The Fire Didn't Stop Her

Winter is Coming

Jacin, Cinder, and Iko rushed around the ship to find anything they could use to patch up Wolf's wound and to stop the bleeding. The android came back with the med-kit and Jacin helped Cinder hoist him up onto a row of crates. The poor soldier was out cold. But the look of anguish was still seared into his features.

The guilt inside of Cinder was eating at her very soul. "I can't believe I let this happen," Cinder sighed."

Jacin placed a familiar hand on her shoulder. "You couldn't have know Sybil and I were on the satellite. Or that Sybil was trying to kill you. I didn't even know. It's not your fault."

Even at his assuring words, Cinder felt responsible. They had to land, and they had to do it fast.

"Iko, go the the cock-pit and find out where the satellite is headed. We're going to follow it."

......................

Scarlet woke up in a cage. A metal, cold, dirty cage. It was about four feet tall and four feet wide and long. Not enough to stand up, but enough to sit up straight.

She pulled herself to the farthest corner of the cage and leaned against it. Trying to remember how in the name of Luna she got there. She knew that Thaumaturge got onto the satellite, and that she shot at Wolf – something Scarlet would make her pay dearly for. Also, that something intruded her thoughts and forced her to walk onto Sybil's ship and fly it away.

She saw the satellite tumbling out of orbit towards Earth ans she could have sworn the others had been on it trying to get her back.

For some reason, Scarlet didn't have the strength to cry. All she could do was hang her head in despair and let the terrible thoughts in her head roam free. All of them, every last person that tried to stop Sybil from taking her could be dead. Including Wolf.

Wolf, she thought. He was different from most of the guys she'd met. Though he acted like he knew her better than he actually did, he was an okay guy.

The more she thought about it, she felt like she knew a bit more about him. Maybe she'd seen him somewhere before? Suddenly it broke through the veil of forgotten memories.

He was the man that was always at the Tavern when she delivered produce. He was the guy she caught walking around the outskirts of the farm at least twice. He was the one who caused a fight in the Tavern after she got into a heated fight with a drunk and left.

Wolf had been in her life months before she even knew his name. How could she have forgotten that?

It also occurred to Scarlet that she'd been too stubborn at all those times to think anything of him and she simply looked the other way. He must have been staking her out, learning about her family and her usually schedule. If she hadn't been so stubborn, she could have seen the attack coming.

And maybe, her Grandmere wouldn't have died.

Even after thinking this, she couldn't cry. Something inside of her refused to show weakness now, while she was in the hands of the enemy. Now, she just had to figure out where that was.

Just like that, three people came to stand just in front of her cage. One of them was Sybil. The sight of her made Scarlet want to gouge her own eyes out.

Without resisting, Scarlet allowed the three men to drag her out of the cage and down a series of corridors. Where she was, she had no idea, but a sinking feeling in her gut told her she wasn't in a good place at all.

They brought her into a large room with a throne opposite of the door. Could she really be in the E.C. palace? The idea was both exciting and terrifying. If she was, it would be fairly easy to find a way out of the prison. After all, if Thorne got out, it had be be like getting out of a bouncy castle?