A dozen people stood on the raised dais, a mix of thaumaturges and royal guards and one bioengineered soldier dressed up in a pretty uniform that was at odds with his malformed face and body.
Kai grimaced, wondering what Levana was thinking to bring one of those creatures to the coronation. Their presence hadn’t worked out for either side at the wedding feast.
Then the light caught on the creature’s eyes, blazing green, and Kai frowned. If he didn’t know better—
He jolted, his feet stumbling on the first step. He caught himself, successfully navigating the rest of the steps without falling on his face. His heart continued to thump inside his chest and he remembered Cress telling him they’d taken Wolf, but she didn’t know what had become of him.
Now he knew.
This creature was Wolf, but not. His eyes were turbulent and dark, boring into Kai, hinting at the ferocity that simmered beneath the surface.
With a snarl, Wolf looked away first.
“You recognize my prized soldier?” said Levana as they reached the altar full of regalia. “I should think he’s changed a great deal since last you saw him.”
Kai’s fury writhed inside him. She only wanted a reaction. She only wanted him to know that she was in control—of his fate, of the fate of his country, of the fate of his friends.
Kai braced himself as he and Levana turned to face the audience. This was the moment in which he would be handing Levana half his power. This was when he would tell his country that, should he die, this woman would become their sole ruler.
His body throbbed with refusal, but he knew there were no more options left to him.
Please let Cinder come, a voice repeated in the back of his head. Please let her come.
“People of Luna and of Earth,” said Levana, holding her hands toward the crowd. “You are here to witness a momentous event in our history. Today, we shall crown an Earthen as our king—my husband, Emperor Kaito of the Eastern Commonwealth. And today, I shall be crowned an empress, the first of our royal bloodline to form a binding alliance with our Earthen brethren.”
The people cheered.
Well, the Lunars cheered. The Earthens clapped sort of politely.
“I ask that you be seated,” said Levana.
As the people took their seats, Kai and Levana paced to the two bejeweled cases set upon the altar. Kai released a slow breath and undid the latch on the case.
Inside, settled on a bed of silk, was the empress crown, molded into the shape of a phoenix and studded with flaming jewels.
His heart caught, overwhelming him with emotion he hadn’t been prepared for. The last time he’d seen this crown it had been worn by his mother. She had worn it during the annual ball celebrating world peace every year. She had always been so beautiful.
He shivered at the memory, and at the blasphemy he was about to commit.
On the other side of the altar, Levana emerged with her own crown. In comparison to the Earthen jewels, the crown for Luna’s king was simple. Seven spindly tines carved of moon rock, the white stone shimmering in the candlelight. It was ancient. The monarchy of Luna had been formed long before the Fourth World War had led to the formation of the Eastern Commonwealth and its own royal family.
Steeling himself, Kai lifted his mother’s crown from its protective box, and together, he and Levana faced the crowd again, holding their symbolic crowns overhead. Kai found Torin and saw sadness mirrored in his expression. Perhaps he, too, was thinking of Kai’s mother.
Before Levana could launch into her speech about the symbolic importance of this crown and how it symbolized the sovereign’s power and so on and so forth, the doors at the back of the room crashed open.
The gold-haired woman marched down the aisle, and though her expression was horrified, her movements were robotic, keeping her heading toward the queen.
Kai lowered the crown, his palms growing warm. Hope expanded in his chest. As the crowd turned to watch the woman’s approach, a titter spread through them. Something was happening. Kai did not sense fear from the crowd so much as excitement, like this was nothing but a fictional drama to them.
The woman arrived at the stairs and dropped to one knee. “Forgive me, My Queen,” she stammered. “We have received notice that there is a disturbance in several nearby sectors, including the outlying domes of Artemisia City.”
Kai risked a glance at Wolf, but Wolf was still twitching and snarling. He looked ready to snap his enormous jaws around the first throat that passed too close.
