I sat cross-legged on my bunk staring at the newscast pulled up on the port in my hand.
The screen showed a shaking image of a bloodied man running full speed toward the camera. There was screaming, and then static. A male anchorman behind a desk replaced the video, his face pale. "This is footage fed to us from the attacks in Manhattan earlier tonight, and sources have confirmed that more than a dozen cities across the Union are also under siege."
I fidgeted with the sleeve of my freshly washed undershirt.
The anchorman continued, "Citizens are urged to stay in their homes and lock all doors and windows. We are now going to a live feed from Capitol City where President Vargas will be making an address."
I clicked off the port and tossed it to the side. It bounced on the mattress before lying still.
With a sigh, I hung my head in my hands.
"Hey."
I looked up to see Cinder hovering in the doorway. Her hair was damp from a recent shower.
"Hey," I echoed.
Cinder stepped into my room as one would a field of landmines. She hesitantly perched on the edge of my bunk.
"How...how is Scarlet doing?" A flush spread across the back of my neck.
"A little shaken, but Wolf woke up and that seemed to calm her down. They disappeared into the galley." Cinder listed her head to the side. "How are you doing?"
"Embarrassed." I leaned my head back against the wall with a heavy exhale. "Stars, I'm embarrassed. I can't believe I exploded like that. Thorne had to drag me out of the room."
"It wasn't your fault," Cinder assured.
"It wasn't Scarlet's, either," I replied. I shook my head. "I don't know, it...we lost the opportunity to talk to Michelle and then the thaumaturge got shot...Everything was just too much. I needed something to blame."
I glanced at Cinder and really looked at her for the first time since she walked in. Her face was drained of all color and a sheen of sweat coated her brow. She clenched and unclenched her metal hand repeatedly. She looked like she was about to fall over.
Immediate alarm washed over me. "Cinder? What's wrong?"
"Have you seen the net?"
"Just the clips of the soldiers." I glanced at the port on my bed. "Why? What happened?"
"Kai, um..." She bundled the hem of her shirt and gripped it so hard her knuckles turned white. "He made an announcement. In return for the attacks to stop he's going to marry Levana."
"What?" I exclaimed, bolting to my feet. "He can't do that! I didn't work my ass off keeping watch over those Lunars for weeks in the palace just for him to hand the Commonwealth over to the queen like that."
Cinder stood and threw her hands up. "Well I didn't work my ass off to get to that ball and warn the guy just for him to practically invite Levana to kill him!" She sighed and rubbed her forehead. "And now I have to deal with being trained by a Lunar operative and mastering my gift while his girlfriend blames me for this mess."
"Why would—" I cut off, the realization hitting like a bus.
The suspended animation tank room. Cinder knowing exactly where it was. Cinder looking like she'd seen a ghost the moment we had walked in. The half-finished cyborg hand on the operating table. Her being Lunar.
They're looking for you, Scarlet had said.
"You're her, aren't you?" I asked quietly.
Her head snapped to me. "What?"
"You're Princess Selene," I said firmly.
She looked like she was about to question my statement, deny it even, but she just resorted to looking at the floor. "Yeah."
"You didn't think to tell us?" My words were accusatory, but there was little fire behind them.
"I haven't even known for a week!" She held her hands out pleadingly. "I found out who I was the day after the ball, when I was sitting in a jail cell preparing to be handed over to Levana like a trophy."
I bit my bottom lip. "Do the others know?"
"Yes." Cinder sat back down on the bunk, defeated. She held her head in her hands.
I stared down at the girl in front of me. The cyborg. Fugitive. Lunar Princess.
She was just a child.
A child with an army of beasts and the Commonwealth Military Forces after her.
I sat beside her. "Well, between breaking out of prison, taking me as a hostage, running from the military and saving our lives on numerous occasions, you haven't exactly had the time to overthrow an entire regime."
She chuckled, a sad little sound.
I joined in. "Wow. Hell of a situation we're in."
"Yeah." Our laughs tapered off until the atmosphere was sullen.
"Levana's going to murder Kai after they're married," she said, running a hand through her hair. "She'll be coronated as empress, and then she'll kill him, and she'll have the entire Commonwealth under her control. After that, it will only be a matter of time before she invades the rest of the Union."
"Well that sounds like a shit deal," I said. I clasped my hands together and leaned forward on my knees. "So what are we going to do about it?"
Cinder gulped and opened the compartment on her prosthetic leg. "I'm going to let Wolf train me. I'm going to become stronger than she is." She took the shimmery chip out of the wirey mess and flicked it in the air. It glinted. "I'm going to track down the girl who programmed this chip, and she's going to tell me everything she knows about Luna and its security and all the queen's secrets."
Her eyes were aflame with a newfound resolve.
"And then I'm going to stop hiding."
* * *
"Hello."
I jumped at the rich, deep voice and whirled around, a can of pears raised in my hand as a weapon.
Vibrant green eyes flashed in alarm. "I didn't mean to scare you," Wolf said from the galley doorway, holding his hands out as if trying to calm a frightened animal.
I lowered the can, red spreading to my cheeks. "Sorry. I'm just a bit...on edge, I guess."
He smiled warmly. His gaze slid to the pears in my hand.
I looked between him and the can. "Oh. Do you...want some?"
He stared at it for a moment longer, then nodded.
I watched as he moved to sit at the long table. It was too low for him, and so he had to hunch his shoulders to rest his elbows on the metal surface. I should have been uneasy in the presence of a Lunar operative, but struggling to fit on the too-small chair...well. He didn't look too dangerous right then.
When I had drained the can and divided the pear halves between two metal bowls, I crossed to the table and awkwardly took a seat beside him.
