Winter

Eighty-Nine

The word mother was foreign to Cinder’s ear. Mother. A woman who had given birth to her, but that was all. She had no memories of her, only rumors—horrifying tales that said Queen Channary was more cruel even than Levana, though her reign had been much shorter.

“My own sweet sister,” Levana purred. “Would you like to hear how it happened?”

No.

But Cinder couldn’t form the word.

“She was thirteen and I was six. She was learning how to use her gift, taking great amounts of pleasure in manipulating those around her—though I was always her favorite target. She was very good. As I am. As you are. It is in our blood.”

Cinder shivered. It is in our blood. She hated to think that she shared blood with anyone in this family.

“At that age, it was her favorite trick to convince me that she loved me dearly. Having never felt love from our parents, it was not a hard thing to get me to believe. And then, when she was sure I would do anything for her, she would torture me. On this particular day, she told me to put my hand into a fireplace. When I refused, she made me do it anyway.” Levana smiled as she told the story, a deranged look. “As you’ve seen, by the time she let me go, it was not only my hand that suffered.”

Bile was filling Cinder’s mouth. A child so young, so impressionable.

It would have been so easy.

Yet a cruelty too impossible to fathom.

Her mother?

“After that, they started to call me the ugly princess of Artemisia, the sad little deformed creature. While Channary was the beautiful one. Always the beautiful one. But I practiced my glamour, and I told myself that someday they would forget about the fire and the scars. Someday I would be queen and I would make sure the people loved me. I would be the most beautiful queen Luna had ever known.”

Cinder tightened her grip on her weapons. “Is that why you killed her? So you could be queen? Or was it because she … did that. To you.”

One of Levana’s perfect eyebrows lifted. “Who says that I killed her?”

“Everyone says it. Even down on Earth we’ve heard the rumors. That you killed your sister, and your own husband, and me, all for your own ambitions.”

A coolness passed over Levana’s face and she leaned slowly back against her throne. “What I have done, I have done for Luna. My struggles, my sacrifices. Everything has been for Luna. All my life I’ve been the only one who cared, the only one who could see the potential of our people. We are destined for something so much greater than this rock, but all Channary cared about were her dresses and her conquests. She was a horrible queen. She was a monster.” She paused, nostrils flaring. “But no. I did not kill her, though I’ve wished a thousand times that I had. I should have killed her before she ruined everything. Before she had you, a healthy baby girl who would grow up to be just like her!”

Cinder snarled. “I don’t know who I would have become if I’d grown up here,” she said, “but I am not like her.”

“Oh, yes,” Levana mused, skipping from word to word like a stream over rocks. “On that note, I believe you are correct. When I first saw your glamour at the Commonwealth ball, I was surprised at how much you resembled her, once the dirt and grime and awful metal extremities were removed. But that seems to be where the similarities end.” Her lips stretched, bloodred, curving around perfect pearl teeth. “No, little niece. You are much more like me. Willing to do anything to be admired. To be wanted. To be queen.”

Cinder’s body went rigid. “I’m not like you, either. I’m doing this because you’ve given me no choice. You had your chance. You couldn’t have just been fair. Been a good ruler who treats her people with respect. And Earth! You wanted an alliance, Earth wanted peace … why couldn’t you just … agree to it? Why the disease? Why the attacks? Did you honestly believe that was the way to get them to love you?”

Levana peered at her, furious and hateful. But then her lips twitched into something resembling a grin. A furious, hateful grin. “Love,” she whispered. “Love is a conquest. Love is a war. That is all it is.”

“No. You’re wrong.”

“Fine.” Levana dragged her fingers along the arm of her throne. “Let us see how much your love is worth. Relinquish all rights to my throne, and I will not kill your friend.”

Cinder’s lips tightened. “How about we put it to a vote? Let the people decide who they want to rule them.”

Thorne took a step back. His left heel was on the edge now, and there was an expression of dismay as he glanced down at the lake below.

Cinder flinched. “Wait. I could promise to relinquish my throne to you, but there are still going to be tens of thousands of people outside demanding for you to abdicate. The secret is out. They know I’m Selene. I can’t take that back.”

“Tell them you lied.”

She exhaled sharply. “Also, the second you kill him, I’m going to kill you.”

Levana cocked her head to one side, and though she had her glamour, Cinder was seeing the woman from the video. That was her good eye, she realized.

“Then I will change the terms of my offer,” said Levana. “Sacrifice yourself, and I will not kill him.”

Cinder glanced at Thorne, who seemed indifferent to the fact they were negotiating with his life. He clicked his tongue at her. “Even I can see that’s a bad deal.”

“Thorne…”

“Do me a favor?”

She frowned.

“Tell Cress I meant it.”

Her gut tightened. “Thorne—”

He met Levana’s gaze. “All right, Your Queenliness. I’ll call your bluff if she won’t.”

“I am not negotiating with you,” Levana snapped.

“If you kill me, you’ve lost your last bargaining chip and Cinder wins. So let’s talk about your options. You can either accept that your time as queen is over and let us both go, and maybe Cinder will take mercy and not have you executed as a traitor. Or you can throw me off this ledge and—”

“Fine.”

Thorne’s eyes widened. He stepped off the overhang. With a cry, he threw up his arms—one wrist still bound, the opposite hand gripping the kitchen knife he’d swiped from the mansion. Gasping, his arms cartwheeled, his balance precarious.

