Echoed Lullabies (Lunar Chronicles x Reader)

Chapter 61

My heart was thundering against my ribcage so powerfully I was sure Cress was able to feel it. Both of us were curled up in a fetal position, only her back was pressed against my chest and my body engulfed hers. The side of the crate dug painfully into my spine. I clutched my gun tightly.

The Princess of Luna—the stepdaughter of Levana—had saved our lives. It felt like hours since then and my mind was still reeling.

"Y/n," Cress whispered. It was deafening.

"Yes," I breathed back.

"We can't stay here."

"I know."

I listened for anything that might have signaled someone close by—loud breathing, footsteps, the sound of a gun. But there was nothing.

Slowly I pried open the crate and peeked around. No one.

I shifted the lid off completely and scrambled out of the crate. My legs ached in protest. "We need to find somewhere else to hide."

"The cameras."

The blinking red light in the corner of my eye seemed blinding.

"Can you disable them?" I asked swiftly.

"Yes." Cress scurried to the control booth from before. She was up there for less than three minutes before the camera lights turned off.

"Okay, now let's—" A sound cut me off. A sound that made my stomach plummet.

Footsteps.

Cress was emerging through the doorway of the control room, but I waved my arms around. She halted.

I sprinted over and grabbed her shoulders, pushing her back in the room. "Someone's coming."

We crammed ourselves in a tiny closet full of wires and plugs and other things that would shift and make too much noise should we step on them.

Cress and I held still in the darkness, so impossibly still, that the only thing that might have given us away was our breathing. It seemed magnified in the silence.

Sweat beaded on my brow as the footsteps grew louder. The hinges of the main door to the control room squeaked.

More moments of emptiness.

Then, light. A burst of heat seared my retinas and I slammed my eyes shut. Something grabbed the collar of my shirt and tugged.

I stumbled forward and my eyes adjusted.

Standing there was Jacin Clay.

My jaw dropped. "You!"

Jacin took a step back and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"You sold us out, you son of a bitch!" I spat.

Jacin didn't acknowledge me. Instead, when he glanced past me and spotted Cress, he cursed. "Princess, you have got to stop collecting these rebels."

It was only then I noticed the second presence in the room, the same one that had saved Cress and I from exposure only hours before. Princess Winter Blackburn-Hayle.

"We won't hurt you," she cooed to Cress, her hands placating. "It's all right."

Winter's caramel eyes flicked over to me and widened. "Y/n-friend?"

I cleared my throat. "Uh. What, Your Highness?"

She reached out a perfectly polished hand, then retracted it when it was inches from my shoulder. She curled in on herself, shaking her head rapidly. "No, you can't be here. You left. You disappeared, you're gone."