Peeta is at a loss and is pulling his hair with his hands.
"I vote no," Annie says quietly. "And so would Finnick, if he were here."
"Well he's not, and we cannot rely on supposition as to where his feelings would lie. Finnick doesn't get a vote in absentia." Coin replies with indifference. I can feel my hatred for Coin seeping from my pores. I can smell it on my skin.
"No," says Beetee. "We cannot set precedent like this for our new democracy. We cannot use the lives of innocents to atone for the sins of the guilty."
"That leaves Haymitch and Katniss," Coin states, fixing her eyes on us. Nothing has changed. Nothing will ever change with this woman at the helm.
"I vote yes." I hear Peeta gasp next to me, and withdraw. He is gripping his pants and rocking in his chair. "For Prim." I add.
"I need to be excused," Peeta says so quietly, only I hear him.
"Haymitch?" Coin says.
"I NEED TO BE EXCUSED!" Peeta yells, tossing his chair back against the wall. It shatters, and Annie grabs his hand and leads him out of the room. I'll explain later. He'll understand.
Once Peeta has left and the room is calm, Haymitch casts his vote with me. He is calculating like I am. He knows something is working in my brain.
"That settles it, then. The Reaping shall be held in 4 days. I expect you all to be present." Coin states before she exits the room.
"You wanna tell me what's going on?" Haymitch whispers, and I meet his stare, then walk out of the room.
That night I go to Peeta's room but his door is locked. I rap my knuckles on the wood entreating him for entry, but he ignores me. I hear his shower turn on. He has no intention of a visitor tonight. Instead I go to the hospital to sit with Effie. Her recovery has been quick-paced, and she is sitting up arguing with Haymitch. I hover outside their door and listen.
"Well tell Coin I'm not interested!" she quips. "Your name is the last I shall ever pull from a reaping bowl."
"I know it doesn't make sense, Effie, but I need you to do this. Please, just trust me." Haymitch tries appealing to her ego. "No one can do this but you."
"You mean no one is left to do this but me. I know all the escorts are dead." They are quiet for a minute.
"The girl's got a plan. She's not going to share it with me, but she needs us. This one last time." Haymitch whispers.
"Alright," she finally concedes. "But something must be done about my wardrobe. This hospital gown is not suitable for public consumption."
"I'll get you the best stylists left in the Capitol, princess." Haymitch knows she's on board.
"Hi," I say as I finally slip into her room. Effie's face lights up, and she crushes my fingers as she grips my hand. I ask if I can borrow Haymitch, and we take a walk out into the night.
"I know where Snow is." I confess.
"What?! Where?" Haymitch spits out, astounded.
"His body is part of the carnage in the secret tunnel. The one pinned to the wall with my arrows."
Haymitch stops dead in his tracks. "Then she knows. Coin must know he's dead, but why isn't she telling us?"
"I think she wants these Games to happen. She can't see past her own need for retribution. She wants the people of the Capitol to suffer, and she wants every rebel cheering it on. She wants to look like the hero. She'll reveal he's dead when the Games are done."
Haymitch nods his head in agreement. "But she knows you know. If your arrows were down there, she knows you are keeping this to yourself."
"I have no doubt she still wants to have me killed. It's why she sent Peeta into the Star Squad. She needs me to endorse the Games. She needs me to be the Mockingjay one last time, and then she'll get rid of me." I say. We stop walking and I look up at my mentor. "She killed my sister, Haymitch." He starts to put the pieces together as I impart my suspicions.
"Coin kicked me out of Command right before the explosion. Made up some excuse about clearance and had me escorted out. The next thing I knew, I saw everyone go up in flames on the rebel broadcast. How did she know to film that exact area of the square?" We both know how.
I tell Haymitch my plan, and he squeezes my shoulder. "I'll be there with you, girl on fire."
The next four days are painfully slow. Peeta hasn't left his quarters. I spend an entire afternoon camped outside his room, talking to him through the door. At one point, I feel him settle on the other side. I can tell he is there by the way the light under his door shifts, but he never replies. He just sits for a few minutes, and then retreats back to his room. I wallow. I find dark spaces, I hide in closets. I mourn my sister. I start to lose myself a little, but I remind myself I have a job to do. The War isn't over, not yet.
The day of the Reaping, Effie comes to my room with my Mockingjay suit. She is dressed like herself, a little worse for wear, but wig in place. I preferred her chocolate locks, but I smile when I see her back to her old self. "It's going to be a big, big, big day!" she exclaims as she lets a prep team into the room. They aren't my prep team, but they'll do. When we finish, we make our way down to the City Circle.
In front of the mansion, a giant stage has been erected. The victors stand on either side of the reaping bowl. Effie takes her place at the center, and I pretend not to notice her hands shake. I take my place next to Peeta, and he ignores me. Peeta is dressed in a jumpsuit not unlike that from the Quarter Quell. Johanna is in all black and props an axe on her shoulder. Her hair hasn't really fully grown in yet, and the shorn mop makes her look absolutely crazy. Enobaria bears her teeth as the children come in and fill the square. I know we are meant to look powerful, and I play my part. I hold my bow over my head and the crowd of rebels lined behind the children scream in anticipation. Peeta looks sick. When Coin takes the stage, she depresses a button and her platform lifts her high into the air. She wants everyone to see her. Good.
"People of Panem!" The crowds fall still. Coin begins to speak, and it starts with the same story we hear every year. The history of Panem, the country that rose up from the ashes of a place once called North America. She enumerates the disasters, the droughts, the famine. The brutal wars. She talks about the Dark Days, the failed uprising that resulted in The Hunger Games. "And we endured. And we waited. For 74 years, we watched the Capitol reap our children like cattle for slaughter. But now, the people have risen again!" The crowd cheers uncontrollably. She waits for the mania to ebb. "This shall be the end. Today, we reap the last tributes. Today, the Capitol truly falls. They shall sacrifice their children, and we shall all be reborn as the blood of their own spills like the blood of ours has for far too long. Only then we will be equal. Only then we will be the same."
I look down into the children below. They are crying and clinging to one another. They haven't been waiting for this day their whole lives. They are ill-prepared, and it shows. Siblings lock hands. They dressed up for today just like we did in the Districts. They knew to wear their best. Other than that, they are utterly terrified. I take a breath, load an arrow, and aim it up at Coin. I know I only have one chance. Bullets may pierce my body before it even leaves my bow, but I can stop the bloodshed. One more drop. Hers. And probably mine. And then I can be with my sister again. I let it fly.
The arrow pierces Coin through her heart and she falls from the risen pedestal. I know before she hits the ground she is dead. Blood slowly pools around her body. I reach for my shoulder to grab my nightlock pill, but I feel Peeta reaching for it. We struggle, and the pill flies from our hands and rolls away on the platform. In that moment I am surrounded by soldiers in grey uniforms. I'm unsure what lies ahead - torture, probable execution. I hadn't thought this far. I hadn't planned to live this long. I see Effie grab the reaping bowl and smash it into the ground, sending shards of crystal flying in all directions. As they drag me away, the last thing I see is Peeta's face searching for mine. He knows. He knows why I did this, why I voted to force a Reaping. He knows I'm still the girl he fell in love with. But I'm done playing their games.