Cinder dropped her weapons and rushed toward him.

Thorne fell—throwing his body forward at the last minute. One hand grabbed the ledge. He grunted. Cinder dove.

Levana leaned forward.

Thorne’s fingers let go, just in time for Cinder to reach over the edge and latch on to his arm. Her injured shoulder screamed, but she held tight.

Thorne looked up at her, and it was by far the most fear she’d ever known him to reveal. “Thanks,” he panted. Then his free hand swung upward, punching Cinder on the jaw. She flinched, ducking away without letting go.

“Sorry! That’s not me.”

“I know,” she grunted. Planting her other hand on the floor, she pushed herself backward, dragging Thorne with her until his torso was on the ledge, his feet scrabbling for purchase. She dared not let go, even as he shoved his body onto the floor.

Cinder knew that the second she let go of him, Levana would send him careening to his death again.

Too late, it occurred to her that he’d actually managed to get out of his bindings. He must’ve spent the whole time she was arguing with Levana trying to work himself free. The fall might not have killed him, and with his arms free he’d have been able to swim. But now he was—

Thorne jabbed the knife into her thigh.

Cinder screamed.

“Still not me,” he said, breathless, as his fist ripped the knife back out. He raised his arm overhead, preparing to stab her again.

Cinder tackled him, knocking the knife out of his grip.

Thorne threw his elbow into her throat. The air left her, white spots flecking her vision. Thorne scrambled away, but he didn’t run back to the ledge.

Wrapping a hand around her throat, Cinder massaged the muscles, urging them to take in air again. Still dizzy, she forced herself onto her wobbling legs, ready to lunge at Thorne again.

She heard the click of a gun’s safety being released.

She froze. Thorne had gone a lot farther than she’d expected and now he was standing near the room’s entrance, holding the knife and gun she’d dropped when she’d tried to save him. The barrel of the gun was aimed at her head.

Cinder swayed. Stumbled once. Regained her footing.

A gunshot echoed off the room’s stone walls. Cinder recoiled, expecting a jolt of pain, but instead she heard a bellowed curse. The gun Thorne had grabbed skittered across the floor. Cinder shook away the light-headedness and gawked at Thorne, who was in turn staring, horrified, at his hand. His arm was still raised, but his hand was now empty and covered in blood.

“I’m sorry!” Cress cried. She was on the floor against the doorway, struggling to get back up. The kickback had knocked her off balance. “I’m sorry, Captain!”

Thorne cursed again. Sweat was beading on his brow. But when he looked at Cress, jaw hanging, he bit back the pain and shouted, “Nice shot!”

“Cress,” Cinder croaked. “The queen, Cress. Shoot the queen!”

Though Cress whimpered, she did change her aim, leveling the gun at Levana.

Cinder ran for the gun that had been shot from Thorne’s hand.

Thorne ran too, yanking Cress’s attention back to him. In one movement, he knocked Cress’s arm up with his elbow while simultaneously, with his noninjured hand, driving the knife into her stomach, burying it to the hilt.

Cinder snatched her gun off the floor. Cress dropped hers. Blood seeped through her dress. She gaped up at Thorne and it was impossible to tell which of them was filled with more horror. Thorne’s hand was still wrapped around the knife’s hilt.

Turning toward the throne, Cinder fired, but Levana threw herself to the floor and the bullet ricocheted off the carved back of the throne. As Cinder loaded another bullet into the chamber, Levana scrambled off the floor, slipping on her billowing skirt as she pulled herself behind the throne. Cinder fired again, barely missing the queen’s leg as she disappeared.

“No,” Cress gasped.

A searing pain sliced through Cinder’s side. She collapsed onto her hands and knees. Flopping onto her back, she pushed herself away, one hand pressed against the wound. Thorne stood over her, gripping the knife. Cress was dangling from his arm in an attempt to pull him away, but he was too strong and she was trying to keep one hand on her stomach wound. Her entire front was already covered in blood.

“I’m sorry,” Thorne sobbed. All signs of his usual confidence were gone. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry—”

Cress bit him then, digging her teeth into the flesh of his hand in an attempt to get him to release the knife. He stifled a scream behind his teeth, but didn’t let go.

Snatching the gun again, Cinder launched herself off the floor, trying to wrestle the knife out of Thorne’s grip. With a grunt, she planted a foot on his chest and kicked, ripping the knife away. He fell back, catching one of the audience chairs between his shoulders. His face barely registered the pain. His actions were becoming less graceful, more stilted.

Maybe because of his injuries, but more likely because Levana was growing too tired to go on controlling him.

Cress collapsed to her knees, clutching her stomach. Her cheeks were streaked with tears. “Cinder…”

Cinder stood over them, the gun in her left hand and the blood-slicked knife in her right, every muscle trembling.

“Stars…”

She whipped her head toward the doorway. Scarlet and Wolf had arrived.

“No. Run! Get out of here!”

Scarlet met her gaze and started to shake her head. “Wha—?”

More weapons. More potential enemies. More people she loved that Levana could take from her. Gritting her teeth, Cinder reached out, trying to lock on to their bioelectricity.

Too late. Wolf could no longer be controlled, and Scarlet was already taken.