Following the Stars

Chapter Seven

My eyes opened, but it was so dark that it made no difference. A sedative stick. Of course. I was such an idiot. Josephine would never agree to waste a host, not if she was that crazy. Immortal.

On the bright side, I had a plan.

The sound of breathing came from next to me, "Bellamy?"

"Sky?"

"Are you okay?" I asked.

Bellamy replied with a question, "What are you doing here?"

"Rescuing you," I answered.

"You're doing an amazing job."

I leaned against the wall as I stood up. She'd barely sliced my arm, but she'd stabbed deep into my leg. I guessed she valued me being a host, so she bandaged up my leg before I'd woken up.

She'd also moved me to a room in the palace.

Opening the blinds on the window, I saw it was the middle of the night. I'd been out for the whole day.

"I've been unconscious all day?" I asked.

Bellamy then shrugged, "Yeah."

I pulled hard on the chains, trying to run towards the door. The chains bit at my wrists, making them bleed. I tried again and again. I couldn't reach the door.

It turned out I couldn't reach the windows either. I looked out at the fields, at gatherers bringing their baskets of food into Sanctum.

"Oh no," I just remembered, "Echo-"

"What happened to Echo?" Bellamy snapped.

I frowned, "Clarke- Josephine- told her you were on the gathering group, but Echo didn't trust her, so she went after you. Josephine sent Jade after her."

Before either of us could say anything, the door clicked open. Josephine walked in, and it clicked shut again. I pretended to be asleep as she fully opened the windows.

Josephine kicked me really hard in the leg, right where she'd stabbed me. I wanted to scream, but I didn't move.

Not until she shrugged and unchained me to check on my bloody wrists.

I punched her in the face, then wrapped my arm around her neck, securing both of her hands behind her back. The chain clicked as her wrists were bound.

"What are you doing?" Murphy asked. I didn't notice him follow Josephine in.

"Leaving," I grabbed the key from Josephine's pocket and held it up, "You want to come?"

Josephine glared at me, "You won't get past the twenty guards in the hallway, or the ten stationed around the front of the palace."

I smirked, "I'm not going through the hallway. Or the main door." Limping over to the wall, I opened the window.

"Are you crazy?" Bellamy asked.

"Definitely," I answered, standing on the edge of the window.

Josephine said in a bored voice, "Look, I may hate you, but you're a host, so I don't want you to die."

"So that you can murder me to live on for all eternity," I finished, "Sounds fun, but I think I'll jump out of the window and render myself useless to you." I reached my foot out.

"Don't!" Josephine and Bellamy yelled at the same time.

I turned around to face them, "Why not?"

"You want to make a deal?" Josephine asked.

I stepped down, "I will release my friends. You will help us build a new Sanctum, and then you won't bother us ever again. Whether you need a host to survive or not, you cannot have Madi. If this deal is broken, I kill all the Primes and destroy their mind drives. Those are my terms."