Chapter 26

The Arena

"What is it?" asked Caius.

They were perched on the outcropping of rock that formed a sort of "awning" over Caius's "front porch". Artemis crouched next to Caius, with her hood still shading her face. Caius was sitting on the edge of the rock. He had taken off his shoes and socks, letting his bare feet dangle over the edge. He did not wear his jacket or his sword, and both items rested nearby and in reach. He now wore only black pants, his silver ring, and his torn tunic. Between the two tributes rested a metal container, about which Caius was speaking.

"I don't know," replied Artemis truthfully. "It's yours. You get to open it."

Caius picked up the box gingerly. It was a smooth silver cylinder about six inches long and three inches in diameter, with the initials CAA engraved on one end. Cautiously, he pressed the latch and tipped it over his cupped hand. A few plump dark berries spilled out, and Caius's eyes widened. "Berries. They're either nightlock or blueberries."

"Well, that sucks for you, then," said Artemis. "Petronius got a hot dog. Romulus got pizza. I got six bars of dark chocolate –– they're all gone now, if you're wondering."

Under his long black hair, Caius's shadowed eyes narrowed. He deposited all but one of the berries back into the container, then took that one and sniffed it. He broke it in half, and examined the greenish-purple center. Those shadowed eyes brightened as he reached his conclusion, and he exclaimed in a surprisingly childish voice, "Blueberries!"

And before Artemis could act, he popped it into his mouth, chewed, and swallowed. "What the –– Caius! That could be poisonous!" she yelped, and for this the boy stared at her as if she had been the one to eat the berry.

"It's not poisonous," he said matter-of-factly. "Yes, I know blueberries look a lot like nightlock, or vice versa, but these aren't nightlock."

"How do you know?"

"Nightlock has a distinctive bitterness to their scent, and their centers are dark red or yellow, not greenish-purple. And blueberries have a different curvature near the bottom."

Artemis said nothing, only stared at him. After about a minute of extremely awkward silence, during which Caius asked repetitively why she was staring at him and during which she did not answer, she said, "Okay, you're good."

"What?" he asked.

"Remember? The Seventy-fourth Games? 'Peeta, those are nightlock! You'd be dead in a minute!' That was a minute. Sixty seconds."

The look he gave her was practically the epitome of exasperation. "Thanks for your concern."

She rolled her eyes. "No problem. Eat away."

Greedily, Caius poured another handful of blueberries into his hand, sifting through each one and sniffing them before dumping them into his mouth. He had downed half of the container before Artemis said, "You really like blueberries, don't you?"

He showed his sharp, purple-stained teeth in what might have been considered a grin. "Yup. Forget chocolate."

As Caius ate the rest of his berries, Artemis watched him sadly. She hadn't told him her theory yet, the theory that the unexpected gifts from the Gamemakers were merely something to warn the tributes that the real fight was coming. She wasn't sure what it was yet, but she knew when it would come. The last meal was given at night. All executions came in the morning.

She sat down beside him, also letting her legs dangle off the edge. Caius looked at her with those wide, unblinking dark eyes, and she gave a tentative, wan smile. Neither of them spoke for a long time, both sitting in companionable silence as they listened to the sounds of the quiet night and felt the cool breeze on their cheeks. Then, when she thought that the silence had been long enough, Artemis said, "Why not?"

He looked at her. He knew what she was talking about, and it had nothing to do with chocolate or blueberries. This had been a long-debated question between them.

"Because," he said brusquely, leaving it at that.

"Because why?" She was very stubborn.

"They won't accept me."

She had heard this before. "Why not?"

"They just won't, okay? No one ever has."

"I have."

"That's because you're too much like me."

"And they accepted me."

"Because you threatened to gut them like fish if they didn't."

Artemis considered this. "True."

"I don't want them to fear me. I've either been feared and cast out as too angry and dangerous, or looked down on and cast out as too different. I hate both options."

"They wouldn't dare look down to you. Except for maybe Petronius. He's pretty tall." She didn't think that he got the joke.

"Exactly. They fear me. It's always one or the other."

"They feared me at first, especially Cornelius. But they warmed up to me. They'll do the same to you."

"No. I told you. I work alone, or not at all."

"That's what I said. And Iris. And Petronius. And Cornelius…arrogantly. It's like –– a group of loners."

A smile flickered across Caius's thin face. "Introverts unite!" he said, pumping his fist.

Artemis did likewise and together they finished sarcastically, "Um…no."

Caius almost laughed. Artemis heard it. It was a breathy, half hidden sound, but it was there. Along with the ghost of a smile and the merry flash in his usually solemn eyes. She wanted to make it happen again. The problem was, she didn't know how.

And he says that he's not emo.

Then the usual indifference returned, and another silence drifted between them. Caius averted his eyes and stared down at his bare feet. "I'm sorry, Artemis," he said softly. "But my answer is no."

"Cai, you can't just –– "

And then he did the last thing either of them expected him to do. He reached forward, pushed her hood back, pulled her close, and kissed her right on the lips.

When he drew back, Artemis's eyes, no longer shadowed by her hood, were wide. She blinked several times as she stared at an equally surprised Caius, and her mouth opened. All feelings of icy indifference melted and left her with a blazing flame she hadn't even known existed. That blazing flame burned at her, leaving her with a foreign feeling that she did not know how to describe.

And what Artemis Hecate Gossamer did not know, she feared.

She broke their locked gaze first, and stood up. Without another word, she clambered down from the outcropping and raced towards the forest.

When she felt that she was far enough away from that boy, she paused her frantic race against no one and supported herself against a tree. As she regained her breath, her rational mind kicked in. A numbing chill ran down her spine as she realized that by fleeing from something as trivial as a kiss, she may have just condemned Caius to death.

I didn't warn him about tomorrow's execution.

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