"Emma, wait!"

"Ronen, I swear to god stay away from me." I growl when he races to catch up. "In case you haven't noticed I'm not above killing you."

"I know."

He doesn't falter at my threat, skidding down an embankment and racing to head me off. I raise my sword, but he shows me his open palms to reveal that he was unarmed. Before I knew it Ronen takes me by the shoulders and my sword drops to the ground. Not because he was hurting me, but because the physical touch paired with the concern in his dark eyes drained me of my resolve. It felt like so long ago that I had hugged my brother, felt his heartbeat, and seen him breathing. Now more than ever I needed intimacy with another human being to forget about where I was, about what I was going to do.

My body stiffens as I try to control my shaking and fight to keep any more tears from falling. I press my teeth together and shove the onslaught of emotions to the back of my mind, hardening my gaze.

"But you won't." Ronen continues. "The girl I met in the chariot, she would never think of killing me or anyone for that matter."

I stare at him for a moment and see his sincerity inscribed across his face. For the second time that night and like every time I was near Ronen my resolve slips. I swallow, looking away and picking up my sword.

"The girl you met in the chariot?" I say, studying my reflection in the blade. "She's dead…She died a long time ago."

I shake out of his grasp and continue further into the forest, hearing Ronen step in behind me. The smoke from the burning hollow was beginning to thin and the roar of the flames became distant. Soon I could hear the musical trickle of water as I follow the curve of the arena, searching for a live fall.

"Is it because of this Justin?" questions Ronen. "Is that when you changed into someone who is willing to-to kill?"

"Why do you act so surprised? Isn't that what you're trained to do here? I'm just doing what's expected of me."

"But that's not who you are and that's not the Emma I knew. The Emma that I l-"

"The Emma that you what?" I ask, rounding on him when he cut himself off. "What was I to you when all this began? Just another tribute? Your competition? Or the one you could manipulate into thinking you're safe only to kill me in the end."

"The Emma I could trust." Ronen angrily shouts over me.

We freeze, his voice echoing through the trees and disturbing a nest of birds from the boughs above. As one, we retreat to a cluster of rocks and bushes against a hill, pushing through the brambles for cover. We crouch in the shadows, our combined heat making the space almost unbearable. My heart is in my throat and every sound I hear is the sound an approaching threat. But nothing happens and no one appears.

Disappointment leaves me bitter and it is only then that I realize I wanted someone to come. I wanted it to be Engle so that I could face him and end this. Winning the games didn't matter to me. None of it did, not even Ronen.

"Trust?" I whisper, still searching the woods for Engle. "It doesn't exist in the games."

"According to you the games don't exist." he replies.

I straighten and turn directly into Ronen's chest, hitting my nose and looking up into his searching eyes. My face flushes, but I don't look away, grateful that the night kept me in shadows. I have nowhere to turn, brambles sticking into my back and Ronen guarding my front. A small part of me doesn't want to leave, but I ignore it.

"What does it matter?" I rasp, silently cursing my betraying voice. "You don't believe me."

Ronen hesitates a breath too long, giving me pause. "No…But I'm sure you could convince me."

I search him, looking for his lies, his plays to get me to trust him. This could just be another trick from the faux President Snow to get me to falter. The memory of my parents under his surveillance keeps me from speaking. I glance to the side of us, paranoid that I could hear a camera whirring from a crevice in the rock. They were always watching. Even if I didn't have the electric bracelets on I knew that they would find a way to stop me from speaking.

"I—can't." I finally say in defeat. "There's too much at stake."

"Funny." he murmurs. "The way you've been acting I would have said that you didn't care about your life."

"I wasn't talking about my life." I whisper. "You don't understand what they can do if I say anything. People die, Ronen, because of me. I'm dangerous and you can't stay around me, because I will always be a target."

"What's the worst they can do? We're already in the games."

Quietly I flip my sword around in the palm of my hand, grasping it so that the blade faced away from our bodies. Raising a hand I cup his face and he touches it, pressing my fingers further against his cheek and keeping him from moving. Before I lost my nerve, I swiftly hit him over the head with my hilt and catch him as he sluggishly drops to the ground. His weight drags me down and I kneel in the dirt, carefully rolling him off my shoulder and lying him down.

I wipe away a smear of blood that trickled past his hair line, brushing back his hair.

"They can kill you." I tell his unresponsive form.

Reaching into my pack I retrieve a short knife and place it into his hand. I hesitate before leaving and then bend down and slowly kiss his brow.

I leave before he has a chance to wake and follow the sound of the river, knowing that I might not come back. That by meeting Engle my time in the games would finally end. I didn't want to win. I didn't even want to live after this.

