Shadows

Chapter Thirteen

(Clarke's POV)

It was dark. Very dark. And cold. Those were the first things Clarke noticed when she first opened her eyes. The next thing was the pain. It was everywhere. Her veins felt like they carried fire, her hands and arms were bloody from where glass had cut her, some of the glass was still stuck in parts of her skin; and her head. She had never felt such an antagonizing pain in her head before. She tried to move, but that only increased the intensity of the pain and she couldn't stop herself from groaning.

"Ah. Finally up are we?"

A harsh light flickered on and Clarke flinched. Tears welled in her eyes before she even had a chance to try and stop them.

"Amazing isn't it? Lexa thinks she is all so high and mighty but, in reality, she is nothing more than a weak little girl."

If Clarke hadn't been paralyzed from the pain she would have jumped up and strangled the Ice Queen before she would even know what hit her. Nia stepped into her line of sight. A fresh, jagged, cut ran across the length of her cheek. The sight of her wound caused the previous nights events to come pouring back to Clarke.

She remembered waking up in the middle of the night, gazing up into dead eyes that had become all too familiar. The Ice Queen had had a needle lifted above her, trying to find the perfect spot to stab Clarke. It hadn't been that easy for her though, Clarke thought with some satisfaction. She had rolled out of the way and had knocked the Queen off her. They had struggled for a bit, neither gaining the upper hand. The lamp had fallen and broken and Clarke had managed to grab a shard of glass and slash it across Nia's face. Clarke had almost been able to escape when she tripped on the sheets that had fallen to the ground. Nia had quickly pounced on her and had driven the syringe into Clarke's neck before she had a chance to react. She had blacked out and the next thing she knew she was waking up in pain, in a cold, dark, room.

"Wh...what..."

Clarke tried to speak but her throat was so dry that she was unable to form any words. This just seemed to satisfy Nia even more.

"It's a pretty incredible formula really. You see, Lexa thinks she has such great healers, but they are nothing compared to mine. My best healer was the one who created the serum that I injected you with. It paralyzes you, and can knock you out if enough is injected, the second it enters your bloodstream. Oh, and it hurts like a bitch when it starts to wear off."

Nia smirked as she glanced over at Clarke.

"Roan is going to be feeling like you are right about now."

"What do you want with me?" Clarke was finally able to force a sentence out.

The Queen responded without any hesitation.

"I want to use you to get what I want. You see, Clarke, I was able to find Lexa's weakness and use it to my advantage. I did it before and it was so easy to do it again."

It has hard to pay attention to anything other than the pain that was consuming her body, but she was able to realize that the Queen was talking about Costia.

"If...if you think I would tell you anything about Lexa then you have clearly under estimated me. You will have to kill me first."

Nia let out a bone-chilling laugh, it seemed as though she received a lot of her amusement from Clarke.

"I don't want you to tell me anything. No, that wouldn't be very useful or very fun. I want to break you until the Commander agrees to my terms."

"It doesn't matter what you do to me, Lexa will never agree to your terms."