know that Cinder is alive!”
Kai’s expression froze for a moment, before he tilted his head back and let out a long, slow breath. His eyes had a new light in them when he glanced at Konn Torin, but the adviser was watching Cress, unwilling to be relieved just yet.
“Cinder’s alive,” Kai repeated to himself. “Where is she?”
“She’s with Iko and Jacin and … it’s a long story.” Scrunching up her face, Cress felt the weight of time pressing down on her. She started to speak faster. “Jacin was going to see if he could find the letumosis antidote and distribute it to the outer sectors, because a lot of people are sick, including Princess Winter, and Scarlet too. Oh, and Levana took Wolf and we don’t know where he is, and now they have Thorne—!” Cress hid her face behind her hands in an effort to refrain from sullying Kai’s shirt any more than she already had. Kai rubbed her arms, but even in this sympathetic touch she could tell he was distracted.
Konn Torin cleared his throat. Sniffling, Cress lowered her hands and found a handkerchief being held out to her, extended at arm’s length as if Torin were afraid that her hysteria would rub off on him if he got much closer.
Cress took the handkerchief and held it to her nose. “Thank you.”
“What do you need?”
She dragged her attention back to Kai. “To rescue Thorne,” she said, without thinking. But then she remembered his last words to her. Be heroic. She gulped. “No, I … I need to get to the control center. I need to play this video over Levana’s broadcasting system. Cinder’s counting on it.”
Kai ran a hand through his hair. Cress flinched as he went from neat-and-tidy emperor to concerned teenage boy with that one movement. She could see his indecision. How badly he wanted to help, in contrast to how much danger his involvement could put his country in.
Cress felt time ticking away.
“Your Majesty.”
Kai nodded at his adviser. “I know. They’ll probably send a search party if I don’t show up soon. But I just need a minute to … to think.”
“What is there to think about?” said Torin. “You asked this girl what she needed, and she gave you a very concise answer. We all know you’re going to help her, so it seems like a waste of time to argue the pros and cons of such a decision.”
Cress fidgeted with her gloves, feeling the butterfly wings graze her arms. The adviser looked both stern and kind as he handed the gun back to her, handle first.
Cress shuddered. “You can keep it, if you want.”
“I don’t,” said Torin. “Neither do I intend to put myself into any situations in which I might want it.”
With a resigned sigh, Cress took it from him. She spent a moment considering where she might be able to store it, but her outfit didn’t offer any good solutions.
“Here.” Torin removed his tuxedo jacket and handed it to her. Cress hesitated, hearing Iko’s voice in her head—that doesn’t match at all!—before casting the voice away and allowing him to help her into the sleeves. She was drowning in the jacket, but already she felt more composed, less vulnerable.
“Thank you,” she said, finding an inside pocket and sliding the gun into it with an enormous sense of relief.
“His Majesty is expected to be in the main hall within the next two minutes,” Torin said, then passed his attention to a baffled Kai. “I’m confident I can delay them for at least fifteen more.”
Seventy-Six
Kai wasn’t sure if he or Cress was in the lead as they rushed through the abandoned corridors, their footsteps loud and brisk. When Cress started to fall behind, struggling to keep up, he forced himself to slow his pace.
“We’re going to try to accomplish this without the gun,” he said, as if they’d been discussing it, although they’d hardly spoken since parting ways with Torin. “We’re going to take care of this diplomatically. Or … at least, sneakily. If we can.”
“I have no problem with that,” said Cress. “However, I don’t think that just because you’re an emperor and you’re about to become their king they’re going to let you waltz into their broadcasting room and start fiddling with their equipment.”
Each door they passed had a different design carved into the wood. A beautiful woman holding up a long-eared rabbit. A falcon-headed man with a crescent moon balanced on his head. A young girl dressed in the mantle