Taming Chaos // J.M // The 100

Chapter 98

"ALIE made Raven slit her own wrists." Jasper pants, watching Sinclair lay her down beside the fire. "She was trying to get it out of her head. I was trying to help her, but. . ." 

Sinclair stops him before he drowns in the panic, and grabs his arm, "Okay, so let's help her now. Did she say how?"

"She was working on building something. She needed one of our old wristbands, but Jaha destroyed all of them."

Clarke perks up from behind Ethan, circling around him to dig something out of her pocket. "Wait a second. Does it look like this?" She reveals one of the chips from a tin container.

"Not exactly."

Raven's eyes snap open, her legs moving before the rest of her to jump from the cave floor and duck under their arms. People curse and follow, desperate to catch her before she gives away their location.

"Don't let her get away! Hey!"

Lucky for them, they're surrounded by trees, and Raven's taken down with Jasper's stolen reaper sticks. Clarke knows where to find the remaining wristband, so they dump Raven back into the safety of the rover.

And they're off.

The lady protecting the front of her shop wields a deadly-looking machete, her hair plaited down her back. She recognizes Clarke but doesn't like the look of the two boys beside her.

"Skaikru is not welcome here, Wanheda."

Ethan wishes he'd stop being lumped in with Skaikru when Skaikru has done nothing but fuck him over. He purses his lips together in a frustrated smile.

"Niylah, what's wrong?" Clarke seems confused by her vigilancy, eyeing the weapon still held in front of her chest.

Sinclair calls from the rover, him and Harley already carrying Raven toward them, "She's waking up! Hurry!"

"Is your father here?" Clarke begs, her brows pulled together.

Niylah's face hardens, as does her voice. "My father's dead, part of an army killed by your people while trying to protect you."

Closing his eyes, Ethan takes a controlled breath. Damn it, Bellamy.

"Niylah, please."

"I said no."

Bellamy, making the wrong approach again, threatens her. "We haven't got time for this." He raises his gun and narrows his eyes, "Move. Move! Get her in there."

Ethan doesn't miss the betrayed look Niylah sends Clarke.

"Sorry." He whispers as he slides past, taking the front in order to check the building. He gets the nick of a sharp blade against his throat for his troubles, threatening, but not harming.

Everybody halts.

Ethan lifts his hands, slowly and tilts his head to the side to catch his assailant. 

"Oh." His narrowed eyes widen.

"Efan?" Seria lowers the knife, flipping it so the blade flattens against her wrist. But her renewed calm doesn't last long when she sees the bodies behind him. One of them Bellamy.

Shit.

For a second, he thinks there's going to be an uproar. Rightfully so. But after a moment, she just sends Ethan a confused glance. Either because she doesn't recognize Bellamy from the massacre, or she has so much faith in him that it doesn't matter.

Either way, Ethan's glad. He takes her reaching arm in his and curls his fingers around her wrist. A quick show of affection.

The leather twine around his wrist almost gets caught in her rings, and he stares at the bracelets with a sudden droop to his shoulders.