Deleted scenes from the lunar chronicles

Deleted Scene #8

Technically you get two scenes today, since they're short and they sort-of go together. You're welcome!

From: Winter, 1st draft (or possibly the 2nd...)

Featuring: Scarlet, Thorne, Wolf

Helpful set-up: In the early drafts of Winter, there were a LOT of people getting captured and taken to the Lunar prison. In fact, one of the major revisions I had to do to the plot was trying to make it less repetitive with all those arrests!

So in this scene, Wolf has already been arrested (I don't remember how/when), and now Thorne and Scarlet have been captured as well...

* * *

There was no sadness or worry or even fear as Scarlet stood between two Lunar guards in a dimly lit elevator descending down into the palace's sublevels. There was only anger. Seething, boiling, simmering anger that had her face burning and every muscle ruthlessly taut.

Thorne, standing not two steps in front of her so that she could only see the side of his face, was holding in his emotions much better than she was. His expression was bordering on bored—complacent. He looked as though he expected to be taken on an afternoon stroll before being given milk and cookies and tucked into bed. Scarlet sucked in her irritation through her nose, almost envious at Thorne's ability to appear so relaxed. It was certainly a gift.

The elevator doors opened. The thaumaturge walked out first into a cave lit only by a string of bare bulbs on the ceiling.

One of the guards jostled Thorne and he strode out of the lift with his shoulders back. Scarlet followed without hesitation, hoping it would keep them from touching her.

They followed the thaumaturge around a bend in the cavern, where another guard stood before a heavy iron door. He was already unbolting it at the thaumaturge's urging.

"There are two open cells down on the right," he muttered, disinterestedly, his eyes fixed on Thorne and then Scarlet as if ensuring these two new prisoners wouldn't be causing him any trouble. Scarlet scowled right back before being shoved past him.

The prison was little more than a dank, dirty cave with rough black walls and unevenly spaced iron doors with tiny barred windows. There was an immediate fork after the heavy iron door and the thaumaturge led them to the right. In the distance down the hallway, Scarlet heard the clank of a door being opened and could see a second thaumaturge and two guards standing outside a far cell.

As she watched, a prisoner stepped out of the cell, his head hanging.

"The man will be here." The thaumaturge gestured at a closed cell door without pausing. Thorne's guards paused to open the door, blocking a coded pad with their backs. "And the girl, here," said the thaumaturge, gesturing at the next cell door on the opposite side of the corridor.

But Scarlet ignored her—ignored Thorne and his guards and the jail cell that was about to become her home. Her gaze was transfixed on the prisoner who had just emerged down the hall, as a bundle of cleanly folded clothes was shoved into his arms.

"Wolf," she whispered.

Thorne tensed, glancing back at her before following her gaze. His head lifted only momentarily as he spotted Wolf, just as he was pushed into his jail cell. He stumbled with the unexpected shove.

"Hey, gentle!" he cried, but his words were lost in the sudden clanging of the door.

At the sound of the door or the sound of Thorne's voice, Wolf lifted his head for the first time. His eyes, even brighter when surrounded by dirt smudges and streaks of sweat, widened when they fell on her.