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What a marvelous feeling it would be, if we could say exactly how we felt. What a monumental victory. What a terrifying thought.
Cassia settled into the line of tributes, the roar of the raucous crowd vibrating up from the floor and through her insanely tall shoes. She could picture them all so clearly in her mind despite the few occasions she had seen the colorful and odd people of the Capitol. They cheered and clapped at what Caesar Flickerman was saying with an abundance of happiness. No one was truly that happy, and if they were, they were lying, Cassia thought bitterly.
A hand fell to her shoulder and dragged gently down the bare skin of her arm. She flinched away from the sudden contact and saw Griffin looking down at her. He smirked. "I've never seen a fish look so attractive before."
Her strapless dress was made completely of tulle. Aside from the corset that made up her upper-half, the soft fluttery fabric the color of periwinkle reached her ankles. Her dark brown hair was braided back into an intricate bun and the makeup on her eyelids resembled what she could only describe as moonlight against the ocean's waves. She felt dark and powerful. Not like the girl at the chariot entrance or the scared girl who volunteered for her sister.
She quirked an eyebrow. "Was that supposed to be a compliment?"
Her reply only made him smirk harder. "Something like that."
Someone behind her cleared their throat. Cassia turned to find Lark there. She didn't know when he had arrived. He wore a dark blue suit and his dark orange hair was slicked back with some sort of hair product.
"Aren't you supposed to be in line?" He asked Griffin in a small voice.
"Aren't you supposed to mind your own business?" Griffin growled, his eyes piercing into Lark's aggressively.
Cassia stood between the two of them, the growing silence causing her more anxiety. She placed a firm hand on Griffin's suit sleeve and fluttered her eyes at him. He looked down at her with a dominance in his eyes that scared her. "Save it for later," she murmured, hating the way her voice sounded.
Slowly, he agreed, taking a tentative step backward. His eyes burned into hers and then at Lark. "For later." He left them there, just as Caesar announced the first tribute onto the stage.
Cassia had to remind herself how to breathe. In and out. Flex the muscles in her lungs, to exhale what oxygen she could gather. The unsettling thought of Griffin killing Lark was enough to cause such a reaction in her. She knew it was part of the plan, but she didn't realize until now that people would die because of her. That she would have people killed because of the strange influence she had on a boy her age. She had just put Lark in danger. He was now on Griffin's radar, a target for knife practice. And then, another thought seized her so strongly that she couldn't shake it, that it cleared the clouds of anxiety away from her body.
