Echoed Lullabies (Lunar Chronicles x Reader)

Chapter 116

The nurse kept apologizing as she escorted me from the med-clinic to the palace. Far from being fully healed, I had to be transported on a maglev chair. The clinic was so overcrowded, the nurse explained, the doctors spread so thin, and now that I was out of critical status ...

I didn't mind the change. I was glad to be out of the sterile clinic.

Though I had only been brought out of suspended animation four hours ago, I'd already seen Isaac, Iko, Scarlet, and Wolf, who told me of our victory and how Cinder had signed the Treaty of Bremen and how cyborgs were going to be given equal rights and how the shells had been awakened and how researchers were figuring out the best way to get them adjusted to life on Luna while also meeting Earth's antidote needs. It left my head spinning.

Levana was dead. We had won.

At the top of my thoughts, however—always, always—was Thorne.

He hadn't been there.

No one had even mentioned his name, and I had felt like they were all holding their breath. Wanting to say something, but waiting, uncertain.

I'd shot off two of his fingers. It may have been a minor injury compared with what Cinder and I had suffered, but still—I had done it. It was a detail I had glazed over when I was barely conscious in the throne room.

Thinking about that sent me spiraling into a whole other class of emotions. Cinder was stabbed in the heart. She had nearly died. I had nearly died.

And Thorne...he had said...

I had a hard time convincing myself that what had happened was real. That my mind did not simply invent things while I was that close to death in my delirious state.

The nurse guided me into the guest wing. "Here we are," she said, opening a door. "If you need anything at all—"

"I'm fine." I used the controls on the chair's arm to guide it into the room. A canopied bed was covered in shining silks, the stone floors were polished to a glossy finish. The window looked out on some of the palace's flowering gardens, full of gazebos and statues. "Thank you."

"We've taken care to make sure you're close to your friends," said the woman. "Mr. Kesley and Miss Benoit are two doors down on the left, and Emperor Kaito is around the corner. Mr. Thorne is staying across the hall."

I spun the chair around. The door was still open and I could see Thorne's closed door from where I sat. "He is?"

"Would you like me to see if he's in?"

I flushed, realizing how eager I had sounded. "Oh. No, that's all right. Thank you."

"Then I should be getting back to the clinic. Would you like to be helped into bed before I go?"

"No, I'm alright. Thank you." I sounded like a broken record.

The nurse left, shutting the door behind her.

I took in a deep breath. The fine guest quarters smelled of lemon cleaner and a bouquet of white lilacs that sat on a desk. They were already wilting, though, and I wondered how long they'd been there. Perhaps this room had been set up for someone else, perhaps one of the Earthen diplomats who had already gone home.

Mr. Thorne is staying across the hall.

My stomach was throbbing where he'd stabbed me, when he'd been under Levana's control. I pressed my fingers against the bandages over the stitches, trying to ease the ache. I should have asked the nurse to leave me some pain medicine.

I inhaled, feeling the sting in my ribs as my lungs pressed against them.

I needed to see him.

I urged the floating chair to the door and yanked it open.