Scarlet yanked the bars open and pushed into the cell, not bothering to stand lest she accidentally trip over her grandmother in the darkness. The cell was rank with the stench of urine and sweat and old, stale air. “Grand-mère?”
She found her huddled on the gritty stone ground against the back wall. “Grand-mère?”
“Scar? How—?”
“It’s me. I’m here. I’m going to get you out of here.” Her words dissolved into sobs and she grasped her grandma’s frail arms, pulling her into an embrace.
Her grandma cried out, an awful, pitiable sound that cut through Scarlet’s ears. She gasped and laid her back down.
“Don’t,” her grandma whimpered, her body sliding limply down to the ground. “Oh Scar—you shouldn’t be here. You shouldn’t be here. I can’t stand you being here. Scarlet…” She started crying, choking, wet sobs burbling up from her.
Scarlet hovered over her grandma’s body, fear gripping every muscle. She couldn’t remember hearing her grandmother cry before. “What did they do to you?” she whispered, drawing her hands over her grandmother’s shoulders. Beneath a thin, tattered shirt, there were the lumps of bandages and something damp and sticky.
Biting back her own tears, she traced her grandmother’s chest and ribs. The bandages were everywhere. She stroked the woman’s arms and hands—her hands were shaped more like clubs now, so covered in bandages.
“No, don’t touch them.” Her grandma tried to pull away, but her limbs only twitched uncontrollably.
As tenderly as she could, Scarlet ran her thumb over her grandma’s hands. Hot tears slipped down her cheeks. “What did they do to you?”
“Scar, you have to get out of here.” Each word a struggle until she could barely talk, barely breathe.
Scarlet knelt over her, resting her head on her grandma’s breast and stroking the sticky hair off her brow. “It’s going to be all right. I’m going to get you out of here and we’re going to go to the hospital and you’re going to be fine. You’re going to be fine.” She forced herself to sit up. “Can you walk? Have they done anything to your legs?”
“I can’t walk. I can’t move. You have to leave me here, Scarlet. You have to get out.”
“I’m not leaving you. They’ve all left, Grand-mère. We have time. We just need to figure out a way—I can carry you.” Tears dripped off Scarlet’s chin.
“Come here, my love. Come closer.” Scarlet swiped at her nose and buried her face against her grandma’s neck. Arms tried to encircle her, but served to only beat weakly against her sides. “I didn’t want to involve you in this. I’m so sorry.”
“Grand-mère.”
“Hush. Listen. I need you to do something for me. Something important.”
She shook her head. “Stop it. You’re going to be all right.”
“Listen to me, Scarlet.” Even her grandmother’s faint voice seemed to drop. “Princess Selene is alive.”
Scarlet squeezed her eyes shut. “Stop talking, please. Save your strength.”
“She went to live in the Eastern Commonwealth with a family by the name of Linh. A man named Linh Garan.”
A sad, frustrated sigh. “I know, Grand-mère. I know you kept her, and I know you gave her to a man in the Commonwealth. But it doesn’t matter anymore. It’s not your problem anymore. I’m going to get you out of here, and I’ll keep you safe.”
“No, darling, you must find her. She’ll be a teenager now … a cyborg.”
Scarlet blinked, wishing she could see her grandmother in the blackness. “A cyborg?”
“Unless she changed her name, she’s called Cinder now.”
The name struck a chord of familiarity in the back of Scarlet’s mind, but her brain was too clouded to pinpoint it. “Grand-mère, please stop talking. I have to—”
“You must find her. Logan and Garan are the only ones who know, and if the queen found me, she could find them. Someone must tell the girl who she is. Someone must find her. You must find her.”
Scarlet shook her head. “I don’t care about the stupid princess. I care about you. I’m going to protect you.”
“I can’t go with you.” Her padded hands rubbed against Scarlet’s arms. “Please, Scarlet. She could make all the difference.”
Scarlet shrank down. “She’ll just be a teenager,” she managed between her renewed sobs. “What can she do?”