Songs & Seas | Hunger Games

XVI.

~ ~ ~

MARIA-ROSE COVEY WAS UNCOMFORTABLY FAMILIAR. Long brown hair, a sweet smile, and a powerful voice all tied up in a colorful dress. If she turned her head just right, Snow could see a forgotten face woven into her features.

Just a twitch of her brow or a slight smirk, and he was sent back to District 12.

Only this girl wasn't from District 12, which only frustrated him more.

She made him sick. The blood seeping into his mouth didn't leave as awful a taste as the memory she stirred — of a song in the rain, of betrayal sweetened by a smile.

And that song.

Oh, that awful, hellish song.

The girl had feigned innocence when he asked, but he'd seen her kind before, and her false naivety wasn't fooling him. He wasn't that ignorant school boy anymore, and she couldn't pull the cover over him, no, not again. Not this time.

Snow's eyes watched from afar, narrowed into slits. She was laughing with that Odair boy.

That laugh. Oh, that laugh. Like a song he'd heard before but forgotten how sweet it sounded.

The laugh of a ghost. A ghost, mocking him.

His Lucy Gray.

That savage witch probably cursed him before she disappeared. This girl must be her revenge from beyond the grave.

Did she have a grave?

He had no proof she was really gone. And now with this District 8 girl, he was even more uncertain than he was before.

"Seneca," he called out to the man behind him, who came rushing forward. "Could you escort our newest Victor into my office. I'd like to...congratulate her privately."

Seneca Crane, a man gunning for a promotion for the past two years, was eager as always to be given a task. "Of course, President Snow. Right away."

Snow watched from his balcony as Seneca weaved his way through the crowd, but he kept a careful eye on that girl in the colorful dress.

"I can't believe you don't know how to swim!" Finnick laughed, his head slightly tilting back.

Maria rolled her eyes, amused. "Well, where would I learn? We can't all be from the fishing district, Seaweed brain."

"Seaweed brain?" Finnick feigned offense, holding his heart. "Couldn't give me a cooler nickname? Like..."

"Fish face? Kelp head?" Maria cut him off, grinning. She snapped her fingers. "Splish Splash."

A smiling Finnick opened his mouth to respond.

"Miss Covey."

Their young smiles faded so fast, it was like they were never present at all. Finnick cleared his throat and took a step around to stand beside Maria. Seneca Crane was someone Finnick didn't know very well, but he had heard enough whispers to know that he was practically President Snow's lap dog.

"Hello, Mr. Odair," Seneca greeted with a false kindness. His focus swiftly shifted back to his target. "Miss Covey, President Snow would like a word."

Finnick had heard that before.

Maria's narrowed eyes moved off the slim man in front of her and drifted up to the balcony. She was met with an icy gaze staring back at her. Her stomach turned to knots, and her hands shook, but she knew this wasn't something she had a say in.
So she put on a tight smile and shifted her attention to Finnick.