The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (A Hunger Games Novel) (The Hunger Games)

but she had a sweetness, a vulnerability that invited abuse.

“It really would be like having you with me, wouldn’t it?”

“Go on,” he urged her. “Take me with you. Take it.”

“Then be kind, Coryo,” she snapped. “And try not to look down on people who had to choose between death and disgrace.”

And while he had no claim on her heart — he barely knew the girl! — he didn’t like the idea of anyone else having it either.

“I think your odds get better by the minute,” said Coriolanus, adjusting a hot pink rosebud in her hair. It matched the one on his lapel, just in case anyone needed a reminder of who Lucy Gray belonged to.

Coriolanus, adjusting a hot pink rosebud in her hair. It matched the one on his lapel, just in case anyone needed a reminder of who Lucy Gray belonged to.

And that’s your next assignment. Write me an essay on everything attractive about war. Everything you loved about it.”

“You could start by thinking I can actually win.”

She helped him to his feet, and with his arm slung across her shoulders, they limped away from the flames until they collapsed somewhere in the middle of the arena.

High in the air, the bullet-ridden body of the District 10 girl, Brandy, dangled from its hook. Shackled to the truck bed, looking utterly filthy and defeated, were the remaining twenty-three tributes.