10

272 7 3
                                    

"Listen to that." Roan finally spoke, motioning for Clarke to listen to the crowd below. "If I let you live, I'll be dead in six days. Not six months." When I turned around, I knew then it was only Clarke's head they wished for. My power and name still came as a wanted ally. "Sorry, can't."

The chants of the crowd below were now perfectly in unison. Blood for blood. The only way Roan could live in peace. Or at least, that's what the two of us thought.

"I'll give you this." Roan and I both turned and looked down at Clarke's hand. The Flame rested on her palm and I swear even the crowd went silent.

"We were told it was lost." Roan stepped closer to Clarke, towering over the female. "You give me one good reason why I shouldn't just take that and cut your head off?"

"She just gave you one." I spoke up, interrupting the King. "Take it, and take this to show the clans that the power of Wanlida stands with you." I started towards the King moving from the window as I pulled the silver cuff from my right wrist.

"The clans will follow you with the Flame and they will respect you with me at your call." I continued extending the metal in good faith.

"I want what's best for my people, same as you." Roan bit out. His eyes drifted from the Flame, to the cuff, then back to the window behind me.

"Then help us save them." Clarke bit back. "You wanted an Ice Nation Commander. With this you control who ascends. There will never be a Commander who'll rule over Azgeda unless you allow it." Clarke sweetened the deal by explaining something he already knew.

As Clarke explained, I slid my wrist cuff back on. The thin silver comforting the skin that had previously felt bare. He'd lost my offer when he declined it the first time. I wouldn't offer it again.

I watched the gears in Roan's head turn, and finally his hand rose to claim the Flame. His eyes flashing to my wrist before he walked away. Leaving Clarke and myself standing on the dais.

"That was fun. Let's not do it again." I finally interrupted the silence. "You've gotten better at being diplomatic from the bridge though." Her head turned and she stared at me wondering if I had actually said that. "What, you were awful. You were trying to intimidate them by boosting your own pride against theirs."

"Oh and you weren't being prideful, "it's a promise"." She mocked me.

"I wasn't trying to get them to admit they were a hundred percent at fault. Plus, I had things to offer them right then and there. Like the Flame today with King Bargain Chip over there." I felt his stare on the side of my face. The now quiet room felt like it had frozen over as the Azgeda King walked back over.

"What did you say?" I ignored Clarke's pleading look. She had read my own look and knew this could end badly.

"Don't worry your highness, I'm the only one to care about the old and recent history of your people. You forget the alliance and membership established between Lexa and I." Smirking, as the other 12 clans' ambassadors other than my own knew the alliance and membership that had come with it. I took a step towards the King, casually whispering in his ear as I passed. "I know everything about you, Aulana. Your kingdom. The Bargain." I continued towards the doors.

"Try to stay on my good side King. Or else you'll have to deal with the Queen." The doors shut and I couldn't wipe the smirk from my lips. I love analogies, especially when they were true.

_______•*•*•*•_______

"I know you've all come here for an execution." Roan's voice filtered above the crowd. "But no one else will die here today." I pulled the hood of my cloak further over my head and leaned back against the stone column. "The City of Light has fallen. And there is no commander left to rule us. Until another Nightblood ascends, I, King Roan of Azgeda, eldest son of Naia, grandson of Theo, caretaker of the throne, and keeper of the Flame-"

"Yu laik haihefa, nou ouspika! Kaina bandragen dison bilaik?!" Someone in the crowd interrupted. My eyes trailing to the cloaked figure.

"Nou bandragen, Reinseden! Until another ascends, Azgeda honors and will defend the coalition of the last true Commander, Lexa kom Trikru. Including the last clan." He paused as he allowed the crowd to soak up what he had said. "Let it be known that an attack against Skaikru, is an attack against us all." Roan's eyes scanned the crowd before looking beyond the sunlit courtyard to where I stood in the shadows leaning against the stone.

The grin on my lips was the only thing he could see of my face and the only thing he would see as I disappeared in front of his eyes. My movements quick as I vanished further into the shadows. My feet already moving towards the meeting point a few buildings down.

I was the first to arrive, the rest came in as a group. Clarke, Bellamy, Abby, my father, Indra, Octavia, and the rest of the guards with them.

"Took you long enough. You get lost?" I asked as I remained sitting atop the random blue barrel I had flipped upside down, my dagger in my hand as I entertained myself.

"Actually, we went looking for you." I rose an eyebrow as Bellamy approached me, a swagger in his step as I saw the hint of a smirk on his lips.

"I see how that went." He let out a chuckle as he finally reached me. His body stopping as he scanned me silently.

"Well, it was successful, technically." He finally spoke, shaking out of it.

"Yes, I guess it was." I gave him a smile as I slid my dagger back in its sheath. A thought on my mind as I tried to figure out how to say it.

"Echo's coming this way." I rolled my eyes at Clarke's information, Bellamy's smirk growing as he noticed my movements.

"Be diplomatic." He scolded playfully, his hand rising as he offered it to me.

"I'll diplomatically slice her hand off if she tries to attack you again." I snapped back as I took his hand and got off the barrel.

"Someone sounds jealous." I scoffed, my other hand coming up to pat his shoulder.

"But of course. Only I'm allowed to threaten you verbally and physically."

"You can do other things to me phys-" I shoved my hand over his mouth, releasing my other from his own grasp.

"You better not finish that sentence." I could feel the smirk beneath my hand as I slowly uncovered his mouth. His mouth opening to playfully finish when the atmosphere shifted. Echo was nearing us with cloth in her hand.

"Go." I spoke nodding towards the spy. "After all, she'll only speak to Bellamy." He chuckled as I mocked the words she had formally spoken.

"Don't miss me too much." I rolled my eyes.

"Just go, Dumbass."

Persphyni : I am Destruction Where stories live. Discover now