Lunar Palace

Chapter 9: Cinder

"He's gone."

The voice cut through Cinder's roaring void of thoughts, and she jumped out of her seat, immediately alert. "Tell me something I didn't know," she snapped. "How? Who took him?"

Scarlet shook his head, exasperated. "Isn't the answer to that obvious? Who else would take him other than-"

"The rebels," Cinder whispered, realization hitting her in a fresh wave of despair. "Scarlet-they'll kill him!" She waved her arms around, panic choking her and her breaths becoming heavy and fast. A warning appeared on her screen-TEMPERATURE LEVELS RISING. INITIATE INTERNAL FAN?- and Cinder ignored it, pushing the words away and facing Scarlet, horror in her eyes.

Her friend grabbed her by the shoulders, her voice calm and steady. "No, they won't. They need him for something-think about it, Cinder. Why else would they take the emperor of the Eastern Commonwealth?" Scarlet shook her, trying to get a positive response. "He's valuable, Cinder. They wouldn't kill someone like that if they could see the opportunities."

Cinder looked up, and she wished she could smile...but she couldn't. Even with Scarlet's words, she knew that Kai was still in danger. "How did they take him?" she croaked, the words coming out hoarse in her throat.

Scarlet winced. "We don't know. There are blood spots on the floor, but not enough that he fainted of blood loss. They must have drugged him up or knocked him out or something."

Cinder imagined a needle being forced into Kai's skin, or him being hit over the head with a club. She squeezed her eyes shut, closing the images off. She couldn't think about that now.

"Have you told the Thorne and Winter yet?" Cinder shook her head. She had heard noises in the middle of the night, and had found Kai's bedroom door open and empty. The first person she had thought to tell was Scarlet.

All of a sudden, she realized how empty the palace felt. Out off their original group, now there was only her, Scarlet, Winter, and Thorne.

"You should tell them," Scarlet advised, helping Cinder up. "It's not pleasant to realize that someone was kidnapped first thing in the morning." They stepped down the corridors, the hallways still dark from the pale sunlight streaming through the windows along the walls. When they reached Winter's room, Cinder took a deep breath, running her hand through her hair and knocking on the door three times. There was a groan from the other side, and Winter opened the door, looking sleepy and disheveled. "Cinder...Scarlet?" Her eyes widened, as if she sensed something bad was coming.

Scarlet nodded once, briskly, and motioned for Cinder to speak. She swallowed. "Right. So... um. Kai.. just might be kind of...ah... missing. As in... gone. Kidnapped. Disappeared."

"Oh, my stars!" Winter's hand flew up to her mouth, and she combed a hand through her hair hurriedly, grabbing a jacket on a hook next to her and wrapping it over her pajamas. "We have to tell the others! Cinder.. I'm so sorry!"

Cinder gulped, a lump in her throat. They went to Thorne's room, notifying him, too, of what had happened. Thorne was astounded("I can't believe he's kidnapped.. again! Stars, next time they should just steal me. The ladies would really-" "Shut up.") at the news.

Cinder felt a pat on her arm, and looked up to see Winter's luminous eyes gazing at her. "You really care about him, don't you?"

Cinder looked into Winter's soft expression and smiled weakly. "Yeah. I guess I do."

Thorne snorted. "You guess? You two have been gazing at each other since-" Scarlet slapped him on the leg, shooting him a look that silenced him immediately, before he began speaking again. "Kai has a tendency of getting stolen."

Winter giggled. "You mentioned that."

"Well, I still can't figure out why it's always him that's being kidnapped. He's not all that spe-"

Scarlet slapped him again, and he finally shut up.

~-~-~-~-~-

This is another short chapter. Sorry for the filler chapter, but next chapter(which I'm going to post either today or tomorrow) will be Cress's POV... which I'm super excited about writing! I mean, in a situation like this, only Cress can speak the best, right? If you don't remember, Cress and Jacin were both taken away by the resistance during the "fire" in the palace. I haven't written about her or Jacin for a couple of chapters... Bye!

@lunaspell