When Songbirds Fly | Bellamy Blake

Chapter Forty-Two: Fallen

I'm not sure how long we travel for before we reach an opening between the stone slopes. Sunlight streams through the gaps in the rocks above, casting spotlights of gold down into the space around us.

I keep my grip around Kane's neck as he carries me into a large cave, still overwhelmed by exhaustion and pain. He carefully sets me down on a boulder and crouches down to help me remove my prosthesis. I quickly take over as his hands fumble, my eyes shutting for a moment as my leg is finally freed from its confines.

Only when it's off do I properly look around us, realising that we are not alone. Standing in a stream of sunlight, hands cuffed, eyes wide with shock and what I gradually recognise as relief, is Bellamy.

I can't bring myself to look at him.

Focusing on ensuring that all of my jackets are snugly wrapped around me and the gun is removed from my waistband, I can feel his gaze wandering around the room.

'Where's Lincoln?'

'Pike put a bullet in his brain.' I barely recognise Octavia's voice. She sounds so quiet, so distant.

He draws in a trembling gasp for air. 'O— O, I am so sorry. I—'

The sound of her fist colliding with his face prompts me to look up.

A string of blood and saliva already trickles from his mouth. He doesn't move. Nobody intervenes.

She hits him again.

Quickly hiding my face in my hands, it takes everything in me not to cry.
A hand brushes against my back but I shrug it away.

'Octavia, that's enough.'

'Kane,' Bellamy rasps, 'stay out of this.'

A sob escapes my parted lips but nobody hears. Still, Octavia continues. No matter how hard she hits him, it will never be enough.

She has quickly become a mess of tears and blood. Her blows are gradually becoming weaker.

'That's enough.'

Miller tries to approach them but Bryan holds him back. Bellamy mutters a plea for him to stay away.

Another punch echoes throughout the cave and he collapses. Octavia stands there, breathless, drawing in gasps for air but grimacing as if each one causes her pain

'You're dead to me.'

—

We all gather around a small campfire. My hands feel cold, no matter how close they are to the flames.

Nothing feels real anymore. I'm just numb. I barely move, let alone blink. All I want is to go to him, to clean his wounds and hold him and feel like everything is okay again. The truth is, it never was. Maybe we've always been doomed.

'I say we run two-man patrols around the clock, starting now,' I hear Bryan say. He sits next to me and yet he sounds so far away. Everything does.

Kane nods, 'We'll do that, but we should be safe here. The Grounder blockade is too close for Pike to risk looking for us.'

The others send the occasional glance towards the man sat on the other side of the cave. I can feel him watching me.

Bryan sighs wearily and lowers his voice even further, 'Yeah, but are we safe from the Blockade?'

'As long as we stay this side of the line, we should be.'

'They're Grounders. You really think they're gonna play by the rules?'