"Here," I said, sliding a bowl in front of him. "I couldn't find any clean forks so we'll have to use our hands."
He didn't respond. Instead, he stabbed one of the pears with a claw and lifted it to his mouth. He practically inhaled it, juice dribbling down the side of his hand.
I gulped.
His unnaturally bright eyes glanced in my direction. "I make you uncomfortable," he said, swallowing. "Don't I?"
My lips parted. "Well...I don't know. I've had some bad experiences with your...um...pack mates."
He hummed, thoughtful. "Scarlet says I'm not like the others."
"Let's hope not," I said. I held out a hand. "Commander y/n l/n."
His hand swallowed mine as he shook it. "Alpha Kesley. But everyone calls me Wolf."
Truly, it's a miracle that you survived Omega Kesley.
The thaumaturge's words were like a bullet to the brain. I yanked my hand from his and leapt from my chair. I nearly tripped on the seat behind me.
His eyes were wide with surprise.
I slowly backed away. Blood rushed in my ears. "Kesley. You have—your last name is Kesley."
"Yes..." His tone was questioning. "Have we met before?"
"You tell me," I spat. "Your thaumaturge sure thought so."
"Jael?" Wolf cocked his head. "What does he have to do with anything?"
"He said it was a miracle I survived Omega Kesley. All I know is that whatever the hell he was talking about was dangerous, and you were a part of it," I accused.
Wolf's brow furrowed. "Ran?" he mumbled. "Why would he..." His eyes went as big as saucers. His mouth opened, revealing his fangs. "You're her."
He stood up, but I scrambled back. "Don't come near me!"
Wolf froze. He swallowed thickly. "Commander. I give you my word, I mean no harm."
"How am I supposed to believe that?"
"The thaumaturge wasn't talking about me. He was talking about my brother."
I blinked rapidly. "What?"
"My brother," he repeated. "Ran."
"Then..." My lips parted. "Okay. Then why would the thaumaturge even bring him up? He wasn't at the fight, was he?"
Wolf frowned. "You don't remember?"
"Remember what?" I half-shouted, exasperated. I had been in this situation too many times for my liking. "What is there to remember?"
Wolf thumbed at his bottom lip. His eyes never left mine. "I...I'll explain everything. Though it might be better if you sit down." When I still didn't move, Wolf sighed. "I won't hurt you."
I screwed up my mouth, but perched warily on a seat at the table, leaving a chair in between us. I suppose I could use it as a weapon if needs be.
"Okay," I said reluctantly.
A minute wave of relief rolled off of Wolf. "This may not be easy to hear."
"Just tell me."
"A few years ago, Ran caught an intruder trying to sneak into the opera house. She was young, just a girl. When he brought her to Jael, he was going to kill her. Ran convinced him not to, though..." Wolf locked eyes with me. "She may have wished she were dead with what he did to her."
The muscle in my jaw jumped. "What happened?"
"She was tortured. I had only seen her once, but she...she didn't even look human. Every inch of her was marred."
I swallowed. "This girl...I'm assuming she was me, yes?"
"Yes."
"Right." I leaned my elbows on the table and massaged my temples, trying not to think about what Ran might have done to her...to me. "If that's true, then why do I not have any serious scarring? Why am I not deformed now?"
"That, I can't be sure of. It's a miracle, truly."
I bit back the bile that rose in my throat at the echo of the thaumaturge's words. "How long ago was this?"
"I can't remember exactly. Three, four years ago, maybe."
That was around the time when I had enlisted in the Commonwealth military. It had been right after Isaac passed.
Images flashed behind my eyes of me kneeling beside the thaumaturge as blood bloomed on his coat, turning the crimson an even deeper shade. His grin had been nearly sadistic.
He knows you no more.
"Wolf," I said slowly. Everything inside me was screaming at me not to ask anything that might discredit previous memories I had. "Does the name...do you know anything about an Isaac l/n?"
He blinked in surprise, confusion. "There was a boy by that name who arrived in a new pack of operatives a few years ago. I was nearly done with my training, so we didn't interact much."
My stomach fell to my feet. Tears pooled in the corners of my eyes. "What did he look like?" I whispered.
"Dark hair, green eyes..." Wolf studied me intently as he spoke.
The air was sucked out of me. My face crumpled and tears escaped past my lashes to run down my cheeks. I was living through the grief of losing Isaac all over again.
A sob wracked my body. With his death there was a horrible, twisted comfort in knowing that he was in a better place, that he was no longer suffering.
But now there was a possibility he was alive. He might have been tortured. Beaten into submission. Trained so that he was a part of the same hive-mind as the other soldiers.
You let them do this to me, big sister.
Now, he would have been fourteen.
"Your surnames..." Wolf's gentle voice cut through the silence. "You two are blood."
"He was—is—my brother," I rasped.
The statement awoke something inside of me. Something that burned white-hot in its hunger, heating my veins and fueling the fire in my heart. Grief gave way to rage.
"He's my brother," I repeated, this time a growl.
I shoved myself away from the table so forcefully my chair screeched and tipped back. The soles of my boots slammed against the floor as I marched out of the galley.
They lied to me.
They lied to me. Isaac did not die of the plague. No, he had been snatched up by the Lunar Queen and morphed until he was deemed fit for Levana's perverse delights.
As I thought of the complete and utter distortion that had been fed to me to cover up this atrocity, an oath was made. A vow that was tucked away in a safe place—underneath my rib cage, next to the heart that beat with roiling hot fury.
I'd find Isaac. I'd scour the globe in my search and bring him back to his family. I'd reverse whatever modifications had been made to him and give him back the years of youth that he'd been robbed of as a little boy.
And then I was going to put a bullet through the Lunar Queen's skull.