Moonflower- A Lunar Chronicles Fanfiction

Chapter 27

A/N: "Oh my gosh a new chapter?"
I know right? I have taken forever to write this. I'm having trouble visualizing where the rest of this story is going to go. Who knew writing could be this hard? ;) I apologize in advance for how terrible this chapter is, but I needed to put something out there.

Cynthia swallowed letting the deal settle through her. It wasn't really a choice, she had to save her family and friends.
"All of them go free?" She asked, voice wavering. She would trade her own freedom for theirs, but nothing less than all of them.
Nyx grinned. "Of course Your Highness." Then she stashed away the needle and vial in her robe and nodded to the soldiers. They dragged almost everyone Cynthia loved out the door, and Cynthia could do nothing but watch them go. She caught one last glimpse of her father, a giant furry hand clasped over his mouth as his eyes screamed for all the things he continued to lose.
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They were gone and Cynthia was alone. The fizz of bioelectricty left unused was burning inside her, but there was one thing she was desperate for more than relief, and it was my mother. She was in some room now on some wing of the palace
"You have me now. I'm not going anywhere," she told Nyx, the only other person in the room. "Let me see my mother."
"Your mother is indisposed right now." Said Nyx, and with that she was gone.
Now Cynthia was really alone and she had no idea why. There were no wolfen soldiers and no thaumaturges. There was a bed in there and a desk. A thin layer of dust suggested the room was rarely cleaned anymore. Everything was bare, likely stripped when the palace was no longer a home. The extravagance was no longer needed to display the monarchy's power.
Cynthia went to the door and turned the knob, hopeful. To her surprise it opened and revealed a hallway in both directions that looked endless. Skylights and lava tubes lit the hall in a somewhat eerie glow, but other than that there was no one. As long as no one was holding her in, she was going to look around.
It was times like this especially that the princess wished she had her mother's internal computer and the ability to download a map. There were no windows in this hall beside the skylights, so she had no idea where she was going. It was quiet and her footsteps echoed on the walls. She passed door after door, all of them locked.
Until she reached the end of the hall. There was only one door left and a blank obsidian wall lit by a single glowing lamp. To her surprise the door knob turned and the door wing open with the squeak of a door left unused for several years.
However, Cynthia was not the first one to use it that day even.
"Thia!" Came a broken, raspy voice from inside the room. A voice she knew so well. A voice she had come to depend on in the past few weeks.
"Leo?" She called, rushing into the room. She was in such a hurry that she didn't even hear it click shut behind her.
She scanned the room, but it was much darker than the hall. The faint light streaming in from the windows provided only enough light for her to see the faint outline of various shaped in the room. When she turned to her left she spotted the bump of a light switch on the wall next to her and she switched it on.
The scene before her was so strange that she had to blink several times before she believed it. Then she touched the back of her neck to be sure her Linh device was operational. There was no bandages and the slight bump was still there, so it was very unlikely this was an illusion. Still, she was frozen in her place.
There was Leo, just sitting on the bed in the center of the room. His face was hollow, but other than that he was unharmed. He was even smiling at her. There was something in his hand that he clutched like his life depended on it, but other than that this could have been any day in any room in any place. The newly illuminated room even caught that mischief in his eyes.
A moment passed while they just took each other in. The other the one they had sworn in their hearts to find, and yet they suddenly stumble upon each other in the place where they were trapped. It was surreal.
Soon Leo, never one for too much idle time, shot up off the bed. He took the two steps to close the gap between him and the princess and folded his arms around her. Cynthia woke from what felt like a trance. Somehow touching him made it all real and relief flooded through her. She wouldn't have to worry about escaping alone.
"What are you doing here?" He whispered, still holding her, his oldest friend.
Cynthia pulled back a little. "We came here to save mom and you, but they caught us. Nyx and her minions had us surrounded before we could even get out of the throne room. I traded my freedom for theirs."
She swayed a little as the story came out. She hadn't slept in a day, but it felt more like a lifetime. She wasn't sure how much longer she could keep going. Even a princess with a mission needs sleep.
Leo caught her. He always does.
"I think you should rest for a while princess," he told her, concern laced in his voice with something else. Disappointment? Frustration? Cynthia wasn't sure; she was much too tired.
Still, the princess shook her head even as her eyelids drooped. "How are you out of the suspension tank? Are you all right? Have they done anything to you?" He last question was punctuated by a large, inescapable yawn. Something about being here with Leo made her body a little more willing to consider the possibility of a nap.
He didn't answer her, just walked her over the bed he had been sitting on and pulled back the covers for her. "That can wait Thia. You need to rest or you'll fall asleep while I recount my heroic tale of my time here in Artemisia."
She crawled into the bed smiling at his light tone. Even here, as distant from everyone they loved as possible, he could have some power to make her smile.
"Alright," she relented as he tucked the covers around her. "But Leo?"
"Yes" he said looking down at her curiously.
She pulled her arm out from under the blankets and took his hand. "Don't leave me okay? I can't be alone here."
He smiled, a soft genuine one. Then he sat at her feet on the bed. "Never princess."