“What sort of disturbance?” Levana growled.
“We don’t know how, but the barricades around the rebellious sectors have been lifted, and the people are … they are coming here. Swarming the maglev tunnels. There is word that … that Princess Winter is among them.”
Levana’s face reddened. “That is not possible.”
“I … I do not know, My Queen. That’s only what I was told. And … and also, supposedly, the cyborg is with them as well.”
Kai grinned. He couldn’t help it, and he did nothing to hide it when Levana turned a scowl on him. With a shrug, he told her, “She did warn you.”
Levana’s jaw clenched. She turned back to the woman. “The cyborg is dead and I will not tolerate any rumors to the contrary.”
The woman’s mouth hung.
“Are the barricades holding around Artemisia?”
“Y-yes, My Queen. To my knowledge they’ve been unable to breach—”
“Then we are not under any immediate threat, are we?”
“I … I suppose not, My Queen.”
“Then why are you interrupting this ceremony?” Levana flicked her wrist. “Guards, escort this woman to a prison cell. I will suffer no more interruptions.”
Her eyes were flaming, merciless, as the woman stood and stumbled back. Two of the guards caught her.
The crowd was trying to stifle their enthusiasm, but was failing. Kai saw a number of mocking looks cast toward the woman as she was dragged away, even though surely it had not been her idea to bring news of the insurrection to Levana.
Kai’s own thoughts were teeming. He bit down hard on the inside of his cheek, while Levana’s face untwisted, transforming back into pleasant serenity.
“Now then,” she said, raising the Lunar crown over her head. “Let us proceed.”
Seventy-Nine
Cinder stayed at the front of their small army, along with Alpha Strom. The subway tunnels were wide enough to walk in rows of five and Strom had made sure everyone knew this was to be their formation—to deviate in such confined quarters could lead to panic and confusion. They tried to be quiet, but it was impossible. They progressed like a roll of thunder. Thousands of feet pounding against the rocky terrain inside the lava tubes.
The mutant soldiers stayed near the front, the first line of defense, while the people from the outer sectors followed behind.
It had become a numbers game, and their numbers were growing. Every sector they passed through had new civilians joining their cause, many who had been preparing from the moment Cinder’s first message had broadcast.
Cinder kept running the calculations over and over in her head, but there were still too many variables to factor. They needed enough civilians to overthrow the queen and her thaumaturges, and enough un-manipulated fighters left to take on the guards and any wolf soldiers Levana brought to her defense. She was relying on Jacin and Winter to spread the word, and fast. If they failed, it would become a massacre, and not in their favor. If they succeeded …
The tunnels were pitch-black but for the lanterns scavenged by the people in the outer sectors and a handful of flashlights. Cinder wished she had a map in her head telling her how far they’d gone and how much farther they had to go. She’d become accustomed to having infinite data within her grasp, and it was disconcerting now to be without it. After five years of wishing she was like everyone else, now she missed all those conveniences that had come with being cyborg.
Four times the
y came across stalled trains and shuttles that filled up the confined space of the tunnel. These had at first seemed like insurmountable obstacles, but the soldiers went forward with zeal, prying off the panels, tearing up the interior seats, trampling their way through the other side. They made for an efficient, destructive machine, and their makeshift army was given passage through.
Although the maglev system had been shut down, power was still being sent out on the grid and the platforms they passed were well lit with a holograph of the mandatory-viewing video feed of the coronation. Unable to record the ceremony itself, as the queen would not be donning her veil, a broadcaster was relaying a moment-by-moment breakdown of the event.
As they entered into AR-4, one of the sectors adjacent to Artemisia Central, Cinder heard Kai’s voice and paused. He was reciting the vows to become the king consort of Luna.
Their army divided into four regiments. Each would enter the capital through a different tunnel. As the alphas led their packs and the civilians in opposite directions, Cinder caught sight of Strom, watching her.
