Moonflower | Bellamy Blake

I Am Become Death

"Remember what I said about being a quick learner?" I muttered as I laid on my back and stared up at the puffy clouds that floated across the sky. Roan didn't answer so I shot him an exasperated look. "I lied."

"Clearly," he snarked, wrinkling his nose at the dust plume that was slowly falling back to its natural place on the forest floor. It had risen because he had swept my feet out from under me for the 47th time in the last two hours.

Yes, I counted.

"I hit you again, though," I said. "That's four times today."

"That is some progress," Roan agreed. "It is still not enough to protect you from any Trikru warriors."

"Explain the clans to me," I said as I pushed myself to my feet. "How many are there?"

"12," Roan said quietly, eyeing me. "You are... what do you call it?"

"Stalling?" I offered.

"Yes. You are stalling."

I rolled my eyes. "I'm not." Of course I was. No one wanted to get knocked on their ass every thirty seconds. "What clan are you a part of?"

Roan coughed. "I'm not part of any."

Weird. "Why?"

"Pick up your sword, strik gada," is all he said in reply. "We have little time before your leaders return."

He was right. Clarke and Bellamy had taken a squad of people to investigate the crashed Exodus ship. I wasn't worried about sneaking out with them around, but it was certainly easier than sneaking back in. It had definitely been hard on Unity Day. In fact, I hadn't succeeded in sneaking in at all. I winced as I remembered Bellamy's anger. And his... not anger. Which had led only to more anger.

I sighed. "Ok then. Hit me with your best shot."

Roan shook his head, muttering something about sky people and their weird language. It was rather comical to use slang around him. He usually looked at me like I'd grown a third head and told me to be quiet before he stuck his dagger into me.

We sparred a couple more times before I decided it was time to go. As much as I just loved getting beat into a pulp, I had a feeling Bellamy's verbal beating wouldn't be as much fun if he caught me outside camp again.

We hadn't spoken since the night of the party, and a seed of anxiety grew in my chest every time I thought about it. About the kiss. Don't get me wrong. It was incredible. Everything a first kiss should be, but the moments after had been all wrong. I'd opened my fat mouth and ruined it.

It was that reason— and the fact that I hadn't told Octavia— that I'd avoided Bellamy like the plague this morning before I began work and he'd left. I mean, he'd dropped a bomb on me and then left for a whole day. It was hard to wrap my head around.

The moon had risen by the time I got back to camp, which meant the night shift should have been on duty, but there was no one at the gate when I creeped closer. It made it easy to avoid the tripwires and enter camp without anyone stopping me.

The delinquents were acting weird, whispering in small huddles and glancing around suspiciously. Octavia was leaning against a tree, staring at the dropship intensely. I wandered over to her, snapping in front of her face when she didn't say anything. "Octavia? Are you okay? What's going on?"

She snapped to attention, turning her wide eyes to me. "Sorry," she mumbled. "Bellamy and Clarke got back earlier than expected." A smile quirked on her lips when she saw me tense. "Don't worry, no one noticed you were gone. They're too distracted with Murphy."