Echoed Lullabies (Lunar Chronicles x Reader)

Chapter 96

I slumped against the wall. Thorne's gone. We're separated again, but this time it was he who was taken.

I dug my fingernails into my palms so hard the pain jolted me out of my spiral. Snap out of it, I told myself. You are an ex-commander of the New Beijing military force. You will not hide out here and be useless.

I took a deep breath to clear my head and think of some sort of plan.

Alright. I couldn't pose as a guest again, because the guards already knew what I looked like. Whether they knew exactly who I was was undetermined, but they had still seen Thorne and I together. Not to mention it would be suspicious for a partygoer to emerge from the servants' halls.

And Cress was out there somewhere, hopefully safe and on her way to embed the chip into the system and play the video. Going after her would be a waste of time—she was capable. She knew what she was doing.

An unexpected spark of pride rushed through me.

I unsheathed a knife from my hip and turned it over and over in my hands. Its weight was comforting. Secure. At least I still had my weapons.

Unlike Thorne.

Stop it. Don't think about that right now.

So finding Cress was out of the question. I could...I could go to Cinder. Take the maglev tunnels to LW-12 and explain the situation, regroup, and come back to Artemisia with reinforcements.

I gripped the knife tighter in my hand. That settled it.

I was getting out of the palace.

***

It had grown hot inside the cabinet and Cress's left leg was tingling from too little blood flow when she finally forced herself to move. She didn't want to. Uncomfortable as the cabinet was, it felt safe, and she was convinced that the moment she moved someone would shoot her.

But she couldn't stay there forever, and time was not going to move any slower to accommodate her failing courage. Wiping her nose with the faux butterfly wing, she forced herself to nudge open the door.

The hallway light blinded her and Cress shrank back, hiding behind her arm. She was drained of emotions as she crawled out of the cabinet, peering each way down the servants' hall.

Her eye caught on a smear of blood not far from the cupboard. Thorne. She flinched away and tried to erase the sight from her memory before it paralyzed her.

Cress pounded life back into her leg and slowly stood. She listened, but heard nothing but distant machines and the hum of whatever heating and water systems were working in these walls.

Steeling herself, she checked that the chip was still tucked in her dress before she picked up the gun. The antennae had fallen off and she left them in the bottom of the cabinet.

Her stomach was in ropes, her heart in tatters, but she managed to backtrack to the corridor Y/n had mentioned. She paused at the corner, peeked her head around, and drew back, her heart pummeling her rib cage.

A guard was there.

She should have expected it. Would all of the elevators be under guard now? The stairwells too?

Hopelessness seeped into her already-delirious thoughts. They were looking for her, and she was vulnerable without Thorne and Y/n, and she had no plan.

This wouldn't work. She couldn't do it alone. She was going to be caught and imprisoned and killed, and Thorne and Y/n would be killed, and Cinder would fail, and they would all—