CHAPTER 1 – Kom Skaikru
There is nothing she can do but keep on walking, dry leaves crushing under her feet. Her limbs keep screaming at her to stop, but the command just won't come. She knows that if she stops to rest, her emotions will catch up. But as long as she continues moving forward, she will be fine.
She can't keep moving forever, though. She has lost count of the time elapsed and the miles covered, but every muscle in her body aches with exhaustion. Walking towards her death, she tries to atone for all the death she has caused. But she can't. Death follows her; it's become her very shadow. No matter how numbing her pain is, Death does not leave her side. It crawls behind her, gashing at her feet. Unable to go on, she kneels down on the forest's decomposing floor and allows Death to feast on her soul. All those innocent people. She doesn't deserve life. She did it to save her own people. She doesn't deserve the comfort of Death, either.
Giving in, she lets the dampness of the forest floor creep its way into the very marrow of her bone. She gazes at the tall, somber trees covering the sky, without really seeing. She hears the wind rustling the leaves, howling like the people she massacred. Death clings to her body like venomous, thick blood, unable to be washed off. But death is not alone.
May we meet again. Those gelid, spineless words keep ringing in her ears, and she can't escape them either. The numb, deaf pain of being a bringer of death keeps being stirred by yet another sort of pain, the stinging, screaming pain of Betrayal. If Death is her cold, silent shadow, Betrayal is the stunning, paralyzing cry ringing in her ears. Yet she did what needed to be done, and there is no undoing it. Now she has to live with that.
To live.She opens her eyes, struggles to her feet, and forces herself to make a fire. I don't deserve the comfort of death. The sound of the crackling fire distracts her from screaming Betrayal. Of course she understands why Lexa did it. Her brain and her logic understand. But her guts feel as if they had been torn out of her body, gashed at with sharp, unforgiving white teeth, ripped apart. Spat out.
May we meet again. She keeps hearing those words over and over, ever so heartless. She keeps seeing Lexa turn and ride away. And then the numbing weight of all the following death comes back to haunt her. She feels her cold grasp around her waist, her icy lips brushing her own. Death teases, but does not take her. She feels Betrayal sing her delirious tune to her ears, whisper poisonous words she can't make out.
Out in the waking world, something stirs in the bushes, staring with the eyes of a hunter looking for prey.
I did what I had to do. She tells herself. Why does it feel so horrid? She asks silent Death. But silent Death does not reply. Why did she have to leave? She asks screaming Betrayal. Betrayal does not reply, but goes on screaming.
A singing arrow brushes her cheek, almost bringing her back into the waking world, the world of the living. It falls on a lone, silent wolf that lurked behind the thickets. It howls like Betrayal.
Clarke doesn't turn to face the person who shot the arrow, her savior. Or rather, the Fury who refuses to cut the string and let Death claim her.
Clarke's heart already knows who it is.
"We meet again." The Commander of Grounders says.