Winter (The Lunar Chronicles 4)

The princess stepped back and he was able to breathe again. “With our introductions complete, I feel it is safe for us to drop any future formalities. After all, with your upcoming nuptials, you’re practically my father.”

Kai reeled back, his jaw dropping open.

Silent laughter glimmered in the princess’s gaze as she took her spot behind her stepmother again. She seemed neither distressed nor unnerved.

The queen gave her stepdaughter an annoyed look, before gesturing to the man on her other side. “You will of course remember my head thaumaturge, Aimery Park.”

Snapping his mouth shut, Kai inclined his head, though the thaumaturge offered only his signature smugness in return. “Welcome to Luna,” he drawled.

Scanning the rest of the entourage, Kai recognized two of the guards too. Seeing the queen’s captain of the guard was no surprise, but his teeth clenched when he spotted the blond guard who had been like a shadow to Sybil Mira when she’d been a guest in New Beijing.

Distrust twisted his insides. Cinder had thought this guard was an ally, but she now suspected he’d betrayed them to Sybil when they were trying to make their escape from the palace. His presence here, in uniform again, confirmed her suspicions.

No matter, he thought. Cinder had succeeded, despite his betrayal.

Levana grinned, like she detected the rebelliousness of Kai’s thoughts, despite all his attempts to appear complacent. “I believe that leaves only one matter of business to tend to before we show you to your rooms.” She snapped her fingers, and two of her thaumaturges and six guards snapped to attention. “Search their ship.”

Despite all his attempts at normalcy, Kai couldn’t keep away the panic that flared in his chest. “Excuse me?” he said, swiveling his head as the entourage marched past him. “What are you doing?”

“My dear beloved, you didn’t think I would blindly trust your word after you’ve shown so much sympathy to my enemies, did you?” She laced her fingers together. They might have been discussing the weather. “In monitoring your fleet, we noted that you took aboard some passengers from the American Republic, but it seems they’re too shy to show themselves.”

Kai’s stomach sank as one of her guards pulled him and Torin behind the queen, and he was left to watch helplessly as Levana’s men boarded his ship. If his own guards thought to offer any protection, they were already under Lunar control.

Kai tightened his fists. “This is absurd. The Americans were with that group you just sent away. There’s nothing on that ship but luggage and wedding gifts.”

The queen’s face hardened. “For your sake, Emperor Kaito, I hope that’s true. Because if you came here to betray me, I’m afraid this will be a remarkably unpleasant visit.”

Twenty

Cinder was pressed into the corner of a storage closet, her heart pounding in the darkness. Faint strips of light spilled through the slots in the door, allowing her to make out the profiles and bright eyes of her companions. She could hear the shuffling and thumping as the cargo bay was unloaded beneath their feet.

She tried to think of this like a homecoming. She had been born here—this moon, this city. Here, her birth had been celebrated. Here, she would have been raised to be a queen.

But no matter how she tried to think of it, she did not feel like she was home. She was hiding in a closet with the very real possibility that she would be killed the moment someone recognized her.

She glanced at her companions. Wolf was beside her, jaw tense and brow set in concentration. Against the opposite wall, Iko was crouched down with both hands over her mouth, like the need to be quiet was torture. In the hollow silence, Cinder could detect a subtle hum coming from the android, a hint at the machinery beneath her synthetic skin. Her neck was fixed now—Kai had brought exactly what Cinder needed.

Standing beside Iko, Thorne had one arm draped around Cress’s shoulders, his free hand scratching at his jaw. Tucked against him, Cress seemed paler than usual, her anxiety evident even in the darkness.

They were a ragtag group in the drab clothing Kai had brought them, including a black knit hat to cover Iko’s blue hair and heavy gloves for Cinder’s cyborg hand. Putting them on had dredged up a number of memories. There had been a time when she wore gloves everywhere, when she’d been so ashamed of being cyborg she refused to let her prostheses show. She couldn’t recall when that had changed, but now the gloves felt like a lie.

A blue glow drew her attention back to Cress, who had turned on a portscreen and was pulling up a diagram of Artemisia’s royal port. “We’re in good position,” she whispered, tilting the screen to show them. There were three exits from the port—one that led into the palace above them, one that connected to the city’s public spaceship docks, and one that led down to the maglev tunnels, which was their destination. The maglev tunnels made up a complex underground transit system, linking all of Luna’s sectors together. Cinder had studied the system so many times she would have had it memorized even without having the map downloaded to her brain-machine interface. To her, the system resembled a spiderweb and the capital city of Artemisia was the spider.

Cress was right. The pilots had settled the ship close to the exit that would take them down to the maglev tunnels. It was the best they could have hoped for.

Yet she couldn’t deny how tempting it was to abandon the plan, to forget patience, to try to end it here, now. She was at Levana’s doorstep. She was so close. Her body was wound up tight, ready to storm the palace—an army of one.

She glanced at Wolf. His fists flexed, in and out, in and out. There was murder in his eyes. He would have stormed the palace with her, she knew, in hopes that Scarlet was there. But they didn’t even know whether Scarlet was still alive.

But it was desperation goading her, not confidence. Even if she got past Levana’s security and somehow managed to kill her, she would end up dead as well. Then some other Lunar would step in to take the throne and Luna would be no better off than it had been before.

She shoved the temptation down into the pit of her stomach. This wasn’t about assassinating Levana. This was about giving the citizens of Luna a voice and ensuring it was heard.

She tried to distract herself by going over their plan again in her head. This was the most dangerous part, but she hoped Levana and her security team would be so busy with the arriving Earthen guests they wouldn’t notice a handful of dockworkers slipping out of the royal port. Their goal was to make it to Sector RM-9 where they hoped to find Wolf’s parents and be offered temporary shelter from which to start the next phase of their plan—informing the people of Luna that their true queen had returned.

If they could make it there undetected, Cinder knew they had a chance.

The clomp of feet startled her. It was too loud—like someone was on the same level as they were, not down below in the cargo bay. She traded frowns with her companions. A distant door was slammed shut and she heard someone yelling orders. More scuffling followed.

“Is it just me,” whispered Thorne, “or does it sound like someone is searching the ship?”

His words mirrored her thoughts exactly. Comprehension turned fast into horror. “She knows we’re here. They’re looking for us.”

She looked around at her companions, their expressions ranging from terrified to eager and all of them, she realized with a start, looking back at her. Awaiting instruction.