"You have to be the one to survive." I grimace, Justin's words working their way up from the hole I had placed them in.

Breaking from the grasp of the woods, I face the steep wall of one of the five remaining falls. A figure leans against it and I stop, my sword hanging idly by my side. Two thin swords rest beside the figure, their blades as black as the cornucopia. I scowl as Clayton gives a lazy wave.

"Fancy meeting you here, Price." he greets. "I was wondering when you would show up."

My back tingles, feeling exposed to the open forest behind me. But I couldn't turn away from Clayton to search for a threat. Clayton was a threat. I circle him warily, placing the rushing water of the falls at my back and never let my gaze leave his. He watches me with interest, a half smirk plastered across his smug face.

"Where's Engle?" I question roughly.

"Isn't that the question of the evening?"

He chuckles, pushing away from the wall and taking up his blades, twirling them gracefully around. He inspects his image and then looks back to me.

"Don't worry. He isn't here with us now."

"Then why are you here?"

Clayton swishes his blades around once before crossing them together and directing them towards me.

"To kill you." He smiles, but there is something off about it. There is fear, concern, and a hint of insanity. "Just think of it as a favour."

He jumps forward and I just barely block his attack. His weight presses down on me until I am leaning back over the rushing falls. Mist hits us, causing the blades to become slick and slide together. I knee him in the stomach and kick him back, circling my sword around for an attack. Sparks fly with the ring of steel and we enter into a fight of flurrying blades and harried gasps. We were too matched, neither one of us able to gain the upper hand for long.

I throw him into the rock wall and our swords meet above our heads.

"Why do you fight me?" I yell, sweat tickling my brow. "We were once allies. We were going to fight the games, every captured was going to survive."

Clayton laughs and I was sure he had gone insane.

"Survive the games?" he cackles. "All of us survive the games? Get it into your head, Emma! Only one can win."

"And who is that going to be, Clayton? You?"

He head butts me and I reel back, holding a ringing head and raising my sword against another attack. But he didn't come forward. His twin swords hung by his side as we gasp for air.

"You still don't understand, after all this time." he rasps. "You and I can't survive. Engle is the one who will win…If we want our families to live."

It's like the ground suddenly falls away from beneath my feet and a great pressure constricts my chest. That was why the captured had stopped trying to survive. Because they had been told that if they lived, their families wouldn't. It was no longer a mystery why Caitlyn killed herself. Why the captured had rushed into the blood bath and had barely put up a fight.

My side unexpectedly burns before I can respond and I double over, grasping my mid-section. Hot blood spills over my fingers and I look up to see a knife clatter against the rocks inches from where Clayton stood. He bends down to pick it up and idly tosses it from hand to hand.

"So he's finally arrived." he murmurs.

I'm about to be sick, the pain in my side like nothing I had ever felt before. "So you weren't here to kill me?"

"I was just a distraction." he explains. "But you should have let me do it when you had the chance. Engle—he has certain plans in mind. He promised that if I followed through, my death would be quick…Unlike yours."

I don't respond, choosing instead to run for the river, the one that might dry up upon my death. My bleeding side hinders me and just a quick glance tells me that it is just as bad as the one that killed Justin.

Pressing my hands over it in an attempt to stop the blood flow I hear Engle crashing through the forest behind me. Something whistles by and I feel metal slice through my shoulder, like fire and ice all at once. Relying solely on instinct, I take a deep breath and dive into the waters. All sound is muffled beneath the surface and I hit the muddy bottom, dodging several arrows that had chased after me. I look up and see Engle's image shimmering above me, his silhouette outlined by the white moon.

Turning, I claw and swim across the river bed until I can no longer go without oxygen and bob to the surface. I gasp with burning lungs and continue to pull through the current to the other side. Dragging up onto the bank, I stagger to my feet and hear a splash behind me. I see Clayton in pursuit as Engle backs up and races into the forest to head me off.

A wave of pain pulses from my side and causes every fiber of my being to throb. My sword falls from my grasp and stumble away into the night, searching for a way to escape. This was not how I want my encounter with Engle to go and I was thankful Ronen was not there to be caught in the crosshairs. I could only hope that he wouldn't be found.

There is a canon blast and I falter, falling against a tree and looking to the sky where a flock of birds screamed. The Capitol Anthem begins playing and four faces appear in the sky.

"Attention tributes." booms an announcer. "Congratulations on reaching the final five. As a reward we offer you a feast at the cornucopia. Good luck and may the odds be ever in your favour."