The Fire Didn't Stop Her

Time To Say Goodbye

He heard two gunshots. Only one had been accompanied by a shriek. The other had been too far away for Kai to tell. After the first shot went off, he'd been escorted from the after-party of his coronation to his room. Two guards stood outside, and Torin had left to manage the situation.

It's only prolonging the inevitable, he thought. You're still going to have to marry her.

Part of him hoped that it would give him just enough time to find Cinder, so he could be with her. But that part of him was baseless for such a thought. There was no way that Cinder could get to him before the wedding.

A knock sounded at the door, and the guard poked his head in to address him. "Queen Levana of Luna is here to speak to you," he said. Just before one of Levana's guards came to the two standing at the door and declared that they were needed in the medical center. Both left swiftly. Leaving the lunar guard in charge. Fantastic.

Levana strode into the room, already wearing her red and gold wedding gown. The gown he'd wanted for Cinder.

Kai didn't speak, he didn't address the queen. Not after everything. He just wanted to get whatever this was over with so she would leave. He turned on his heels and faced the other side of his room. "What do you want?" he questioned, letting his anger show. "You practically already have me, my position, and all of Earth. So what could you possibly want?!"

Over his shoulder, he caught Levana tugging at the hem of her glove. He'd never seen her do that before. But the sight felt so familiar to him. Still, it didn't do much to calm him.

He rested his elbow on his nearby dresser and ran his free hand through his hair. "You've taken everything I have left. So I don't know what more you could wa-"

He was cut short by a piercing pain in his back. His eyes went directly to the sight of pain, where he saw some kind of metal object sticking out of the center of his back. For a moment, he stumbled on his feet. Before he could fall, Levana - of all people - was holding him up and gently helping him down to the floor. Kai was so confused, because when had the evil queen done anything kind?

Everything was growing foggier and the corners of his vision were dark. Levana was kneeling on the ground, one hand under his back to keep the metal object from hitting the floor and pressing further into him, the other on his neck, keeping his pulse. When she brought her other hand up, the thing she'd shot him with was inside her grip. He could faintly recognize it as some kind of dart.

More than that, the hand she held it in was the same color. Silver. He could have been going delusional, yet he swore her hand was metallic. Just like ... Cinder's ...

Quickly, his thoughts became more clouded and obscure. Nothing could keep him awake, even though he thought Levana had just condemned him to death with that shot.

His near obsession with the fact that Cinder was gone could have accounted for Levana's hand seeming metallic. That still didn't explain why Levana was easing him into slumber though. What made it even weirder was when she placed her hand on his chest, just over his heart.

Before falling asleep for what he thought was the last time, he heard her croak, "I love you."

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

Wolf and Thorne had arrived to Kai's room just in time to make a group count and get everyone back to the Rampion. Both of them offered to take the slumbering prince - Wait, no. Emperor. But Cinder felt personally responsible for Kai. Plus, if he somehow woke up before they got to the ship or while they were trying to take off, Cinder was the only one he wouldn't try to kill.