“We should keep moving,” he said. “My men are hungry and restless, and you’ve put us in a confined space with a lot of sweet-smelling flesh.”
Cinder raised an eyebrow. “If they need a snack, tell them to chew on each other for a while. I just want to make sure Jacin has enough time to reach as many sectors as possible.”
Strom smirked, as if impressed at Cinder’s inability to be bullied. “It’s time to move,” he repeated. “Our people are almost in position. The queen and her entourage are all in one place. We may be sitting down here for weeks waiting for more civilians that never show up.”
Cinder believed they would come. They had to come. But she also knew he was right.
The coronation was almost over.
They started creeping through the tunnels again. Hands tightened on their weapons. Paces slowed with mounting anxiety. They hadn’t gone much farther when Cinder’s flashlight caught on iron bars in the distance. Strom held up a hand, signaling for everyone to stop.
“The barricade.” Cinder sent her flashlight beam into the wall around the iron grate. It would take weeks to dig around it.
“There’s no way through,” said Strom. He was snarling as he looked at Cinder, as if this were her fault. “If this is a trap, it’s a good one. They could kill us all in a heartbeat while we’re stuffed like sausages in these tunnels.”
“Cress was supposed to open them,” she said. “They should have been down by now. Unless…” Unless Cress and Thorne had failed. Unless they’d been caught. “What time is it?”
She looked at Strom, but he had no idea. He didn’t have a clock in his head, either.
Cress was supposed to set all of the barricades surrounding the city to open at once, to keep enthusiastic revolutionaries from sneaking into the city too soon and winding up dead or giving away their surprise. Had Cress failed, or were they early? Kai was still reciting his vows. Cinder shoved down her rising panic.
Strom started to growl. “I smell something.”
The surrounding soldiers turned their noses up, sniffing the air.
“Something synthetic,” said Strom. “Something Earthen. A machine.”
Cinder pressed a hand against the bars, but the soldiers pulled her away, forming a protective wall between her and the barricade. As if she was worth protecting.
Cinder tried not to be annoyed.
Footsteps thumped in the tunnel beyond the gate, growing louder. A kicked pebble skittered along the ground. A flashlight came into view, though the carrier was still cast in shadow.
The beam darted over the gathered soldiers and the figure froze.
The soldiers snarled.
“Well,” she said. “What a menacing bunch you are.”
Cinder’s heart sputtered. “Iko!” she cried, trying to shove her way through, but the bodies blocking her were unshovable.
Iko moved closer and Cinder was able to catch her in the beam of her own light. She gasped and stopped struggling. Iko’s right arm was hanging limp again and there were bullet holes and ripped synthetic tissue and dead wires all over her body. Her left ear was missing.
“Oh, Iko … what happened?”
“More stupid Lunar guards, that’s what happened. He cornered me in the basement of the med-clinic and did this. I had to play dead until he left me alone. Good thing they have no idea how to kill an android here.”
“Iko. I’m so sorry.”
Iko waved her away with her good arm. “I don’t feel like talking about it. Are you being held prisoner right now, or are these bullies on our side?”
“They’re on our side.”
Iko’s attention swooped over the wolves again. “Are you sure?”
“Not entirely,” said Cinder. “But they’re the army Scarlet and Winter recruited and they’re the best we’ve got. They haven’t eaten anybody yet.”
Strom smirked at her around his protruding fangs.
“Iko, what time is it? Shouldn’t the gates be open by now?”
“We’re right on schedule. T minus seventeen seconds, by my—”
The sound of machinery groaned and creaked inside the stone walls. The grate began to descend into the rocky ground.
Iko’s lips puckered. “Cress’s timing is off, not mine.”
Cinder exhaled with relief.
While the grate disappeared, the wolves returned to formation, hands locked behind their backs, chins lifted. It was the most professional Cinder had seen them, making them look more like men than monsters. And very, very much like soldiers.
