Scars of Kings • Cato Hadley

honey lemon tea.

╔═══*.·:·.☽✧ ✦ ✧☾.·:·.*═══╗

honey lemon tea

volume one; before

╚═══*.·:·.☽✧ ✦ ✧☾.·:·.*═══╝

Elora feels her eyes gloss over as she lays in bed, thinking of everything that could have been. Had she never been reaped, she would have graduated school and gone on to become a teacher. It was something she often dreamed of, teaching younger children how to blossom despite the harsh world they inhabit. Finnick often tells her she would have been a wonderful teacher, if they lived somewhere else. A different world in a different time.

Elora likes to imagine her life without the games. Her and Finnick would live together, as they often discussed. She knew that without the games perhaps they wouldn't have met, but she likes to think a bond as strong as theres is fate. The games had nothing to do with it, they were cast together by the universe, and without the games they would have found their way to each other eventually. He would be a fisherman, like his father had before him. They would carry on the legacies of their families. Finnick would meet Annie, and without the games to destroy her spirit, they would be married with children. Elora would teach them, and care for them, as she would with all the children of the district. 

Perhaps that was why she took such a strong liking to Dawn. At the young age of fourteen, Dawn Fadley had beaten all odds and become the victor of the 73rd hunger games. Elora remembered her games vividly, not because they had only taken place last year, but for the sheer amount of will power displayed by the child. Dawn had the heart of a lion and the brain of a snake, brave yet cunning all at once. Elora often finds herself wishing she could display similar acts of courage, yet she falls short every time. Her ambition and mindset of self preservation prevents her almost every time. 

She knew what Dawn would say, knew the exact reaction the young girl would display, but that doesn't stop her words from hurting any less.

"You're a coward, Elora."

Tears sting the edges of her eyes, threatening escape. Dawns word strike down deep into her heart. Perhaps she was not ready to face the truth. That she could have the next week and a half with her soulmate, and perhaps a lifetime after that, should she abandon her fears. 

"You have an opportunity that few get to experience. With the division of the districts, soul mates are rare. Here you have one, someone who will complete you in the best way possible, and yet you hide."

Elora knows this. She knew it when she ran from him after their first brush of skin. She knew when she spent the remainder of that day trying to pretend it never happened. He had reached out to her, been close enough to feel his breath on her body, yet she had turned away from his as though he was nothing. As thought he meant nothing to her. She clenches her eyes at the though, at the idea that she had hurt him before even speaking to him.

Dawn doesn't understand. She's young and innocent and pure. Her games had been gentle on her and while Elora had no doubt that the young girl was scarred beyond measure, she had not become a cold hearted killer. Dawn did not awake to blood most morning, nor did she dream of the souls she destroyed without mercy. Elora was a killer, she was a destroyer. She could not be trusted with something so beautiful because in her eyes that's exactly what he was, a beautiful boy.