Into The Woods- Bellamy Blake

Chapter 32

It had been a week since Ember had killed Jonah Finch. She hadn't seen Lexa, so she made the assumption that Lexa got the news. No Grounders had been after them, and neither had the Arkers.

Ember had gone back to acting like nothing was wrong, back to training Emma and teaching Holden English. She connected with the people of the village, doing anything asked of her, and spending time with Kadi, who followed Holden around.

Holden was getting better at English, and so was Kadi, who joined their lessons after getting permission from her parents, who could speak some English, but not a lot.

Currently, Ember sat outside of the village with Holden. It was early in the morning, and everyone but them was asleep. Ember had been getting more sleep, but was still waking up early, a habit that she had had for years and that she didn't see stopping anytime soon.

Not that she minded. She enjoyed the company of Holden over the past month, and had been growing closer to him after each day that passed. She wanted to compare the last month to a fantasy. Nothing was like she would have expected it to be.

She would have never believed that she would be with her sister, and happy about it. She never would have thought that she'd be spending a lot of time with a guy who wasn't Bellamy, and feeling even remotely normal about it. But that's what Holden did, he made her feel normal.

Around him, she didn't feel like the responsible leader that all of her people viewed her as. She didn't feel like she had something to live up to, an expectation of who a leader should be and who she was. When she was around Holden, and around the people of the village, she could just be herself. Not being in charge removed a lot of stress for her, and she was glad to let other people take leadership and just live her life.

"What's our plan for today?" Holden asked, his knee brushing against Ember's, breaking the silence.

She laid down, looking up at the clouds, the trees nearby shading the area they were in. "Nothing that I know of. What do you want to do?" She switched to English, enjoying the look of concentration that instantly appeared on his face.

"Hunt?" He said after a moment, and Ember could tell he spent the time he was quiet thinking about the right word. Ember smiled, proud of his efforts.

"We need to stay near the village today. I haven't spent time with Emma lately."

"So we're training Emma?"

Ember nodded, turning on her side to look at Holden. "But not yet. I want to relax more first." He chuckled and then laid down beside her. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders, and she moved her head to rest on his shoulder, closing her eyes peacefully.

~~~

Hours later, the two returned to an active village. Emma was helped a few of the younger people in the village with their daily activities. Kadi ran over to the pair when she spotted them, smiling excitedly. "Holden!"

The nine year old jumped into Holden's arms, and Holden picked her up, spinning her around before setting her down onto the ground. Kadi looked to Ember, tilting her head to the side. "My parents want to see you."

Ember nodded, turning to Holden. She gave him a smile. "See you later Holden."

"Bye." He replied, an uncontrollable smile brushing past her lips as she headed over to Janice and Jaden.

The couple gave Ember a smile, the two of them working with their people, helping them get everything done. Ember was inspired by them as leaders, leading by example rather than command. They were nice to all of their people, and they accepted the twins into the village, even when they knew nothing about them.

Even without knowing the twins, they respected both of the twins for their obvious strengths. They saw that Emma was strong, she just needed a small push, and that's what they gave her. They could sense Ember was a natural leader, and had taken her under their wing. They saw what she knew she had, but they didn't know the truth. They knew what the twins believed they needed to know. The only one that knew a lot about them was Holden, everyone else believed lies.

"Ember, how was your walk with Holden?" Janice asked, a devious smile appearing on her lips. Ember forced back an eye roll, knowing that she had been trying to get Holden and her together since she had gotten to the village a month ago, always pairing them together for hunts.

"It was good. Kadi said you wanted to see me?" Ember asked, lifting up a few logs from a pile that was on the ground and stacking them with the others.

"We did." Jaden replied. "We just wanted to thank you, for teaching our daughter English. It's not something we could have done."

Ember shrugged it off. "Anything for you guys. You did let my sister and I stay here after all."

The two looked at each other, both breaking into smiles. "That's actually the second thing we'd like to talk to you about." Ember's heart sped up, worried that they had found out about all of the lies and were kicking them out. "You and your sister have done so much for this village, we'd like to offer you permanent residence here, at least for as long as you'd like to."

Ember looked up in surprise, raising an eyebrow. "Really?" They nodded, and Ember laughed in disbelief. "That's amazing! I'll have to ask Emma about it, but I have no doubts that she'll say yes."

She ran off to find Emma, but ended up running into Holden instead. He had ditched Kadi, and was sharpening his sword on the outskirts of the woods. She moved silently behind him, watching him sharpen his sword without him knowing she was there.

As she looked at him, she wondered if she could be happy with him. She believed she'd never be as happy with anyone as she would with Bellamy, but that shouldn't stop her from trying. Waiting for him to set down sharp items, she jumped onto his back as he stood up.

He caught her legs before she fell, keeping her on his back as he glanced back at her. "Guess what Jaden and Janice just offered me." She told him excitedly, as he started to walk them towards camp.

"You know I'm not good at guessing, Ember."

She let out a chuckle, burying her head in his neck. "They're letting Emma and I stay. Permanently."

She waited for him to get back she said, and she knew he did when he suddenly dropped her to the ground and spun around to face her. "You're staying?" She nodded enthusiastically, as he put her hands on her upper arms. "That's..." He paused, concentrating on his English. "Great!"

Ember looked up at him through her lashes, realizing how close they were standing. "I agree." She whispered, tilting her head up and lightly kissing him.

She pulled back after a moment, hesitation clear in her eyes. He moved his hand up to her face, looking into her eyes. She bit her lip, reaching forward and grabbing his hand. He leaned down to her, kissing her back.