Chapter 21

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"Katniss," I murmur gently. "Katniss, can you hear me?" Her eyes fly open, filled with panic, but then she focuses on me and relief floods them.

"Peeta," she whispers, and my heart flutters at the happiness in her voice.

"Hey," I answer, trying to keep my voice from cracking. "Good to see your eyes again."

She looks confused and lost as she asks, "How long was I out?"

"Not sure," I tell her, gently stroking her hair back from her face. "I woke up yesterday evening and you were lying next to me in a very scary pool of blood." She weakly lifts a hand to explore the bandage, looking as though she doesn't remember the injury. I help her drink some water and she remarks that I seem healthier. "Much better," I admit. "Whatever you shot into my arm did the trick. By this morning almost all the swelling in my leg was gone." Now is not the time to talk about her betrayal. I can see her searching my face to see if I'm angry, but I'm just so happy to see her awake and talking, I only want her to feel better.

"Did you eat?" she checks, and I'm flooded with shame again.

"I'm sorry to say I gobbled down three pieces of that groosling before I realized it might have to last a while," I admit. "Don't worry," I assure her, "I'm back on a strict diet."

"No, it's good," she says, brushing aside my apology. "You need to eat. I'll go hunting soon."

"Not too soon, all right?" I caution. "You just let me take care of you for a while." I can tell she isn't comfortable being the one on the other end of caretaking, but thankfully she realizes she needs to regain her strength and lets me help her. I feed her some groosling and fruit, with as much water as I can convince her to drink, and try to warm her up. She's tucked into the sleeping bag and is distractedly watching the rain pour down.

"I wonder what brought on this storm?" I muse out loud. "I mean, who's the target?" The Gamemakers aren't likely to be giving us a resting period, they must be trying to manipulate some kind of confrontation.

"Cato and Thresh," she answers automatically. "Foxface will be in her den somewhere, and Clove," her voice falters. "She cut me and then..."

"I know Clove's dead," I say quietly. "I saw it in the sky last night." She looks haunted and I ask gently, "Did you kill her?"

"No," she chokes. "Thresh broke her skull with a rock."

I feel sick at the idea of her in the middle of such a close battle with those three because of me. I'm so grateful she came back safely I feel a little dizzy. "Lucky he didn't catch you, too," I say, swallowing the nausea the thought brings.

Katniss meets my eyes and I catch my breath at the sadness in hers. "He did," she murmurs. "But he let me go." My eyebrows lift at this stunning news and her face crumples. Her words come tumbling out in a baffling flood of confession. She starts with how Rue found her after the tracker jackers and they planned together to destroy the Careers' supplies. My blood runs cold to think of her waltzing into the Career camp, knowing how frantic they were to find her. She tells me about setting off the explosions and losing the hearing in her left ear, and hiding right next to their camp while they tore off in search of her after killing Link. I feel ill at the thought, but then she recounts how Marvel caught Rue in the trap I helped him set and I'm overwhelmed by guilt and shame. I listen numbly to how she shot Marvel and when she explains that District 11 sent her Rue's bread in tribute, I press my head into my hands and blink back tears. Poor little Rue. I'm so sorry, I think uselessly. This terrible recitation ends with Thresh not killing Katniss because she had befriended Rue. It makes no sense to me. From everything I could tell, Rue was no concern of his. He never even acknowledged her.

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