10. heart on fire

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My knees ached in ferocious agony with each passing minute. The hard rock that I was currently knelt on providing no solace. A dull aching assaulted my abdomen, a result of not taking the antibiotics Clarke had prescribed that were due to be taken hours ago at this point. 

Silence had enveloped the ravine, everyone on edge in anticipation. 

Was a war going to break out? Or had Bellamy managed to stop Riley before he could kill Roan?

We all knew that the minute the first shot was fired, from either side, a bloody battle was sure to ensue. 

Kane and I were perhaps in the worst possible positions. The two of us chained by the ankles and unable to move at all. If something did happen, we were both dead for sure. 

My head was pounding as I squinted against the sun that was rapidly lowering in the sky. As it slowly dipped toward the tree line, I felt anxiety bubble in my chest. As soon as it was no longer visible behind the trees, Kane and I were to be executed. 

"Come on, Bell." I muttered. Despite the words being more for me than anyone else, Kane seemed to hear and turned to me with a small nod. 

"He'll get it done." he promised, wincing as an Azgeda soldier smacked him across the back of the head for speaking. 

With a shaky sigh, I turned my head away from Kane, my eyes scanning the rock ledges up above. Everyone was still in position, guns pointed at the Azgeda army. I prayed no shots had to be fired. 

But, despite all of us being in so much anticipation regarding the war that we were on the brim of, each and every one of us were in complete shock at what happened next. 

We heard the noise before we saw it. 

A loud explosion tore through the air, shaking the ground beneath us. Soon enough, smoke could be seen billowing from the distance. 

"That came from Arkadia!" I gasped, looking to Kane with wild eyes. What the hell had just happened?

Pandemonium seemed to set in, the Azgeda army beginning to yell out over one another, none of them sure what to do. 

Our gunners, although somewhat distracted remained at their posts. 

"We stay here!" One of the men who had been holding a blade to me had yelled above the others. "We wait for the king and Echo! This could be a distraction!"

"Distraction?" I echoed in disbelief, "Do you really think we'd create that big of a distraction? Something is wrong!" I yelled, my tone begging for them to believe me. 

The man who had previously spoken strode toward me, harshly yanking me to my feet. "Another word and you're dead." he snapped, the cool blade of his sword now pressed against my throat. Looking over his shoulder, he spoke to the rest of the army. "We wait for command!"

Kane anxiously looked up at the man. "Let her go, please!" he begged, his eyes travelling toward me. "We are not your enemy."

The Azgeda man ignored him, his grip on me not loosening. "Skaikru is always our enemy." he muttered, quiet enough that only I seemed to hear.

My eyes travelled upward, scanning the rock ledges to ensure all of our people were still in position. They were, so that provided me some comfort, but the cool metal pressed to my neck presented an everlasting worry. So did the sun that was looming closer and closer to the tree line. A few more minutes and the blade would slice across my throat.

"Hey!"

The voice came from over the small hill in front of us, and I recognized it instantly. I felt myself let out a sigh of relief at the sight of Bellamy rushing toward us, the others, including Roan, following behind him. 

𝐒𝐀𝐋𝐕𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍─𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐦𝐲 𝐛𝐥𝐚𝐤𝐞²Where stories live. Discover now