"Artemis?" I ask, firelight curling around us.

"Yeah?" she answers, teeth buried in a cooked leg of goosling.

"What happened to Hebe?" I ask softly.

Her eyes flash tawny in the night, guard up once again. "The hounds got 'er," she says after a moment, glances over to Hestia and I can see the guilt there, how she couldn't save the child that was almost like a daughter to her. "We tried to get up in a tree, but there were so many, Kore. One second I was pulling Hebe up and the next..."

I watch the way grief curls around her throat and closes it up so she can barely speak. Hesitantly, I reach a hand out and set it on her shoulder. "I killed Pan," I say, and saying it aloud makes me want to cry.

Artemis glances at me, unbelieving expression. "But you ran from the cornucopia and tried to protect him."

I nod, eyes drawn over to Hades where he's telling Hestia what I imagine to be the same story, with less gory detail. "We got separated. Hades and I ran into each other the next day, and then the next Pan showed up with another tribute. Her name was Aphrodite and she..." When I look back up at Artemis she's expectant- wants the bits and ends I'd rather leave out. "Hades killed her republic partner. She was upset by it and so she was gonna kill me as payback."

"What happened?" Artemis asks, looks to Hades with a bit of doubt and a bit of revere.

"She tortured us," I say, suddenly need Artemis to understand why I'm with him because I know she wonders if it's little more than an innocent crush. "She gave him the chance to run away, but he didn't. We got hurt real bad, but managed to get away when I..."

"Killed Pan," Artemis supplies, because I can't say it out loud again.

With a slight nod drowned by guilt, I say, "Aphrodite chased us and Hades ended up killing her before she could kill me. And we were so beat up that when we ended up falling into this cavern by the side of the mountains we just stayed there for a while. Hades was dying from one of his wounds. But Hephaestus, that boy from Tria, he gave me medicine. And he- he..." My voice drops conspiratorially as I lean in to whisper in her ear, "He talked about change."

Artemis blinks, turns to me with wide eyes. "Prometheus?"

"He gave me a message," I say, and while the message of 'change' was before the Games instead of during, I can't really elaborate unless I want to get us in even more trouble than we are already. I'm sure mine and Hades' little love story is wearing off in its appeal now that we've joined with others and won't be having sex again.

The thought makes me antsy; the Games could be drawing to a close with how little tributes are left and there's just three of us protecting Hestia now and we're outnumbered.

Artemis thinks over my information, purses her lips. "Atlas talks a lot," she says eventually. "He's kind of nutty. I think his Games messed his head up. Maybe that's what Hephaestus was too- nutty. I mean, why else would he give you medicine?"

I get her meaning behind the words, give a nervous laugh. "Maybe he thought I was pretty?" I say, shrugging. "He told me I don't look like a maiden though, but this dark queen named Persephone."

"Absolutely nutty then," Artemis says.

I know she's trying to do damage control, but I fear what Hades and I talked about down in the cavern probably already has our heads on a platter with the Capital officials. "Hades knew the story of it. It was cool. I wonder if Hestia...?"

"Maybe," Artemis says, dangerous edge to her gaze. "But Hestia's just full of stories. She's too young to understand things. She just needs someone to help shape her." Like the Capital is hidden behind her voice, a way of keeping Hestia safe if we can get her home, even though I know her mentor and my mentor and Artemis' mentor and probably even Hephaestus' wouldn't let anything bad happen to her.

I grin. "She's just an innocent little thing."

"Exactly," Artemis says, and the intent behind her expression is clear.

When we bunk down for the night, Hestia's already asleep in the curve of Hades' side. He lays her out on the imitation bed she'd claimed as her own, kissing her forehead softly before turning to Artemis and I, awaiting instruction.

"You two lovebirds can take my bed," Artemis says, having figured out what Hades and I have become without even needing to ask. "I'll take Apollo's..." I have a feeling this won't be the first time she's laid in his bed since he's been gone.

Hades and I curl up next to each other awkwardly on the palet of leaves and grass, already forgotten routine now that we're around others. For a moment I'm afraid everything we had in the caverns was just a dream, but then he reaches out and wraps an arm around my hips and pulls me close, fitting his face into the crook of my neck.

"I wish you could win," he says softly. "I wish you could live."

