¹ THRONE ─ the hunger games

[ 008 ] the sharpest lives

"SO," EVANDER SAID, declaratively, sending Iko a surreptitious smile over the rim of his wine glass, "now we get to the good stuff. Game strategy. Murder plans."

Aeneas cringed. Rhea and Janus exchanged uncomfortable looks. Iko hid a grin behind her glass of water. Unsure how to respond, Alex blinked.

Enobaria rolled her eyes, biting into a piece of her steak with a savage vehemence. "I thought we agreed to veto calling it that."

Waving his fork in the air, Evander dismissed Enobaria's blatant disapproval. His eyes glistered with a malicious edge as he sent both Iko and Alex a devilish wink. "And I elected to ignore our agreement."

Although it wasn't her first time sitting at a full dining table, Iko still doubted she would ever get acclimatised to the noise of company. For years, it'd just been her and her mother and the stringent silence between them that'd been stitched together by all the words unsaid that didn't know how to be said. And now there were her two mentors, their escort, her district partner, and their two stylists. Even here, seven people seemed too much of a crowd, despite this being barely a notch on the magnitude of noise Alex's large family could create

After the parade, Aeneas had led Alex and Iko to the elevator, lion tail swishing excitably, talking their ears off about sponsors and crowd favours.

"They absolutely loved you!" Aeneas said, beaming, a delighted gleam in his cat-like eyes. "Unfortunately, I can't seal the sponsors for you, but you've both given Enobaria and Evander a lot to work with here, especially you, Alex..."

Iko tuned him out as he rambled on, even as the elevator doors shut, sealing them into the enclosed space with nothing but Aeneas' ceaseless chatter. It didn't look like it—since he did a better job of being less conspicuous about his inattentiveness—but iko knew Alex was doing the same, studying the buttons on the panel with feigned interest, nodding occasionally to keep the facade up. In truth, both tributes couldn't wait to get off the elevator. Each District had been relegated to one level. Since they were on the second floor, Iko had hoped for a short trip leading to her quick getaway, albeit, the universe decided that the seconds should stretch into what felt like an eternity in there.

Between Alex and Iko, the silence grew limbs and flesh, a third, overweight passenger inhibiting the small space of the elevator. The stiff tension hanging over them like a deadweight on a fraying thread prickles her skin, even though a vent somewhere was piping in warm air, the cold slipped between Iko's ribs, carving and carving to the sound of her mind rambling its aggravated mantra—it's all falling apart, it's all falling apart, it's all falling apart—until it exhausts itself with the jarring conclusion: he shouldn't be here.

They didn't speak of the handholding throughout the parade. Didn't speak even when Aeneas tried engaging them in conversation. Alex merely gave Aeneas a tired smile, and Iko had ignored him completely, instead, fixing her gaze on the view beyond the glass walls of the elevator, overlooking where the Capitol and its flamboyant colours flooded the streets in celebration, all shattered lights and colours.

Did they realise they were celebrating sending twenty-three children to their deaths? Iko wondered, watching as Capitol people in their hideous garb and strange, almost unfathomable accoutre poured onto the streets outside the Training Centre. Of course, in the aftermath, it would be her name on their lips that they'd be celebrating. It would be her, they would be worshipping as she emerged from the arena, bloody but unbeaten and unbreakable.

When the elevator halted, an the doors slid open, Iko was the first one out. Aeneas was quick on her tail, like a dog that wouldn't quit yapping at her heels.