The Prison of Luna

Cinder

CINDER was getting more overwhelmed by the second.

Thorne was not alright. He would reply only to a few of her words, mostly with just grunts. She had to constantly press her ear against his chest to check his heartbeat. It beat so slowly, any one could be his last. The thought was like an iron fist clamped around Cinder's silicon heart.

"Come on, Thorne." She sat cross legged next to him on the hard, steel floor. "If you're gone, who's gonna be the one to drive us all insane?"

Sure, he couldn't hear her anyway, but Cinder kept talking. "I'm sure your ship will miss you, and Iko - " She stopped herself, saying the name of her old android friend almost physically hurt. She had been swept away by Levana, who seemed to hate androids more than Cinder (although that was unlikely), and probably crushed her into spare parts. The reminder of her old guardian, Linh Adri, sent shivers up her spine.

Yet, the name also had a sense of comfort to her. How much she'd changed from the renowned little cyborg mechanic of New Beijing. Could she ever had imagined this back then? She gazed around her at the steel cage, then her eyes found Thorne again, hardly breathing, his chest buffering up and down in broken gasps.

She sent a silent prayer to the stars that all would be well, that Kai, Winter, and Jacin would be found in time and they'd be able to escape.

She heard a clank, and the steel door of the room creaked open. Wolf emerged from darkness, silhouetted by the white light of the outside hall. Winter was beside him, her hands clasped behind her back. Cinder almost fell back with relief.

"Winter! Oh my stars, Winter!" She stumbled foreword, almost falling onto her face when she forgot about her missing limbs. She grasped the bars one handed with a white-knuckle grip. She expected more people to come through the door, but no one did.

"Winter?" She hesitated, perplexed and worried. "Where are the others?"

"Scarlet and Cress are still looking." Cinder's gaze found Wolf. "I... I should go get them." With that, he cast an odd glance to Winter, and left the room, leaving her and Cinder alone.

"Well, where is everybody? What's happening?" Cinder breathed exasperatedly, clinging so tight to the bars her knuckles began to ache.

"Come on, I'll get you out, than I'll tell you everything," she replied, unable to meet Cinder's gaze.

Cinder didn't argue as Winter helped her clamber out of the hanging cage, pulling her down in the darkness to sit down next to her against the cold wall.

Cinder's tongue itched with questions, but when Winter looked to her, the princess's expression gave Cinder a start.

"Winter?" She looked away, leaving Cinder with her darkened profile.

"Before now, I believed Queen Levana to be horrid, ghastly, beyond redemption. But now, I see she is more." She turned to Cinder. "So much more." Cinder was still perplexed.

"She has a part of the castle. It's ... unimaginable." Tears pricked in the corners of her eyes. "She keeps her dead preserved there. Why, I will never know."

"My father, was there ... and ... and ..." She trailed off, again unable to meet Cinder's gaze. "He was there, the ... your ... Commonwealth." Her words went incomplete, and Cinder couldn't help but think she was listening to only one half of a conversation.

"Who was there? Please, tell me." Winter's next words were a cold wash over Cinder, soaking her in sorrow.

"Emperor ... Kaito." No one said anything for a time.

"What?" Cinder finally croaked, her voice painful.

"The Emperor, you must have called him Kai? He's - he's gone." Cinder recoiled away from her like she'd been stung.

"No ... no he can't be gone." Hundreds of loopholes, different scenarios and excuses coursed through her head, all to shield Cinder from the inevitable truth.

Kai was gone.

Winter was saying something, but Cinder couldn't hear her through the blood rushing in her ears. She would never again see his easy smile, his copper-brown eyes. Never again hear his soft voice, feel his touch. The first time he kissed her came back to her.

You're not controlling me now, are you?

Of course not.

Just checking.

He plagued her mind. She curled up, pushing the heels of her hand hard against her ears, as if this would help her block him out.

This was her fault, all her fault. If she had just left Kai alone none of this would have happened. How could she have been so stupid to think this would work. Someone was trying to pry her hands off her ears, Winter. The Princess's voice came back to her.

"Cinder? Cinder listen to me. I know how much you are hurting but we must move, Levana is hot on our trail. She knows we're out, we must escape!"

Kai was dead.

Cinder slowly shook her head.

"Leave me," she finally managed, but Winter shook her head as well.

"Luna needs you alive, Earth needs you alive. You are the only hope of billions upon billions of people."

"I can't be. If I have no hope, how can I be the hope of others?" She didn't know what she said, nor did she hear it. She looked over her shoulder at the bright doorway, wanting nothing if not Kai walking through it.

"Cinder listen to me." Winter put her hands on Cinder's shoulders, squaring them and forcing her to look into her eyes. "Kai would want you to be brave. You know, as the Emperor, he would want to do anything to be able to keep the Commonwealth, and the Earth, safe. Now that he's gone, you are the only one left to do that."

Cinder didn't answer, and her frustratingly dry eyes found the cobblestone floor.

Then Winter said something surprising.

"You can't cry, can you." Cinder looked back up at her, momentarily shocked, before her mind wandered back to Kai. Her head throbbed with immense pressure. She should be crying, she wanted to be crying, but of course, she didn't.

She shook her head.

"Come, I can show you him." Winter helped Cinder up, lugging her, as she put up little effort. "It's alright Cinder ... all will be well." Cinder turned away from her, and they walked in silence.