Chapter 5. The Stand
The house surely made better impression from afar than near. Sitting in the back seat of Jasper`s car (after the fire her own car naturally refused to start, so Finn offered to drive it away later), Clarke was looking at a hefty two-storey house, twined with thick as a hand grape vines and ivy with mixed thoughts. Windows were crushed and more or less boarded up, the door was hanging on one hinge, crooked and blackened of rain; the path to the house was hiding in a thicket of wild roses and heather. Apparently, one should really have the guts to risk and come here. Even so, in the crimson light of the evening sun the house appeared to be not a terrifying monster, but something of a completely different world, unusual, but beautiful in its own way.
Clarke realized that she likes this house. This was the house she would have chosen to make her own kingdom, where you can conjure and do whatever you want.
"You like it, huh?" – smiled sitting next to her Finn. "Looks gorgeous, especially at sunset. Although we often have to frighten sneaking couples, we even came up with a couple of creepy legends. "
"Some evil spirits or the deceased owner of the house, which persecutes those who dare to disturb his peaceful rest?"
"Almost," – came Jasper`s voice from the driver's seat. "We decided to have the maniac who loves to skin these lovers alive. Childhood trauma and all that stuff. "
"It seems to me that the real maniac would run away the very moment he saw Bellamy in front of him." - The desire to break Bellamy's neck has faded a bit, but Griffin was far from being serene.
Monty turned to her from the front seat:
"I`d bet on the maniac. Someone has to kick our King`s ass at last. He was nice before. A bit. A little bit. "
Clarke laughed - except enraged Blake the Circle was rather funny. Now she understood why Wells spoke highly about his friends. And now they could become her friends as well.
The car parked right in the garage under the house, generally speaking it could not be named garage at all. She could see the upper storeys and the sky through holes, and one wall almost broke into pieces.
"Princess," - Finn gave her the hand. Clarke could not help but notice Monty and Jasper`s curious glances, but decided to pretend that nothing happened. He's just offered her his hand, that`s all. "Welcome to the Circle."
The walls of the mansion were covered with some unknown symbols from the inside, bone amulets were hanging on the door jamb.
"Wells` job." - Jasper pushed one of amulets with his finger; it made some fun clatter, swaying in the air.
The central room, where the headquarters of the Circle were, was on the second floor. They saw Wells, really concerned, at the top of the stairs.
"What happened?" He asked anxiously. "Bellamy said something about the Book, his failure, and that you were stuck in the car ..."
"She was not stuck in the car." - Finn folded his arms. "He locked her in the car using his magic and set it on fire."
"He did whaaaat?!" - Wells turned round and entered the room, he was going to fight. Definitely.
"I`ll bet on Wells." - whispered Jasper from behind Clarke, exchanging glances with Monty.
"Twenty on Bellamy. You've seen him before when ... "
Clarke could not hear what he was going to say next.
There came a terrible rumble, plaster was falling down the walls and the central beam of the roof above them made loud rattle.
"You're got to be kidding! My lab is there! " – shouted Monty.
The last thing Clarke ever wanted was to die here under the house debris, because of angered teenagers, in the middle of nowhere, so she had to do something immediately.
Stepping over two steps at a time, she entered the central room; there, right under the menacingly swinging chandelier, with a dozen of cracked bulbs, stood two guys, grabbing each other by the collar. They stood in silence, but the silence was even more threatening than if they`d been fighting. The guy with his back to Clarke rose above Wells, he had enviable constitution, sturdy but not bulky. His broad back muscles were distinctly seen under white T-shirt, and he seemed to be able to break Wells neck easily with no effort at all.
"Wells, get the hell away." - Clarke said threateningly, realizing that`s the moment when she convinces herself that she is not afraid of Bellamy Blake, and she can protect herself. She didn`t want Wells`s help, or Finn`s or anyone else. Clarke Griffin used to rely only on herself in her life, and that rule never failed her.
The rumble subsided, chandelier calmed down and stopped clinking, and the boys let go of each other, Wells went down on the heels and stepped back, forcing Bellamy turn around to Clarke.
