Echoed Lullabies (Lunar Chronicles x Reader)

Chapter 103

We sent scouts ahead to confirm there wasn't an ambush waiting for them at the maglev's platform. It was Strom's idea, and while I was a little annoyed to see someone other than Cinder taking charge, it also was good that there was another leader present who was thinking strategically. It was the sort of thing Wolf would have done, if he'd been here.

I just finished checking my gun when Isaac came to sit beside me. "Hey."

"Hey."

"Can I ask you a question?"

I smiled. "Sure."

"How are Mom and Dad doing?"

I dropped the smile in shock. "Mom and Dad?"

"Yeah. It's been a while since I've seen them. You know. I was kind of preoccupied with getting turned into a wolf soldier."

I swallowed. "Isaac..."

He turned suspicious at my sympathetic tone. "What?"

"Mom and Dad...they're not at home. They got the plague."

He sucked in a breath. "So...they're..."

"I'm sorry."

His jaw clenched before he bowed his head. I rested my palm between his two large shoulder blades.

"You know, I don't even remember them all that well," he started. His voice was gravelly. "It was hard being in those lava tubes. My senses would get all mixed up, and I'd just remember bits and pieces."

I leaned my head against his shoulder. "I'm sorry." I felt as though I'd been saying that a lot recently.

"I don't even remember how I even got to Luna."

"That makes two of us."

Isaac looked down at me. "You don't know, either?"

"No. I was told you had gotten the plague, too."

"Damn," Isaac sighed. "Was my funeral good, at least?"

"Isaac."

"What?" he asked defensively. "Tell me you at least had the food from the restaurant down the street I love."

"Isaac," I said again, this time apologetically. "I don't even remember your funeral."

"What?" Green met (e/c) as he locked eyes with me. "What do you mean?"

"I mean," I said, massaging my temples, "I don't remember a lot of things. There are gaps in my memory. For what reason, I don't know. I've been trying to fill them in, but..."

Isaac smiled sadly. "Yeah, well. Join the club."

A low howl echoed down the stifling tunnel.

The signal.

Cinder waved her arm. Time to move.

We slipped forward onto the empty platform, where the netscreens were announcing that the coronation had ended. Levana was empress.

We entered the stairwell, pushing toward the daylight. Though manufactured evening would soon be forced upon the domes, real daylight could be seen off the horizon, a faint sliver of the burning sun.

Sunrise.

It was beautiful.

Our footsteps pounded against the stone streets of Artemisia. I had expected the streets to be as empty as they had been before, but as the sound of our march echoed off the mansion walls and through the manicured gardens, silhouettes were drawn to the windows.