He stabbed the point of the knife into the soft moss and, before Scarlet could move, reached for her wrist and twisted so hard a scream of pain arced up her shoulder. Scarlet gasped and her hand betrayed her, opening, palm up. It wasn’t mental manipulation, just a plain old dirty trick.
Scarlet tried to rip her arm back through the bars, but his grip was iron. Changing tactics, she pressed her body against the cage and clawed at his face, but he hovered out of reach.
Dodging a second swipe of Scarlet’s nails, the guard removed his scabbard from his belt and tipped it over. A tiny cylinder dropped into her palm.
He released her. Scarlet’s fingers curled around the cylinder instinctively, her body shuddering back out of the guard’s reach.
“Plug that into the security port of a Lunar ship and it will allow royal access. You can figure out the rest. There’s also a message from a friend of yours encoded in there, but I suggest you wait until you’re far away before worrying about that.”
“What’s going on? What did you do?”
He slammed the knife into the scabbard and, to her surprise, tossed it at her. She flinched, but it landed harmlessly in her lap.
“You need to find Artemisia Port E, Bay 22. Repeat it.”
Her pulse was hammering. She looked down the path again, expecting Winter’s black curly hair and glittering dress and the uncanny grace of her walk to appear any second. Any second …
“Repeat it.”
“Port E, Bay 22.” She wrapped her fingers around the knife’s handle.
“I suggest going through the gamekeepers’ halls first. Winter will know the way from there. We’ll do what we can about the security, but try not to do anything stupid. And if you’re tempted to try and leave Luna, fight it. You’ll just draw attention, and that little pod isn’t equipped for far distances anyway. Act like you’re going to pick up a delivery in RM-9. That’s where your boyfriend grew up. Understand?”
“No.”
“Just get away from Artemisia. Port E, Bay 22. Sector RM-9.” He stood. “And when you see that princess of yours, tell her to hurry up.”
Scarlet dragged her attention back to him, thinking, Winter? Winter had better hurry up? But then she realized he was talking about the other princess. Selene. Cinder.
Jacin rounded the cage to the side with the barred door and pressed his thumbprint into the pad, identifying himself. He entered a code. Scarlet heard the telltale release of the lock, the clunk of the bolt. Her nerves hummed.
“Count to ten.” Without looking at her, Jacin turned and walked away.
Everything in her screamed to shove that door open and race down the pathway to find Winter, but she refrained. Her fingers twitched. He had given her a weapon and an escape. She didn’t know what was going on, but something told her that not reacting for ten measly seconds wasn’t going to kill her.
On the count of four, she shoved the small cylinder into her hoodie’s pocket. On five, she tucked the knife into the back of her torn and disgusting jeans. On six, she neared the bars again and pressed her face against them. On seven, she screamed, “Winter! Are you—”
On eight, the lights went out, plunging her into blackness.
Scarlet froze. That jerk. Was this supposed to make it easier? Was this supposed to be helpful? Was this—
Oh. The cameras.
Huffing, Scarlet checked that the knife was secure and pushed open the cage door. She scrambled through it and used the bars to pull herself to her feet. Her legs wobbled from lack of use. She steadied herself and stepped out onto the moss.
First, see if the princess was dead.
Second, find out where the hell Port E was.
“Winter?” she hissed, shuffling across the path. The enclosure wall seemed farther than she remembered, her own muddled senses playing tricks on her. Finally her hand found the railing and she used it to guide her way down the path. “Ryu?”
The wolf didn’t answer. Another oddity.
Above the artificial jungle canopy and the glass wall, stars could be seen twinkling in abundance, and Scarlet’s eyes adjusted to the dim light they provided. As she rounded a corner, she could make out only the shadows of tree boughs overhead and her own hand in front of her face.
She squinted. There was something white in the pathway, which could have been any number of albino animals that had their run of the place, but Scarlet’s instincts told her exactly what it was. Who it was.
“Winter!” She jogged the rest of the way, her hand skimming the rail. The princess’s shape took form, slumped across the bars. Something dark pooled beneath her. “Oh, no—oh, no—Princess!” She collapsed to her knees, tilting Winter back and feeling around her throat.
“The walls are bleeding.”
The faint, near-delirious words sent a wave of relief over Scarlet. Winter’s heartbeat was strong when she found it. “Where are you hurt?”
“The blood … everywhere … so much blood.”
“Winter. I need you to talk to me. Where did he hurt you?” She ran her hands over the princess’s arms, shoulders, throat, but the blood was all beneath her. Her back then?
“He killed Ryu.”
Scarlet froze.