She haven`t seen Bellamy Blake for a long time.
When he stepped forward, standing close and suppressing with his height, Clarke realized her head could hardly reach his shoulders. Maximum. Dark, almost black eyes burned with barely suppressed rage, his tanned face, all covered with freckles, reddened, and the fingers clenched into fists, whitening.
Clarke could have sworn that the temperature of her body raised instantly as if she was back in the car; bare skin, where it contacted with the air, shivered.
"You set my car on fire! Are you going to explain it? "- She could not draw back now, but did the least she could and crossed arms over her chest to get some distance from overtopping Bellamy.
"If you want to enter the Circle, you must be strong enough to extinguish the fire. It's simple. "- Bellamy shrugged with a poker face, but the vein on the temple throbbing betrayed him.
"So it`s gonna be same simple if I lift you in the air by the hair and drown in the lake, huh? Or strangle in your sleep? "- She looked into his dark and tight eyes, and fury deep inside increased with every second. Bellamy Blake set fire to her car. Bellamy Blake set. Her. Car. On fire. And said it was so simple.
The sound dinned in her ears, and Clarke realized that a strong vibration was around them all the time. The whole house was shaking and creaking; convulsively twitching chandelier was swinging like a huge pendulum above her and Bellamy heads, and deep cracks were running the ceiling.
Magic was emanating from her hands, body, cold as water, it was pouring into the air, harmless yet. On the other hand, standing in front of her Bellamy was like fever. If he reached out and touched her, she would burn like a torch.
Sense of power flooded her, causing tingling in the fingertips, and the air around them thickened. Big wooden debris were falling from the roof, the chandelier was swinging like a seesaw, threatening to crash into the ceiling.
At that moment Clarke realized she could no longer control herself, power overflowed her, as if somebody was trying to pour the whole lake in a small glass. Rage was still reflecting in Bellamy`s eyes, strong and no longer hidden, desperate fury but no longer directed at anyone, just spreading around him like a poisonous spot. His face sharpened, covered with sweat, and the veins on his temples throbbed wildly.
They both could not hear other`s screams because of the noise, and no one dared to approach them as a sea of wild elemental magic danced in the air.
Clarke looked at her hands - thin blue wreaths on the back of hands burst, covering them with bruises - and understood everything.
She unfolded arms and grabbed Bellamy`s wrists firmly, interlacing their fingers. Vibration turned into a monotonous ultrasound, her cold magic mixed with his, burning now as well as the skin on his wrists, swirling around, and suddenly everything was over.
Her ears deafened of dead silence, a chandelier fell from the ceiling and flew away, bumping into the wall, and fell into pieces. Clarke turned her eyes to Bellamy, and for a brief moment she saw something she hoped to see so much. A relief flashed under the ocean of raging emotions. He didn`t have to restrain something he could not restrain. And control things he could not control.
Then it vanished as if it had never been there, and Bellamy stepped back, one tiny step, but that was enough.
"Do not you dare do things like that with me or my car. Ever." – There was no anger or rage or despair in the girl's voice, just a simple statement of fact. "I do not care about your leader`s post, I do not need your throne."
Now she was finally able to unhook her trembling fingers from his hands and looked around. This house certainly survived many fights, but the next one would obviously be the last. A wide crack crept on one of the walls, uprooted chandelier reminded some tree crumpled in a storm, the floor was littered with rubbish and debris, and the guys watching this fight were lying on the floor, as if invisible force knocked them down. Their faces stretched in stun.
"Wow, that was hard," - Finn dropped a piece of wood palm-size from the foot and stood up. "You and Bella ..."
Bellamy remained silent, and Clarke shook her head in warning:
"Finn, don`t. We`re done here. "
Clarke Griffin realized that she was no longer afraid of Bellamy Blake. Somehow their magic neutralized each other, and disappeared without consequences. Well, except for damaged house.
She was afraid of her power. Things could go wrong, without adequate control. She could only hope that Bellamy is afraid too. Of the possibility of losing control.
