— 𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐮𝐥𝐮𝐬 —

━━━━━━ ☽【❖】☾ ━━━━━━

Rena's attack was quick and ferocious as her knives clashed against my larger blade. I deflected her blows with ease, but it was the subtle pause between each strike that caught me off-guard. It wasn't hesitance but a calculated move as her eyes absorbed each deflection, likely storing that information to turn against me later in our fight.

It was unlike her. To strategize in the midst of battle. The Rena I knew fought until she and her opponent had no breath left in their lungs. Perhaps the arena had changed us both.

She slashed her knives in one direction—another easy deflection—then she stepped back and slowly began to circle around me, swaying with serpentine influence.

She gestured with one of her knives at the girl behind me with a burning hatred. "You called me delusional, but I knew from the moment you set your eyes on her. So who's delusional now?"

"Still you," I replied barely changing the inflection of my tone. We knew the other's weaknesses and how to get inside one another's heads. But the less I showed that, the more likely she was to make a mistake. "Where's Lux?"

"Died of a broken heart," Rena's lips curled back into a twisted smirk. "The flame lost its halo of light, so I snuffed it out for good. It was worthless on its own."

"He was a person—"

"He was a tool! They all were!" Rena seethed, snapping her jaw like a wild animal as her biting words echoed. "Or did you forget that when your queen made a tool of you?"

"No one is using me," I protested, holding back an insult between grit teeth.

"I did," Rena tsked. "And so did the little ginger bitch, only I guess her lies were more effective than mine since you fell into the palm of her hand and willingly accepted the leash that she handed."

"Leave her out of this." My tone darkened and my eyes narrowed. "This is about you and me."

She threw her head back and laughed. "There never was a you and me, Romulus. I saw a crack that I tried to wedge open, only it was your so-called allies that widened the chasm."

"You're stalling," I noted.

She shook her head. No anger, only a false look of pity reflected in her eyes. "No. I'm helping you understand why you're about to lose."

I scoffed. "Is that right? Enlighten me then."

Juneaux frowned, but remained silent. It was apparent she thought I was making a mistake by allowing Rena to waste time, but whatever small amount of respect I had for my opponent was enough to grant her a few more seconds of breath.

"You seek out an equal," Rena said with an airy haughtiness to her tone. "You find someone you believe reflects your better half and form an attachment that blinds you to their flaws. And when you surpass them or they disappoint you in some small way, you always move on to your next infatuation. We made quite the team until the masks I wore were too blood-stained for your liking. You tried finding someone as depraved as you—more-so perhaps—then decided you'd like to try innocence for once. So tell me, how does purity taste?"

My face burned with emotions I had too little experience with to identify. I was enraged not only for myself, but the reputation of the girl whose kindness had shown me the type of person I wanted to be.

"I will not warn you again—"

"Then make me face the consequences of my words you cowardly pup!" Rena shrieked, clashing her knives against one another as if to egg me on. "Strike me down and prove that the cruel beast still remembers to aim for the throat."

This needed to end. And as much I as I desired to prove that I could be better, I also had to be the one to stain their hands one last time to preserve something greater. Rena would be the last soul to fall by my hand, and then I would be free to better myself—and perhaps prove myself worthy of the kindness I'd been shown.

"Are you finished?"

Rena clicked her tongue and shook her head. "No... but you are."

Our fight immediately resumed. There were no little moments of calculated hesitation this time, just one consistent movement of unpredictable strikes that grew more difficult to fend off than the one before it. It was like she'd seen through all the cracks in my armor while I presumed she was stalling for time, and now she was taking advantage of the information she'd absorbed without allowing me a chance to counter.

Her blades nicked the flesh around my knuckles once or twice, but it was enough for her poison to taint my veins. Nowhere near deadly as the first dose I'd been exposed to as the fluids that coated her knives were simply meant to slow me down so she could finish the deed on her own accord.

My muscles fatigued and cramped. I tried to bite back the pain and exhaustion, but even my legs were beginning to seize and fail. I lost my footing and slipped. My sword was discarded somewhere to my right, lost in the murky waters that rippled around my waist. It was then I realized how far from the cornucopia our battle had taken us as I struggled to lift myself from the stream that Juneaux and I had originally crossed to face my opponent.

