Page 523 of End Game

Another bubble pops up.

Mom

When do I get to meet everybody?

Micah covers his face.

Ronan smiles—an actual smile.

Griffin shakes his head. “That was disturbingly easy.”

Dex types back. “See? I volunteer as tribute. My family is apparently emotionally bulletproof.”

I look around at the other three.

Not everyone will be that easy.

The knowledge moves through the room without anyone saying it.

But it also doesn't feel theoretical anymore.

Not some future conversation we can keep moving three months down the calendar.

I sink against Griffin. “Okay.”

His arm circles me. “Okay, what?”

“We tell them.”

No one asks who.

We all know.

The people we've avoided.

The people we've protected ourselves from.

The people who could someday be standing outside a hospital room deciding whether the rest of us count.

Dex lifts his phone. “I technically already started.”

“Of course you did.”

He grins.

Micah's fingers wrap lightly around my ankle beneath the blanket.

Griffin's thumb moves over my arm.

Ronan's foot still touches the edge of the couch.

Dex keeps texting his mother.

For the first time since I woke up in the hospital, nothing in my body is demanding immediate attention.

For now, every person in this room knows exactly where they belong.

The paperwork can catch up.