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?
She was dragged to the center of the room, where she could glance outside through balcony. It was nighttime and darkness engulfed the world below. A crescent shape floated in the sky, cascading light upon the planet.
But the crescent shape wasn't the white, crater speckled moon that she knew. It was blue with misshaped green slabs. Which meant-
"By the court and Queen Levana of Luna," Sybil began. "You, Scarlet Benoit, are hereby charged with aiding a fugitive, the assisted kidnapping of a Lunar royal, the theft of resources belonging to Luna, and the attempted murder of a Lunar Thaumaturge."
Oh stars, Scarlet's head screamed. You're going to die on this stupid planet.
Weirdly, that wasn't even what was scaring her the most. Not even the fact that the Lunars she was near could use their glamours on her to their hearts content.
Because Wolf could be dead, and all because he'd been dumb enough to try to help her. Why couldn't that idiot have left well enough alone? Why couldn't he have just stayed away from her and her Grandmere and taken his chance to escape his pack? Why did he have to try to warn her?
"Tell us where you're accomplices are, and your death will be swift," Sybil negotiated. For Scarlet, that was a pretty cruddy deal.
Instead of saying something like she usually would, like "Over my dead body," or "Make me", her mouth remained sealed. Not a word left her lips. For the first time in Scar's life, she was protesting without speaking.
"Tell us about your accomplices," Sybil demanded. A surge of agony penetrated her brain. All she could do to fight back was grit her teeth and squeeze her eyes shut.
Tiny little legs crawled over her skin and into her ears and nose. It made her scream and shriek and thrash her head about. Bugs of all shapes and sizes crawled all over her. Scarlet could feel the Spiders moving down her throat and the bees buzzing and stinging in her ears. Every part of her body was coated with insects and arthropods of some kind.
It seemed like forever, how the bugs moved around all over her and inside of her. For a brief moment, Sybil stopped them and made them disappear. "Tell me where your friends are," Sybil ordered.
"I .. don't .. know!" Scarlet gasped. She really didn't. Even if she did, she wouldn't tell them. If there was a chance Cinder, Wolf, Cress, and Captain Moron made it out of that trap alive, she'd rather die than give them up.
And Sybil probably knew that as well. Using her glamour, she let the bugs return to where they were before she made them leave. On the cold, tiled floor, Scarlet withered and squirmed in agony and misery. She wished they would just kill her already and get it over with.
Again, Sybil stopped her torment. The witch drew a dagger from her belt and twirled it between her fingers. Once she was done showing off, she held it by the blade and dangled it just within Scarlet's reach.
"Take it," Sybil said. Scarlet couldn't stop her hand before it grasped the handle. She body was shaking, trying desperately to break free from Sybil's control. But all was in vain as her hands came up to meet and the blade broke the skin around her pinkie.
Scar's teeth dug into her tongue as she – Sybil rather – cut into her little finger. Like a saw for a log, the dagger drew back and forth through her appendage. Blood leaked onto her hand and into her hoodie sleeve.
Soon enough, her finger was gone. The white of the knuckle inside her palm and the red flesh surrounding it make her almost throw up.
"Where are your friends?" Sybil repeated.
Shaky breaths left and came to Scarlet, allowing her to reply, "I .. don't .. know," again.
Finally accepting that she truly didn't know where the others were, Sybil told the men behind her to take her back to the cage. Like she was an animal they could poke for entertainment and put away when they weren't using it.
They dragged her back the the cage, only this time, she wouldn't walk with them. They effortlessly pulled her across the floors back to the cage.
She hadn't noticed it before, but there were all kind of animals in cages around her as well. The men threw her into the cage and locked the door behind her. There, laying on the dirty, frozen floor, Scarlet stared out into space and let her mind go blank.
"You're a monster," accused a voice. Scarlet turned her head just enough to see a girl with brown ringlets for hair and beautifully crafted eyes. Probably just a glamour, but still.
"Whatever you need to think to sleep at night," Scarlet scoffed.
The girl crouched by the entrance of her cage and snarled. "You took my Selene from me."
When Scarlet looked back at her, she saw the girl was giving her a stink eye. Not very effective, since it almost made Scarlet laugh.
"You better give her back," the girl said. "If you don't, I'll make sure you stay in this cage for the rest of your life."
All Scarlet managed was to roll her eyes. "Well, Sybil was the one who tried to shoot her," she mumbled.
"What?" the girl asked, intrigued and terrified. "Sybil tried to hurt my Selene?"
Why the girl was calling Cinder my Selene was a mystery to Scar. This girl must have been friends with her or something.
"Yeah. Your Queen Levana ordered Sybil to kill Selene the first chance she got."
The look in the poor girl's eyes was piercing. Tears ran from her eyes and down the three scars that covered part of her cheek. Almost like she was in despair, she howled in pain and curled her fingers into her hair. She seemed like she was having and episode or a panic attack of some kind.
"So much blood on the walls," the girl muttered. None of the guards around her would come forward to help her. By instinct, Scarlet reached out of the cage to help the girl – who was not holding her knees into her chest on the floor.
Slowly but surely, the girl calmed down, and Scarlet couldn't help but ask, "Can you keep a secret?" The girl nodded as she wiped away tears. "Are you sure? Because Selene's life depends on it."
"I can," she whimpered. "Like a spy, or even like you."
A smile formed on Scar's lips. She pulled the girl closer and whispered, "Selene was never kidnapped. She went of her own free will. We're helping her stop Levana from taking over Earth."
As the girl continued to sniffle, she said, "But how? She was- She was taken."
"It was all staged," Scarlet assured her. "She's safe. But Levana is trying to kill her. You can't tell anyone."
The girl smiled and pretended to lock her lips with a key, then faked casting it over her shoulder. Scarlet's first observation of this girl was, she is very childish.
"I'm Winter," the girl told her.
"I'm Scarlet."
Winter's smile grew. "Well then, Scarlet. I guess this means our adventure is just beginning. If my Selene really did plan this, the ending is going to be spectacular."