"Not without you," I say, and even though there's a twinge of survival instinct that wants to defy the words, I know I won't. Because now that I've seen Hestia again, now that I know she really could win, I'm going to make sure she does. And it's true that I don't want to live in a world without Hades, a world controlled by the Capital as their little marionette to do with as they wish on broken strings.

Hades gives a shaky laugh and kisses me softly. "I meant what I said about marrying you if I could."

"We'd have to live in my republic," I say, humoring him. "My mother couldn't stand it if we didn't."

"That's okay," he answers. "I think I'd like to work in the fields. Less dusty than coalmines."

"We could get a house of our own. I'd plant a garden in the back for us," I say.

"And we could have lotsa pretty babies," he murmurs, hugging me to him tighter. "Mainly girls. I think I'd like havin' daughters. Boys are too rambunctious."

"Clearly you've never taken care of a little sister before," I snicker. "I'd want a baby boy though. He'd have my eyes and be as stubborn as his father."

Hades sighs, hot breath over my skin and I shiver with longing for things neither of us will ever have. "We'd name him after your father, if you'd like?"

"I'd like that very much," I say.

"What would his name be, then?" Hades asks.

I smile. "Erebus."

We fall asleep spooning against each other, but it's a restless night. I hug him to me like my life depends on it, like if I don't, I'll lose him.

Somehow I realize this is half-true in the morning, when the world shakes and the sky darkens to a somber grey, storm clouds blocking out the virtual sun. Rain comes down hard, wakes me from a lazy nap with its cold drops. Where the arena has been hot for an eternity, it is now freezing, my breath coming out in cold puffs.

"Time to wrap up the show," Artemis says, looking towards the sky with a hopeless sort of smile. "Best start climbing to the top of the mountain. Better grounds to shoot people."

We eat a small, last meal of half-moldy fruit and dried lamb Artemis receives in a parachute as what she calls "A goodbye gift from Atlas," because he knows that she won't come out of this place without her twin.

"It's been nice knowing you all," she says, sucking grease off her fingers. "Maybe we'll see each other again in another life."

We don't bother to gather any of our supplies besides weapons and the healing medication; we know that we won't be coming back for anything else. Hades pulls Hestia onto his shoulders and carries her up the mountainside in soft steps; I grab his hand whenever he slips, wishing more than anything we could of all gotten out of this alive, that I could teach Hades how to climb something without about killing himself. Laugh at his frustration, kiss him mad. Let Hestia and Despoina make us flower crowns while Artemis and Apollo teach Hebe how to shoot a bow, Pan eating bacon by the plate-full and never having to work in the fields another day in his life; Charon showing him how to make honey-braids. Chione at home safe with her loved ones. Hephasteus and Atlas tinkering with contraptions and talking in ancient riddles Mother and Prometheus happy, Plutus teaching Arion to walk without tripping. No more dead fathers, brothers, lovers, friends. All of us safe, happy, a dream completely lost because we are not Odysseus; we cannot return home and expect everything to go back to how it once was.

This isn't some silly, hopeful story; that's at least one thing the Capital has made sure of.

Sighing, I follow after Artemis, her golden quiver in my line of view. There's yelling coming from the bottom of the mountain, screaming as the remaining tributes begin to climb. I imagine that the Gamesmakers want to sacrifice them here on this homage to Olympus, poetic somehow in their bloodshed.

In my bloodshed.

I don't think about that, just keep climbing until the rock begins to even out, a steady path to the top. The path isn't long though, and my suspicions are confirmed right when I find an altar before us, some sort of golden dais spread out and ready for us all to be slaughtered. I wonder if they'll collect our blood somehow, sell it to the highest bidder the way they'll sell the winner's body.

Mist has collected here at the top of the mountain, curling around our ankles like Prometheus' cigarette smoke. I think of my mentor then, of how angry he's going to be that I plan to give everything I've got to save Hestia instead of myself. I'm sorry, Prometheus, I think as I watch Hades set Hestia on her little feet, her curls bouncing. You couldn't save Plutus, and neither could I. But I can save her.

And I hope that's enough.

When the first round of other tributes reaches us, Hades grabs my hand. "I love you," he says.

"I love you too," I whisper, can't look him in the eye, can't think about any of this, of losing him, of dying under the Capitol's hands like a frivolous little flower crushed in their grasp. "Protect Hestia," I say, because it's all we've got left.

"Are you ready?" Artemis asks us, and at our nods of agreement she doesn't hesitate for the first approaching body. She draws her bow and fires, but it's a fatal mistake.