DISCORDIA

[ 51 ] hundred cuts

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       HUNDRED CUTS

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       JINNY WAS BROUGHT BACK OUT into open air, the chill touching her skin like a lost lover, and she allowed herself to inhale the lingering scent of smoke and damp earthen soil. The Grounders holding her captive pulled her roughly towards the middle of the courtyard. The charred ground where the pyre had laid hours earlier was now covered in a thick layer of ash. To think that the dark dust used to be a living person, now returned to the elements of the earth, brought a sense of melancholia. Lexa awaited next to the blood stained pole, her eyes narrowing when she saw Jinny and not Raven being brought before her.

       "What is the meaning of this?" Raulf asked almost angrily. "Where is Raven?"

       "She was not the one who carried the poison," Lexa observed.

       "The Fake Commander volunteered herself in place of her friend," Indra informed.

       Lexa's face smoothed back into a mask of indifference. "Very well."

       "Wait, wait!" Jinny called. "Hear me out, please. It wasn't us who tried to poison you. If it was, then why would I end up being poisoned too?"

       "Someone must have thought you were expendable," Indra retorted. "Poisoning one of their own to act as if they hadn't done it. We have seen it all."

       "Raven is one of my best friends, she would never do that to me," Jinny implored. "It wasn't us, I swear."

       "Do you have proof that you weren't the one who did it?" Lexa asked with the air of a judge passing verdict on her. "Can you show me that it wasn't yours?"

       "No... but if you let us figure it out—"

       "You have had plenty of time to figure it out," Indra interjected harshly. "Heda, teik dison bilaik odon."

       "Lexa," Raulf started to protest but she raised her hand to silence him.

       "I can only believe what is in front of me. Tie her to the pole," she commanded and the Grounders tugged Jinny forwards. She attempted to resist but one of them struck her in the middle, causing the wind to be knocked out of her. They quickly tore her jacket off, grabbed her wrists and tied them with thick rope high above her head to the pole. Her legs were locked in place with chains at the base. Jinny swallowed thickly when she saw Bellamy finally exiting the cellar, his face paling with terror that wrenched at her soul. He made to run forwards but Kane stopped him by grabbing his jacket and hauling him back.

       She was starting to have regrets about this.

       Lexa stood in front of her with fingers curled over her mahogany hilted knife. "I take no joy in this, Jinny. But this time, justice will be done."

       "Get it over with then," she spat.

       With cold, emotionless eyes, Lexa raised her hand and pressed the blade against her skin. She could almost hear it tear when the knife sliced into her flesh, drawing blood that dribbled down her arm in rivulets. Jinny gritted her teeth at the searing pain coursing through her inner forearm, sharp breaths leaving her lips as she refused to cry out.

       "Jinny!" Bellamy cried loudly, his anguished voice twisting its own dagger into her heart, as he struggled against both Kane and Lincoln's restraints. "Stop it! No! Let her go!!"

       "We have to stop this, we have to think of something!" Octavia exclaimed.

       "I'm telling you, it was him," Raven said loudly. "He searched me, he put the poison in my pack!"