WILD HEART • COMMANDER LEXA [1]

xvii. IRRADIATE

The door to Mount Weather was opened, the army standing behind Clarke and Erica eager to enter and wreak havoc on the inhabitants of the mountain.

It was time for revenge. It was time for justice.

"Attack!" Clarke shouted, the army lunging forward.

It was when a certain Commander ordered them to stand down that Erica's heart dropped to her stomach.

She had betrayed them. Lexa had signed their death certificates.

Lexa approached the two blondes, standing next to Carl Emerson, Mount Weather troops close behind.

"What in the hell are you doing?" Erica seethed. She could almost literally feel her blood boiling.

"Hey look! Here they come!" Someone shouted, and everyone in the crown turned to the door, where people Erica had never seen before hobbled out weakly. They were grounders, she concluded, but they looked like zombies.

"They're surrendering?" Clarke asked, dumbfounded.

"Not quite," Emerson smirked.

"What did you do?" Clarke's brows furrowed.

"She lied." Erica clenched her teeth, trying to keep herself calm.

"I did what you would've done. I saved my people," Lexa's face had zero emotion. Zero remorse.

"Where are my people?" Clarke pressed, Erica knew what the answer would be.

"They weren't part of the deal," Lexa apologized, which made Erica even more angry.

Emerson was bound by a rope around his hands, which Lexa then cut. He turned to Erica, winking at her smugly. The sight made her sick to her stomach, and she lunged at him violently. Lexa caught her, holding her back until the blonde then shoved her, smacking her across the face. "You're a liar!" She screamed.

The army behind Lexa stepped forward menacingly, but she held up a hand to keep them in their place. "Erica-"

"I hate you." Erica growled.

Lincoln approached the three women, asking about the prisoners from the hundred.

"They're going to die. But you don't care about that, do you?" Clarke had tears in her eyes, for once she wasn't the angry one out of the pair of blondes.

"I do care, but I made this choice with my head and not my heart." Lexa was speaking calmly, but her pulse was racing.

"You don't have a heart, no matter how much you pretend. It's just a void that can't be filled." Erica couldn't bite her tongue. She didn't truly mean any of what she was saying, or maybe she did, all she knew was that she was angry, and she could never forgive the Commander.

Clarke and Lincoln begged her to fight with them, but she wouldn't budge. She called for the retreat, and the army behind her began the signal. The grounder hoards quickly ushered themselves out.

"You too," Lexa spoke to Lincoln. "All our people withdraw, those were the terms."

"They'll be slaughtered, let me help them," Lincoln pleaded to his Commander, but she was firm in her decision.