The moon was in its height, sitting straight overhead. Its light was just enough to shadow Rena's face, but her eyes practically glowed as glee twisted her lips into a devious grin. She lifted her blades as if silently demanding I offer her a plea or some final remark. I would not give her that satisfaction. I lifted my head toward the sky, keeping my eyes focused on the glittering lights while I awaited my final moments of pain.

I felt the breeze from Rena's swing, but the blow did not land. Instead, it clashed against a pair of golden sickles. Juneaux's flyaways whipped around her face while the rest of her hair remained in the braid that cascaded along her back. Her eyes drifted toward mine for but a moment, yet it felt like an eternity as I was mentally brought back to the moment I first laid eyes on her during the tribute parade. Even though she had the flames of the sun on her side then, she was radiant under the moonlight.

She was more than a goddess or a queen, for now she donned the title warrior as she uncrossed her blades to push Rena back. Juneaux remained overtop me, standing in a protective stance that emphasized the fiery attitude she'd kept hidden for so long. The games might have been over weeks ago had this Juneaux been the one that entered the arena rather than having been forged by it.

"Stepping down from the throne are we?" The momentary outrage on Rena's face had faded and now looked amused as she regained her balance.

Juneaux didn't dignify her comment with a response. She simply twirled her sickles then lowered into a battle ready position just as we'd practiced a dozen times over.

Rena scoffed and rolled her eyes, lowering into a position that would easily counter however Juneaux might act. Juneaux had been trained by me after all, it was a safe assumption that Rena easily recognized the form that I'd crafted over the years we'd spent side by side at the academy.

Simultaneously, they leapt into battle. Only Juneaux surprised everyone spectating, not just Rena, as she rolled beneath the knife swings and blocked the following blow without batting an eye or turning her head to face them. It was a skill that I had not taught, and many similar techniques followed as Juneaux swiftly found a form of her own: combining our lessons with the harvesting techniques of district nine.

Rena was pushed back onto her heels, fighting for her life as Juneaux's fluid movement was comparable to grain in the wind. Rena's serpentine strikes were no match for Juneaux's agility.

"When the hell did you learn to fight?!" Rena huffed, shrieking between breaths. "There was a time you couldn't even properly lift a sword!"

"Gradually," Juneaux replied as if it were effortless to hold a conversation during their battle. "It took nine weeks to learn and refine the technique... but it took only one moment for my mindset to snap and the final piece to click into place."

Rena released an infuriated scream and lunged, but the action was rash and poorly timed. Juneaux knocked the knives from her hands, crossing her sickles to wrap around Rena's throat. The raven-haired girl fell to her knees, seething while her chest heaved with exhaustion.

Rena laughed, but half the sound was a hiss of air. "And what was this final piece?"

Juneaux's expression remained neutral, but her eyes flickered with flames. "When innocence dies, nothing deserves to live."

Juneaux uncrossed her arms, extending them to their full width. Rena's body crumpled to the ground, lifeless as the severed throat disconnected the head from its shoulders.

I gaped, struggling to comprehend what I'd witnessed as the cannons echoed. Slowly, Juneaux turned around, falling to her knees while her sickles clattered to the ground. Her eyes were wide, frozen in horror as the blood that stained her fingers was also spattered across her face and dripping from her hair.

Despite the numb sensation that still lingered, I stumbled back to my feet and sprinted to cradle her form before she collapsed. She broke down in my arms, sobbing with the emotions she'd repressed since Harlan's death.

Her chest heaved as if her body had been wracked by years of devastation. And with everything we'd experienced throughout our time in this damned arena, her breakdown was long overdue. Her tears soaked through the fabric of my shirt while her head remained pressed into the crook of my neck and shoulder. Her fingers clawed at my back, almost as if she feared that I too would fade into nothing and she'd be left alone with her madness.

I couldn't say how much time passed nor how long we remained locked against one another. But as we slowly parted and laid along the ground side by side so that we might watch the sun rise, a looming dread followed forcing us to acknowledge that there were only two left and the Capitol would only crown one victor.