Chapter Ten

They had been searching for Thorne and Scarlet for days, but to no avail. Cress was hysterical. She couldn't go anywhere without thinking about Thorne, so she limped around, choking on tears. Wolf simply refused to come out of his room. He didn't eat or drink and at night, whenever Kyra, Miko and Cinder walked past his door, they could hear sobbing and gentle whimpering in the room. Elliot's eyes had all the life taken out of them. Red and Michel stayed in their rooms as well, only occasionally coming out for meals. But, in the end, they didn't come out either.

Kyra scanned over the news on her portscreen, her copper eyes dazed and unfocused from so much reading. Conspiracy theories were flying everywhere over the media. Some were saying how Scarlet, being married to an unstable Lunar wolf soldier, had ran off and killed Thorne and will eventually come back for the rest. Some said they went mad and killed themselves. Some suggested kidnapping by a secret society of Levana's supporters who somehow managed to escape persecution. And a very scandalous and popular one suggested that they were in love and ran away together from their spouses to have an affair. But of course that was all rubbish.

Kyra massaged her temples and flopped backwards onto the back of her swivel chair. The weight sent the chair moving backwards. Kyra pushed herself and the chair all the way to the other side of her vast chambers. She rolled onto the carpet, face down and groaning. She should have known that being the daughter of the Emperor of the Eastern Commonwealth and the former Queen of Luna would be hard. But she didn't expect that it was so... life-threatening, with everyone you know having a chance to disappear. Just like Thorne and Scarlet. But she can't do anything about it. And that was what made her so angry and tired and upset. But all that she can do is to hope that her parents and her sister aren't next.

And Harry. A coy little voice whispered in the back of her head.

"Shut up!" she told it out loud and rolled onto her side, breathing in the dust motes on the white carpet. She really hoped Thorne is okay. And Scarlet, of course. But they're both pretty tough; they were part of the Nine, after all. Thorne lost three of his fingers during the Revolution and Scarlet... well, she saw her grandmother get shot in front of her eyes. Her little finger was chopped off with a freaking knife. But Thorne replaced his fingers with cybernetics. Scarlet didn't though, probably to remind herself of the Revolution and how she could never allow her children and husband to suffer the same fate.

But right now, Wolf, Red and Michel were probably worse off than her. They weren't sleeping, they were starving themselves and refusing to drink and go out of their rooms.

There was a knock on her door. Kyra looked up. "Who is it?" she croaked.

"It's me." Cinder said from outside of the door. "And Miko and Dad."

Kyra quickly wiped her eyes and pulled herself into an upright position. "Yeah. You guys can come in."

Cinder cautiously opened the door, her brown eyes darting about. Finally, she caught sight of Kyra sitting on the floor. Cinder rushed over and pulled Kyra in a hug. Kai and Miko lingered rather awkwardly by the door, but came in and sat themselves down on the carpet next to Kyra. Kai Jr was nowhere to be seen; he was probably still asleep. It was four in the morning, after all.

Kyra clutched tightly onto Cinder, muffling her sobs in Cinder's hair. But her mother didn't seem to care much, she actually looked happy that her hair was getting ruined.

"Hey, Kyra, it's alright." Cinder said and put a hand on Kyra's shoulder, nudging her away gently. Her mother was never one for hugs. Cinder looked her in the eye and gave her a little shake. "I know how much you're worried about your friends and their parents, but they'll be alright."

Kyra rolled her eyes, feeling heat rushing into her cheeks. "No, they aren't."

Kai wanted to interrupt. "Kyra, calm down-"

"No." Kyra cut cleanly across her father's voice. "I can't. I've been reading all those rubbish news reports for days, Dad, and I'm sure that you and Mom are as well. But it isn't alright. People who think that they are oh-so-accurate are ruining Thorne and Scarlet's reputation by saying these things that definitely aren't real. I know you guys are trying to stop them, but they're still there, those reports permanently in the databases."

Miko tried to calm her sister down. "Kyra, stop it!" Miko knew that her sister was having a panic attack and that whenever one of them do, it doesn't end well and usually ends up with all of them upset and shouting at each other. "You're panicking."

"I don't care if I'm panicking!" Kyra screamed and tore at her hair. She pulled herself abruptly to her feet. "It's happening and I can't... I just can't." Even though Kyra knew it was wrong, she stomped into her bathroom and slammed the door. One swipe of her fingers over the keypad and it was locked. She could hear her mother and father shouting outside, banging on the door to tell her to open up. She could hear her younger twin sobbing outside. Rushed sounds of high-heels ran into her bedroom outside. Iko, now trying to coax her out, was knocking on the door.

Kyra shook her head slowly, backing away until her legs hit the edge of the bathtub. She climbed in and curled into a ball, closing her eyes. A blast of cold air suddenly rushed around her and her eyes flew open. She was in the vents.

What in the stars?

She was blasted around the corner and she fumbled for the sharp edge, wincing as the metal cut into her palms. She grabbed on, her arms bordering dislocation as the air raged on around her. And after an eternity, the cold air stopped and she could hear the echoing of something heavy flopping into the vents from far far away. Her heart seized in her chest and she scrambled to her knees, scraping them in the process, but she didn't care. She just wanted the hell out of here.

After twenty minutes of frantic crawling, scraped legs and cut palms, she found the opening to her bathroom and slipped out into her bathtub. She landed with a loud resonating bang. She saw the grate lid and slammed it back on the vent. With a swipe of her fingers, she was out and into her room. Five minutes later, she ended up in the weaponry safe. She scanned her irises, sprinted in and grabbed the largest pistol in the room.

When she arrived back in her room, the grate lid was still unopened. Kyra, having never held a pistol before, aimed it awkwardly at the grate lid, ready to shoot. She hoped the pistol was loaded. Minutes later, a loud scraping noise was heard. Kyra fumbled for her portscreen to recording mode. Soon after, a large robot with one camera for an eye stopped at the grate. Kyra stared. It stared right back. And with a push of one long metal arm, it shoved the grate open. Kyra screamed and fired.

She missed. The robot came charging towards her and she fired some more. After firing several shots, the robot was in a hole-riddled heap on the floor. Kyra's breathing came out loud and guttural. She sent a quick comm to Palace Security and her eyes rolled into the back of her head. Her portscreen clattered onto the floor as her arms went limp and she collapsed.