For a few seconds everybody played «Stand silent» game, and then reacted at once. Monty ran to check his laboratory, it was a miracle that the glass tubes didn't blow up, and grabbed his laptop from the floor. Jasper and Finn dragged the remains of the chandelier. Wells was near the crack in the wall, whispering something, he held his hand over the hole, and it gradually decreased. Clarke looked attentively and saw tiny specks of soil, gathering in some patch and sticking to the crack. Bellamy turned away, picking up the fallen chair that was his personal throne.
"I`m so sorry," - she came to Monty, raising fallen magic spell books from the floor.
"It`s okay," - he waved his hand. "There is nothing that I cannot fix. You should have seen their fights with Finn. About the Book of Shadows.
"Book of Shadows? You don`t have your own Book. "
"We don`t," – Finn came up and bended over the book. "But our parents do. Bellamy wanted to track down the Hunters. I was against it. "
"The fact that you are against it shows the absolute absence of brains in your head, Collins." – came Bellamy`s voice from behind.
"Oh, here it goes again," - Monty whispered loudly and said: "If you are going to repeat your mortal combat, please, spare this house and me. I warn you, I've had enough for today, thanks. "
"And what are you going to do when you find out where the Hunters are?" - Asked Clarke, looking at guys.
Finn shrugged:
"That`s Bellamy`s plan, you should ask him."
Clarke reached for book page, fallen under the dresser in the corner and stopped looking at it. The page was covered with drawings and various symbols, and there was a symbol from her picture. She remembered it mainly because she has carefully redrawn it for three times in the library, searching for a match. There were no matches found. But now it was lying in front of her.
"Em-m-m ..." - she lifted the page up and waved to guys, drawing attention.
"It's Wells`s. He always puts them in the same folder, but forgets to fasten. Therefore, they are scattered all over the room. "- Jasper suddenly put on his goggles, turning into some completely crazy professor from the cartoons. "Now, kids, I highly recommend you to grab your stuff before me and Wells get down to our job. Remember, last time we found sofa in the basement. "
"What are they going to do?" - The girl asked Finn. He took a stack of pages and books and was heading to the stairs, obviously intending to leave everything on the ground floor.
"A little bit of magic. They gonna fix the house, or it`ll collapse one day for sure. Jasper can see the cracks and power streams, and Wells makes patches for such holes. "- He pointed to a thin strip at the wall, Clarke would have never ever believed that there was a big crack a couple of minutes ago at its place. "It sounds a bit bonkers, I know. But that's all we can until we bind the Circle. "
Clarke remembered the huge stream of power, flowing through her body, and looked at Bellamy:
"We have to bind the Circle. Otherwise we all are in danger. "
In about half an hour everything was done. The house didn`t change in general, but at least there was no danger of the roof falling down on their heads now.
Monty hid behind his laptop, explaining something to Jasper. Judging by the volume of his voice, he was doing it for the second time. Bellamy sat lounging in his chair and reading a book, sometimes he threw quick glances on everybody, especially on Clarke, as if not sure –why the hell are they still here. Finn was somewhere on the first floor, and Clarke could hear muffled curses down there. So she made sure that everyone is busy, and sat beside Wells with the picture she draw today and handed it to him:
"Can you have a look? I`m not sure if it means anything, but still... "
"Yes, I`ve seen like these before." - Wells frowned. "But I have to check some books to make sure. And where did you get that? "
"I drew it." – It was not hard to say it. "Well, I do not remember drawing them, I just did it. But please, "- she covered his hand with her own. "Don`t tell anyone about it. Especially my mom. She is worried enough about me now. It can be just some silly scrabbles. Okay? "
She caught a quick glance Bellamy gave her, but he didn`t say anything, all his attention to the book again.
"Of course." - Wells nodded.
Clarke stood up to go and help Finn with cleaning, so she didn`t see anxious look Wells gave her. From what he could remember these symbols were from his father`s Book of Shadows. It was a very bad sign.