As soon as the grate was low enough, Iko hurled herself over it and fell into Cinder’s arms, her good hand flopping against Cinder’s back. “You will fix me again, won’t you?”
Cinder squeezed her back. “Of course I will. Broken isn’t the same as unfixable.”
Pulling away, Iko beamed, and the smile was punctuated by a spark flying out of her empty ear cavity. “I love you, Cinder.”
Cinder grinned. “I love you too.”
“Why are we not moving?” said Strom, his voice rumbling through the tunnel. “We grow impatient to shred Levana and her court into tiny, bite-size pieces. We will suck the marrow from their bones and drink their blood as if it were fine wine.”
Iko fixed an uncomfortable look on Cinder. “Good thing they’re on our side.”
Eighty
Wolf had been straining throughout the coronation ceremony. His head ached with the effort, the constant struggle to control his hunger, but he felt like it was gnawing at him from the inside out. Though he had devoured the meat given him, it still raged on. A thousand scents filled his nostrils. Every Earthen. Every Lunar. Every guard and every thaumaturge, each one smelling delicious enough that he couldn’t help but envision sinking his teeth into their flesh, tearing their muscles off their bones, gorging himself on their fat—
The only instinct stronger than his ravenous hunger was the fear of what the thaumaturge would do to him if he misbehaved. He could not stand to be subjected to that agony again. The knife-sharp pain that shot through every muscle and ripped at every tendon.
His mouth watered, but he swallowed the saliva back. He did not move.
His attention locked on the queen. Already Emperor Kaito had knelt before her and accepted the Lunar crown and the title of king consort, to enthusiastic applause, although by the emperor’s expression he could have been accepting a vial of poison.
Now it was the queen’s turn.
The emperor raised the crown of the Eastern Commonwealth and repeated the queen’s speech, ruminating on the political power held by this position, the obligations and duties, the honors and expectations, the symbolism and history contained within that hunk of metal and a hundred glittering jewels.
Levana knelt. She glowed with anticipation. Her lips trembled with a restrained smile. Her eyes were feasting on the crown as Kai turned toward her.
Wolf swallowed another mouthful of sali
va. The queen’s flesh was the most tempting of any of them, sweetened by the knowledge that she was his mistress and his enemy. She had commanded that Wolf be taken from his family. She had ordered that he become this monster. It was at her word that the thaumaturges tortured him.
He would devour her heart if ever he had the chance.
“Do you swear,” said Kai, “to govern the peoples of the Eastern Commonwealth according to the laws and customs as laid down by generations of past rulers, to use all the power bestowed on you to further justice, to be merciful, to honor the inherent rights of all peoples, to respect the peace between all nations, to rule with kindness and patience, and to seek the wisdom and council of our peers and brethren? Do you promise all this to do today and for all the days of your reign as empress of the Eastern Commonwealth, before all the witnesses of the earth and heavens?”
She was watching the crown, not the emperor. “I do,” she breathed.
Kai’s expression was dark. He hesitated, holding the crown aloft. His arms were shaking.
Wolf watched as Kai forced himself to set the crown on Levana’s head. She shut her eyes, her expression tantamount to euphoria.
“By the power given to me by the citizens of the Eastern Commonwealth and our allies in the Earthen Union, as the emperor of the Eastern Commonwealth, I do proclaim you—” He paused. Waited. Wolf could hear the hope shriveling inside him and he thought he understood the temptation to wait a second more, one second more …
The second passed, and Kai set his face in stone.
“—Empress Levana of the Eastern Commonwealth. From this day until the day that one or both of us shall die, you are my wife and I will share with you my throne.”
His voice cracked on the last word. Kai tore his hands away from the crown as if it had burned him.
The crowd erupted, streamers and flower petals emerging from hidden pockets, turning the somber, sacred affair into a cacophony of noise. Levana stood. Arms outstretched, she paced to the edge of the dais, accepting the torrential praise of the Lunar aristocrats.