𝐒𝐀𝐋𝐕𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍─𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐦𝐲 𝐛𝐥𝐚𝐤𝐞²

68. at the stake

Death.

It wasn't a new prospect for me, nor was it for my friends. For us, death seemed to be a commonplace occurrence in our lives. 

We always managed to escape it in one way or the other...but would we have that same luck this time?

As we were dragged out to the centre of Sanctum and tied to the pyres, I was scared but I was also sad. 

I was sad because I never got to say goodbye to Bellamy. I never got to tell him how much I love him, how happy he had made me. 

But I was also glad. I was glad that he didn't have to be here to watch eight of his friends-his family-burn to death. 

I had stopped fighting the guards, I knew it was no use. I had fought for as long as I could, but now they had managed to secure the bonds around my wrists, fastening me to the stake. 

Murphy was on my left, Raven on my right. If I was going to die, at least it would be next to two of my best friends. 

As the night darkened, two more people we pulled out of the palace, their hands tied behind their backs. As they got closer, the light hit their faces, and I felt my heart drop. 

It was David. 

The guards had told me he would be executed for his crimes, but I never imagined I would be killed alongside him. 

I didn't recognize the other man that they pulled out, but my assumption was that he had turned against the Primes as we had. 

David spotted me as the dragged him toward the pyre, his eye clouding over in shock. "Avery?" he rasped out, earning a hard shove from one of the guards. 

I gave him a defeated look. "I'm sorry." I declared. "I tried to do what was right for her, I really did."

He didn't look angry, just sad. "Where is she now?"

"B.A has her." I answered, my eyes flitting toward the tavern. "She's safe."

"Quiet!" the guard snapped, giving me a withering glare as they began to secure David to the pyre. "No more."

I tilted my head back slightly, fear rushing through my body as I looked up at the night sky. This was it. 

As my eyes scanned the starry night, I desperately wished to see a moon. What Bellamy had said to me after we awoke from cryo-that he had always look to the moon to feel close to me- I wished I could do that now. 

But even without the moon, I said my goodbyes to Bellamy, and hoped that somehow he felt them. 

"People of Sanctum!" Russell announced, causing the nervous chatter of the crowd to die down. "I came to this world with a dream. From that dream we created Sanctum and gave life to every single one of you. Simone and I have loved you as we loved your parents and their parents before them."

I shuddered at the thought. One person living to see multiple generations was not right.

"You are our children," Russell continued. "And for 200 years we taught you not to fight, we taught you to forgive. But there are some things for which there can be no forgiveness."

My body stiffened as Russell paced back and forth behind us, his voice causing me to freeze up. 

"Josephine is missing, taken by them beyond the shield and must now be presumed dead."

What Russell was leaving out in his little speech, was the fact that Josephine had stolen the body of our friend. 

Gritting my teeth, I listened as Russell continued. "I pray to all that is holy that she will someday return."