ATARAXIA • BELLAMY BLAKE

[ 4 2 ]

Clutching the rifle close to my body, I follow the crowd on the dirt road leading us through the trees. Raven walks wordlessly next to me, her sadness having been replaced by anger towards Clarke. But what Clarke did was the right thing. She'd spared Finn from the torture he was destined to endure. And now she has to live with it.

Following Finn's death, Clarke was brought to a tent with Lexa to discuss the truce. It begins with a final death ritual, the victims of the village massacre joined by fire with Finn. Going along with this is the only way to get our people back from Mount Weather, so here we are, following the Grounders to Tondc where the massacre  had taken place.

Ahead of Raven and me, Octavia walks with Lincoln. She's starting to look more and more like a Grounder as the days go by. Lincoln, however, has been shunned by his people for his involvement with us. Every once in a while Indra or another Grounder pass by him, spitting out words that are unintelligible to me at him like venom. He takes the abuse, but Octavia is far from happy with his treatment.

I haven't seen much of her these days, but she had been worried sick about Lincoln after we brought him back from his Reaper state, so she'd spent most her time in Medical with him.

Raven starts to fall behind a bit. I glance over my shoulder to see her tearing up again and come to the conclusion that she probably just needs a moment to walk by herself. And so I adjust my grip on the rifle in my hands and continue forward as before.

The chatter that had been behind me starts to die down and soon enough Bellamy has reached my side, having left Clarke with Lexa and her men behind us.

Bellamy doesn't say anything. He merely matches my pace as he walks next to me. I glance his way and notice the intense look in his eyes as he scans our surroundings. He's on edge.

I quickly look over my shoulder to ensure we're still a good distance from the commander before saying, "You still think this truce is a bad idea, don't you?"

Bellamy's jaw clenches. "I think we're wasting time with politics while our friends are in trouble."

He's partly right. All of the time that we have spent trying to make peace with the Grounders has taken away time from finding our friends. But at the same time, this truce is what will get them back. "We need their army."

"Their army has been getting their ass kicked by Mount Weather forever," Bellamy says, lowering his voice a little as he continues. "What we need is an inside man. Someone to be our eyes and ears."

"And who's that gonna be? You?"

He nods, looking right ahead on the road in front of us. "Damn straight."

I don't like the sound of that. "You'll get yourself killed, Bellamy."

"If Clarke can make it out, I can make it in."

"Clarke barely made it out," I say, maybe a little too intensely.

Turning his head to properly look at me, the action forces me to do the same. "I can do it," he tells me.

I hold his gaze for a moment before looking away. "No. It's too dangerous." If Bellamy dies in there, I don't know what we'll do.

"No?" he asks, forcing my eyes to meet his again. He quirks a challenging brow.

"No," I repeat. "Clarke won't agree either."

Bellamy scoffs and turns to look back at the dirt road. "Since I don't take orders from either of you, I'm gonna need a better reason."

I don't give him one. Instead I leave the conversation be and hope he'll push the thought away. I doubt he will though, because as much as I hate to admit it, it's a good plan. Risky, but good. But the chances of things going wrong in there won't allow me to support it.