Ark Kingdom: The Magic Within (Bellarke)

Chapter 8

We can hear voices just around the corner. Our vision is blocked by rocks. Bellamy puts his finger to his mouth to warn me to stay quiet and then holds his hand out.

“Stay here.” He mouths. I nod my head and grip the dagger he gives me tightly.

He leans towards the rock and peeks his head around it. I am relieved when I see his shoulders drop and hear him let out a big breath.

“It’s safe.” He says and walks around the corner.

“Bell? Clarke? Where have you been? It’s been hours.” Octavia rushes to us.

She had been sitting on Atom’s lap. Bellamy did not miss that fact and even as he hugs his sister he doesn’t take his glaring eyes off of the boy. Atom looks like he is trying to sink down farther into the ground away from Bellamy’s angry stare.

“Octavia, what were you doing?” His voice is so calm that I’m terrified.

“What? I was worried and he was comforting me.” She says with a shrug.

“I told him to keep you safe, not to sleep with you.”

“Excuse me? We were talking, nothing else.” Octavia’s cheeks are bright red with anger and embarrassment. “I can’t believe I was actually worried about you.” She shoves past him.

“Let her go.” I grab Bellamy’s hand as he goes to follow his sister as she stomps away. I turn to a girl with a long, auburn braid. “Harper, will you follow her?”

“Yes. Miller, come with me.” A boy with dark skin follows close behind.

“What happened to you two?” Finn gives me a hug. “Are you okay?”

“She’s fine.” Bellamy shoves Finn off of me and raises his voice for all to hear. “Everybody listen up. We are not alone out here. Clarke and I saw others. We’re not sure how close they are or if they know that we’re here yet so  keep your eyes open.”

“We have another problem.” Monty says.

“What?” Bellamy’s glare lands on him.

“There are three possible branches to follow out of the veil, but we don’t know which one to take.” Jasper says after Monty stays silent.

“Check them out then.”

“No one will go.” Monty whispers so only we can hear him.

“We will all get some sleep and then at first light we will send search parties to find the right path.” Bellamy’s voice carries an authority that makes me believe in him. The group all nods their heads as one.

“Clarke, you’re with me.” Bellamy puts his arm around my shoulders and starts to guide me away from the group.

“No. I’m not your property.” I push away from him and walk back to the group.

“Clarke, we need to talk about what’s going on between the two of us.” He almost looks sad. I feel bad for him.

“What’s going on between the two of you?” Jasper asks as he and Monty lean closer.

“Nothing.” We answer as one.

“Sure.” Jasper says sarcastically.

“Yes, that was really convincing.” Monty adds.

“Go to the north side of camp. You’re on  lookout duty for first watch.” Bellamy commands.

“Dang it.” Jasper mumbles and shoves Monty.

“Hey, that was your fault.” Monty shoves him back.

“Leave!” Bellamy yells.

“Right.” They scurry off.

“I can’t believe you.” I shake my head and step away from him. “You treat everyone like you own them. If anyone here should be doing that, it’s Wells and he’s not even doing it.”

I look at Bellamy and see that he’s not even listening. Bellamy’s eyes are on Atom again and I can see his fists are white from how tight his holding them.

“Atom, get over here now!” He bellows.

When Atom gets over to us I can see the fear in his eyes. I’m impressed that he’s not shaking.

“I told you to keep her safe not to touch her.” His voice is so calm that it makes me shiver.

“I’m sorry, Bellamy.” Atom drops his head in surrender.

“You will be.” He waits for Atom to look up before continuing. “You’re sleeping on the other side tonight. Outside of camp.”

“Bellamy it’s not safe.” I scold him.

“He should have thought about that before laying his hands on my sister.”

“Bellamy.” I argue.

“What, Princess? You think I should just let him get away with messing around with my sister?” His eyes are on fire as he looks to me. I can feel slight vibrations in the earth. They get bigger when I meet his heated stare.

“Just leave it. He’s scared enough already.”

“I can’t.” Small rocks are now bouncing against the hard ground. “She’s the only family I’ve got left. If anything happens to her I won’t be able to live with myself.”

I give up and walk away from him. This time he lets me leave. As soon as I’m a few paces away the ground stops rumbling. When I reach Finn, Jasper, and Monty I sit down. Finn scoots closer and wraps a blanket around my shoulders.

“Are you really okay?” He gives me a warm smile.

“I’m fine. Just tired.”

“Clarke, can we please talk?” I hadn’t noticed Wells sitting behind us.

“Not now, Wells. I just need to sleep.” And get a certain person out of my head. As if he knows that I’m thinking about him Bellamy looks right to me. He doesn’t look away when my gaze meets his.

“Tomorrow?” Wells asks.

“What?” I can’t even remember why I’m mad at him at this moment. “Sure.”

I lay down and pretend to fall asleep. I can still feel that now familiar gaze on me.

A/N Thank you again for all of the votes and comments. Thank you to those of you who have added Ark Kingdom to your reading lists too. I hope that you enjoyed this chapter.