Echoed Lullabies (Lunar Chronicles x Reader)

Chapter 87

"Here."

Thorne lifted the glass of water to Y/n's lips, and she grasped his wrist as she drank.

Y/n exhaled as he pulled the cup away. She took a deep breath. "Thank you."

A stray hair had escaped from behind her ear. Thorne lifted his hand to tuck it back into place.

She flinched.

His arm froze.

Regret showed on her face, and her eyes grew glassy. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I don't..." She sniffed as the tears pooling on her lashes overflowed and raced down the curve of her face. "I don't know what's wrong with me."

Thorne's heart broke as she wept. He'd never seen her like this. The girl before him was so...open. So vulnerable. So hurt. She was entirely different from the quick-mouthed, stone-strong commander he had known previously.

"Hey." Thorne placed his palms on her knees so as not to startle her again. "Nothing's wrong with you."

She covered her eyes and shook her head.

"Y/n." Thorne gently latched onto her wrists and pulled her palms away from her face. He ducked his head, forcing her to meet his gaze.

"Nothing's wrong with you," he repeated.

She peered up at him. "He looked like you," she breathed.

"What?"

"When he...when he did the things he did to me..." Her lip trembled. "He glamoured himself to look like you."

Shock. Then something else—that white-hot anger that seared through him. It made him want to break into the palace immediately. And when he'd find that monster, he'd—

His vengeful thoughts were cut off by another cry coming from Y/n. All traces of anger evaporated immediately.

"Hey, hey," he said, cradling her face in his hands. He swiped off a tear with his thumb. "It's okay. It's—we're going to move past this. We're going to get through this."

She swallowed and nodded.

"I'm never leaving you again. You hear me?" He rested his forehead against hers and her eyelids fluttered closed. "I'm here. You don't have to cry anymore."

She laughed through her tears. "Right. Besides, it's dehydrating."

His heart soared, and he couldn't stop from grinning widely. He kissed her forehead and pulled her into another embrace.

***

Winter sat on a rough-hewn bench, watching the last chips of ice thaw around her feet. She plunked her toes against the shallow puddle that had formed, amazed at how everything about it could be so real—the crackling, the cold—even when she knew it wasn't.

Sighing, she raised her head, weary as she was, to watch the haphazard training sessions happening all down the dusty street. Maneuvers and tactics, a hundred trained soldiers doing their best to build an army.

Her and Scarlet-friend's mission was an ultimate success. They had been able to convince a large number of lunar operatives to escape the lava tunnels and join their side in the revolution. Now, they were in one of the outer lumber sectors, where the soldiers were teaching the civilians the basics of combat.

She scanned the crowd for Scarlet's flaming hair, not sure where her friend had gone off to.

Instead of seeing Scarlet, her gaze caught on something else entirely. A head of pale hair near the back of the crowd.