Instinctively, I begin to pull away from his touch before I catch myself. This wasn't the same Peeta who had tried to strangle me. If I couldn't trust this Peeta, I couldn't trust anyone, and that thought was a little too frightening to really dwell on.

But I'd also failed this Peeta. In the months that he'd been gone, I had reviewed every second of the moments before his disappearance, trying to find a way in which I could have saved him. Just because I couldn't think of anything doesn't mean I was absolved. He's steady and warm like the sunset, and because of that my heartbeat begins to slow down and I'm calm enough to speak.

"She's dead." he has a right to know, but speaking it aloud seems to cause something to burst from me. "She's dead, Peeta! She's dead and I couldn't trade places with her this time."