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“Do you think he regrets it?” Sejanus asked absentmindedly as he lay in bed next to Lucy Gray and stared at the ceiling.
“No, but I think he wishes he did. Our boy is brilliant, and I believe he knows that what he’s doing is wrong, but he can’t stop himself. I think he wishes he didn’t value power over people, but he does. At the end of the day, we are simply a prize he won. Perhaps you were the true Plinth Prize,” Lucy Gray quipped. She felt bad sometimes, knowing that she handled their fate better than Sejanus ever would, but it was their difference in personalities that made them equally valuable in Snow’s eyes and she wouldn’t want to give up Sejanus’ presence. There was something so electrifying about Sejanus’ fire that she would never wish it away even if she did quietly wish that he’d get the two of them in trouble less frequently.
“Sometimes I wonder if it would’ve been better to be hung for treason,” Sejanus said sharply.
Lucy Gray simply shook her head. “I won the hunger games because he decided I would win the games. You made it back to the capital because he decided you would make it back to the capital. There was never going to be another option unless it was his decision. We are nothing more than a prize he won. I wish that we weren’t, and I wish that I could tell you that he regrets it, but I don’t believe he’s capable of that type of regret. I do, however, believe that he wishes he could, and I believe he loves us. But at the end of the day it isn’t enough for either of us.”
They fell into silence, lying next to each other for what felt like an eternity before they heard Coriolanus' footsteps entering the room. “Look at my Christmas presents all wrapped up in bed for me. It seems it’s my lucky day,” he said as he approached them.
Sejanus shot a look of disgust towards Lucy Gray, and she responded with a look of warning before pushing herself up on the bed and looking Coryo in the eye. “Hi, honey,” she whispered, syrupy southern sweetness dripping off her tongue. She’d always been better than Sejanus at playing this game. She knew exactly what he wanted and how to give it to him without giving herself away. She was well aware it was simply a game of survival at this point, and Lucy Gray always survives.