第107章

  “peeta!” i call out in a panic. “peeta!” i turn to the rustle of
  brush and almost send an arrow through him. fortunately, i
  pull my bow at the last second and it sticks in an oak trunk to
  his left. he jumps back, flinging a handful of berries into the
  foliage.
  my fear comes out as anger. “what are you doing? you’re
  supposed to be here, not running around in the woods!”
  “i found some berries down by the stream,” he says, clearly
  confused by my outburst.
  “i whistled. why didn’t you whistle back?” i snap at him.
  “i didn’t hear. the water’s too loud, i guess,” he says. he
  crosses and puts his hands on my shoulders. that’s when i
  feel that i’m trembling.
  “i thought cato killed you!” i almost shout.
  “no, i’m fine.” peeta wraps his arms around me, but i don’t
  respond. “katniss?”
  i push away, trying to sort out my feelings. “if two people
  agree on a signal, they stay in range. because if one of them
  doesn’t answer, they’re in trouble, all right?”
  “all right!” he says.
  “all right. because that’s what happened with rue, and i
  watched her die!” i say. i turn away from him, go to the pack
  313
  and open a fresh bottle of water, although i still have some in
  mine. but i’m not ready to forgive him. i notice the food. the
  rolls and apples are untouched, but someone’s definitely
  picked away part of the cheese. “and you ate without me!” i
  really don’t care, i just want something else to be mad about.
  “what? no, i didn’t,” peeta says.
  “oh, and i suppose the apples ate the cheese,” i say.
  “i don’t know what ate the cheese,” peeta says slowly and
  distinctly, as if trying not to lose his temper, “but it wasn’t me.
  i’ve been down by the stream collecting berries. would you
  care for some?”
  i would actually, but i don’t want to relent too soon. i do
  walk over and look at them. i’ve never seen this type before.
  no, i have. but not in the arena. these aren’t rue’s berries, al-
  though they resemble them. nor do they match any i learned
  about in training. i lean down and scoop up a few, rolling them
  between my fingers.
  my father’s voice comes back to me. “not these, katniss.
  never these. they’re nightlock. you’ll be dead before they
  reach your stomach.”
  just then, the cannon fires. i whip around, expecting peeta
  to collapse to the ground, but he only raises his eyebrows. the
  hovercraft appears a hundred yards or so away. what’s left of
  foxface’s emaciated body is lifted into the air. i can see the red
  glint of her hair in the sunlight.
  i should have known the moment i saw the missing cheese.
  ...
  314
  peeta has me by the arm, pushing me toward a tree. “climb.
  he’ll be here in a second. we’ll stand a better chance fighting
  him from above.”
  i stop him, suddenly calm. “no, peeta, she’s your kill, not
  cato’s.”
  “what? i haven’t even seen her since the first day,” he says.
  “how could i have killed her?”
  in answer, i hold out the berries.
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  it takes a while to explain the situation to peeta. how fox-
  face stole the food from the supply pile before i blew it up,
  how she tried to take enough to stay alive but not enough that
  anyone would notice it, how she wouldn’t question the safety
  of berries we were preparing to eat ourselves.
  “i wonder how she found us,” says peeta. “my fault, i guess,
  if i’m as loud as you say.”
  we were about as hard to follow as a herd of cattle, but i try
  to be kind. “and she’s very clever, peeta. well, she was. until
  you outfoxed her.”
  “not on purpose. doesn’t seem fair somehow. i mean, we
  would have both been dead, too, if she hadn’t eaten the ber-
  ries first.” he checks himself. “no, of course, we wouldn’t. you
  recognized them, didn’t you?”