How long had time ticked by? How long had he been lost in an idle feeling of
numbness? He had moved stone after stone. Brick after brick and they had
unburried the staircase leading down from the seventy-seventh floor of the
tower in Polis. Tensions were still high despite them all working together. In
this moment, there were no Grounders or Sky People. There was only human.
Only those who felt guilt and remorse and those who desired to speak of their
tragedies. He was not one of them. He had taken the time to talk with Clarke
in private. He had learned what she meant and he couldn’t speak. He didn’t
even think he could properly process it. However, that wasn’t what rung in is
heart. All he could see when he blinked was her face. He didn’t need to hear
her words. He didn’t need to understand because he knows he failed. He
knows that his words did not reach her and she fell down the one path he had
tried so desperately to keep her from. It had taken him too a dark place only
to learn that his anger, his revenge, didn’t lead to happiness. It only lead to
more pain and it only fixed his when the action was taking place. “Octavia.”
He breathes her name almost silently as he moves to stand beside her.
Facial features are soft but in a line. He doesn’t smile. He doesn’t look at her.
Instead he’s watching the flickering of the flame in the dying sunlight as he’s
breathing the fresh air that he didn’t know how long would stay. “I think we
need to talk.”
