A Court of Thorns ↠ Peeta Mellark [2] ✓

13 ; Unavoidable

When Emberly awakes the next morning, she feels like a boulder is resting on her chest. The events of yesterday fresh in her mind, as well as her recent discovery of who Noah actually is. She feels a sense of self-pity.

 Pitying herself for not figuring it out sooner.

Noah was an exact replica of the little boy in her dreams, the little boy with the curly hair and the confused blue eyes as he stared at the bruises on his arms. Emberly has yet to even glance at Noah again, but it's not like he notices any. The two of them weren't exactly close before the arena, nor are they any closer inside of the arena.

The main reason she seems to be keeping her distance, is because deep down Emberly doesn't know what to say. How is she supposed to say she had a dream about him and his mother's death and she's starting to think that it's the reason Noah was sacrificed to enter the arena in the first place?

Emberly knows that her mother was trying to start a rebellion . It didn't take her until now, after many hours ignoring any human interaction, for her to finally figure out that President Snow had killed her mother as well as Cora; simply because he assumed that the two women as well as many enraged others, were planning his destruction.

Of course, he was right in the end. President Snow always seems to find out information whether or not he's supposed to. Emberly knows that the main reason for making the Quarter Quell tributes all victors from past Hunger Games was to torture her, Noah, and Katniss in particular. He'd wanted Katniss dead, because she was the face of the rebellion, she was the Mockingjay.

He wanted Emberly dead because she has the face of the women who'd once tried to start a rebellion against him, Emberly has the face of her mother Lana Hawke. He knew that if he left Katniss and Emberly alone together, the dots would soon connect and a rebellion would soon be unavoidable.

Then, President Snow remembered Noah Sage. The oldest son of Cora Sage, the one women whom Lana Hawke trusted with everything. So, President Snow's plan was to place the three main people who could destroy him in an Quarter Quell arena, in hopes they'd die off before they had the chance to ruin everything he'd made of Panem. Hence, why he'd put only Noah's name in the tribute bowl for the Reaping, hell, Emberly wouldn't be surprised if he'd made her district force her to volunteer for Cashmere at the reaping as well.

What he wasn't expecting, however, was that Emberly would figure this out. At least, she hopes so. Unless, President Snow had known she'd be the one to figure everything out, to finally look past the fog in her brain and start to tape together all of the shredded pieces. Which led to her current state of distress, the boulder resting on her chest, of whether or not she should tell Katniss and Noah or keep the information to herself. She just knew for sure, that she couldn't let Noah or Katniss die.

"Good, you're awake." Johanna says, making Emberly turn her head to the side, seeing the brunette looking down at her. "Katniss wants you to join her, she wants your help in teaching Peeta how to swim."

"Peeta? Swimming-" Emberly stops herself, mind instantly recognizing a ploy to talk when she sees one. Nodding her head, Emberly removes herself from the sand, throwing her green jacket to the ground before she's marching through the sand into the water where Peeta and Katniss are talking in hushed whispers, while Katniss holds Peeta up in the water, to act as though she's teaching him how to swim.

The water makes Emberly's body chill, but she barely gets a few inches close before Katniss is already attacking her with information. Information that makes Emberly's head scream because as of now, her brain is at over capacity.

"Look, the pool is down to 10. I think it's time we took off." Katniss says, wading a bit in the water as she pretends to be swimming around carelessly.