Fanning the Flames of Rebellion [A Lunar Chronicles Fanfic]

Chapter 50

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It took a rough cough beginning to bubble in Cinder's throat to awaken her. She snapped into full focus and quickly reached over her bedside table and grabbed another bloody rag. She covered her mouth with the rag and coughed. Cinder felt the iron taste of blood on her tongue as she pulled the towel away from her face. It had been like that for the last several hours. She'd woken up from her sleep only to cough up blood on the same rag, hour after hour.

Cinder was restless. Her mind buzzed about Helena. Her being Wolf's mother, working in the labs at the Lunar Palace, developing a cure to the new, mutated plague. She tried to feel safe under her care, but there was always the nagging feeling that it wouldn't last. She just hoped she would die before anyone had the chance to betray her. The soft sound of a door shutting outside Cinder's room carried her away from her thoughts.

"Hello, Darling," Cinder recognized the voice of Lucas, Helena's husband. "How's the girl?"

A pause. "She's doing just as well as the rest of the Earthens and Lunars with Letumosis." Helena replied.

"Don't worry, Helena, she'll be okay. We've almost uncovered a cure."

"I just don't know how long she's going to last. Her condition... it isn't the best right now." Helena's voice was worrisome.

"I said don't worry, Darling. Everything will be alright." Lucas' words were calm and soothing. "How about we watch some news, eh?"

Cinder heard a faint buzz and the sound of an anchorwoman speaking. She figured it was loud enough for her to sneak across the room without being heard. If she could walk, that is.

After a few fumbles, she gave up and decided to crawl on all fours across the room. There was a slight crack in the door frame, just wide enough for Cinder to see through. It was the first time she'd seen the house outside the room she slept in.

There was a short hallway that led to a small couch where Helena and Lucas sat facing away from her. Lucas reached for the remote and the voice of the anchorwoman lowered to a whisper.

"What?" Helena turned to him, furrowing her brows.

"I have something to tell you." Lucas replied, rubbing the back of his neck.

"What is it?"

"It's about the girl."

Silence.

"I don't know anything, it's only a rumor, but it's been said that she's more than who she appears to be."

Cinder was caught off guard. What were the rumors? What was being said? Unless...

"More than who she appears to be?What's that supposed to mean?"

No. It couldn't be. Could it?

"They're saying Lihn Cinder is the lost Princess Selene."

They know.

"Lihn Cinder?"

"Yes. It understandable. Why else would Levana go to such great lengths just for an escaped convict? Why else would she wage war?"

Cinder's breath caught. She turned away from the two and leaned against the door. She shut her eyes, attempting to process what she heard. "They know." Cinder muttered in disbelief. "They know." She repeated again and again. The more she said it, the more real it became. Cinder was having mixed feelings about this revelation.

"But that's absurd. Selene's dead." Helena said.

She's not dead, Helena. But she is dying. Cinder thought.

"She died in a fire thirteen years ago. They have the evidence. The ashes they found held Selene's DNA."

"Yes, they did. But were there enough ashes for the size of a toddler?"

"Ashes burn, too, Lucas. There didn't need to be enough for her body to know that she was burned to death. That was all that was left of the poor child."

"There's more--"

"Lucas, please. You're starting to sound like your brother. She's dead, why don't you understand that?"

"Helena, listen, please. A short time before the Emperor was kidnapped, the federation sent troops to search that little town in France... What was it called again?"

"Rieux." Helena deadpanned.

"Right, Rieux." Lucas cleared his throat, "They sent the troops to search the home of Scarlet Benoit, the girl who had just recently joined Cinder and Carswell Thorne--"

"Why?"

"I was getting to that, Darling. Her grandmother, Michelle, was kidnapped by the Special Operatives, and they wanted to know why. It seemed odd for a group of vicious canines to kidnap a random grandmother. The federation thought Michelle was somehow connected to the attacks. You still with me?"

"Yes."

"They searched her home, hoping to find clues to the connection. But what they found... What they found was surprising. I guess that's not the right word for it, more like frightening."

"What did they find?"

Cinder gulped, pushing down a cough. Her heart was racing. She already knew what they found.

"In the garage. There was this... I can't describe it. Almost like a secret lever or something. Anyway, a hidden door opened, leading to some underground cellar--but it wasn't a cellar. It was like an underground lab. There was an old operating table, even a suspended animation tank."

"No." Helena breathed.

"It had the faintest outline... The faintest outline of a small child."

Helena gasped.

"They found a net screen. When they tuned it on, a picture... A picture that could make any heart break showed up."

"No, it can't be."

"It was a photo of a toddler. The child looked like it had crawled straight out of the sun. It was almost unrecognizable. The body was so badly mutilated."

A terrible silence stretched on for ions.

"It was Selene, Helena, the child was Selene. And, you know what? Half of her leg and her hand were gone. Both on the left side."

Cinder turned to look through the crack of the door once again to see Helena shaking her head in disbelief.

"You know who else lost part of her leg and hand?"

Helena's head began shaking violently.

"Lihn Cinder, Darling. She is Princess Selene."