Chapter Fourteen

Ze'ev was antsy. Agitated. Restless.

More than usual.

He paced around the cockpit, unable to stand still. That he was used to. What he wasn't used to was the amount of tension he felt pent up inside of him as he tried to wait patiently for Cress to hack the Lunar records. She'd been nervous about his presence initially as he watched her do her magic—because to him, that's really what it looked like—but after awhile she got used to him being there and fell into a sort of hacking trance that seemed hard to distract her from even if he had wanted to.

Ze'ev wracked his brains for anything from his past that could be useful. There had to have been something that he had overlooked. Something that they could use. Something that would show them where to land, where to find safety, how to better plan their attack.

He had been part of an army for so long. He was used to calculating precise attacks. He even knew how to lead the attacks. And Ze'ev certainly had a knack for finding weaknesses in his enemies. But a strange, small part of his subconscious was waiting for instructions from Jael. He despised the programmed, mutated part of his genetic makeup that caused him to yearn for another master. It was one of the things that had made him want to run away in the first place. Ze'ev never wanted to be part of the Queen's Army. Never.

But it could have been worse. He could be part of the pack of soldiers that now ran rampant on Earth. At least he could still think for himself—and he had surely thought more than he had ever done in the past few weeks, days, and hours. Levana was mocking him for his betrayal. Laughing from afar at his torment, misery, and helplessness.

Scarlet.

He knew that because of what he was and what he had done, he didn't deserve for anything good to happen to him.

But Scarlet.

She was beautiful. She was kind. She was brave. She was good. She deserved everything that he didn't.

Ze'ev clenched his fists. He couldn't allow himself to morph back into the corpse-like state that he'd succumbed to when he found out that Sybil had taken Scarlet. As much as he grieved, he needed to be strong now.

He would avenge her.

Being a Lunar Special Operative would finally come in handy. And it would all start tomorrow.

If they were able to figure out where to go. And if they could figure out how to reach Levana without her reaching them first. It was up to Cress now.

After what seemed like hours, she motioned for him that she was ready for the others to join her. He quickly grabbed Cinder and Kai, who he had heard chatting in the Medbay nearby.

"Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find too much information about Jacin Clay that we didn't already have." Ze'ev let out a slow breath while Cress pulled up one of the screens and pointed at it. "However, according to the Lunar Court records, his trial is still on-going."

"What trial?" asked Cinder.

"He's on trial for treason. According to the files I've been able to hack into, he is on trial for the actions that occurred when Mistress Sybil and him boarded the Rampion, and the events thereafter. He claims he's innocent, but they're accusing him of helping Cinder evade capture and then plotting to kidnap the Emperor."

He grunted. Miserable traitor. "Good."

"Can we see some footage of the trial?" asked Kai.

Cress shook her head and turned back to the screen. "No. There wouldn't be any. Everyone would use their glamour, and as you learned during your time with Levana, having cameras would reveal everyone's true face. They do keep digital records of everything that occurs, though."

"I wouldn't have expected that," said Cinder.

Ze'ev shrugged. "We may be Lunar, but we're not savages." He paused. Reconsidered. "Well, some of us aren't. It still needs to be a functioning society."

"I know what you mean, though," said Kai. "It seems above Levana to hold a trial."

"Having a meeting without me?"

Everyone turned to look at Thorne. He was standing in the entryway, leaning against the door frame casually.

"You were in your room," said Cinder defensively. "After what happened with Kai, I—"

"You what? Planned to ignore me the rest of the evening?"

"No, I just wanted to give you some time to compose yourself. Cress only just finished hacking."

"It's true," Cress chimed in. But Thorne didn't even turn in the direction of her voice, like he normally did. Ze'ev didn't give him the chance, because he was already at Thorne's side in an instant, pulling him closer to the group.

"Hey, easy on the jacket," said Thorne.

When they neared Kai, Ze'ev practically yanked him towards the both of them. Kai yelped, totally caught off-guard. He knew that Kai was still afraid of him. Maybe in this situation it would come in handy.

"Your Majesty, I apologize," he said, though he knew he probably didn't sound sorry at all. "But this is necessary. Both of you listen to me carefully because I am not going to repeat myself. Shake hands and get over it. We don't have time for this."

Thorne tried to pull himself out of Ze'ev's grip. "I'm over it already."

Kai set his jaw and narrowed his eyes slightly. "Me too."

"Who put you in charge, anyway?" asked Thorne.

"Princess Selene is in charge," he retorted through gritted teeth. Sometimes being part of the pack made things easier. You didn't talk things through. You didn't test each other's patience. You just fought. This situation, on the other hand, required a mentality that Ze'ev wasn't accustomed to.

"Actually," Cinder chimed in, "I'd prefer if we listen to Wolf for this one, as we discussed this afternoon. He's Lunar, he somewhat knows his way around, and he's an ex-operative. We need all the help we can get, and Wolf is our best shot."

"Thank you," he replied curtly, letting both of the men go. Thorne adjusted his jacket and Kai shuffled over to stand closer to Cinder again.

He turned back to Cress, who looked extremely nervous as she flitted her eyes between Kai and Thorne. "Cress, you were saying?"

She cleared her throat. "Ah—yes. I have managed to find the standard demographic information on Jacin Clay, though I'm sure I could find more if I had time to dig deeper. I have his address, parents, schooling, status among the guards, and some reports about him from the thaumaturges, but not too much else. He seems to stay out of trouble. It does say that he had worked as a guard for Princess Winter as well. I'm not sure, though, if tracking him will lead to anything concrete. The trial records indicate that they haven't released him."

"The records, Cress" said Thorne, "are they the full transcript?"

"Yes."

"Well maybe there's something in there that can be useful anyway. Can you send them to Cinder and Iko to download?"

"Good idea," said Cinder.

"Anyway," said Cress. "I think I have something better. Possibly something...helpful." She bit her lip and looked at them wearily. "But it also might be really bad. I'm not sure, I don't-"

"Cress," said Thorne sternly, as if he could steady her with his voice alone. "What did you find?"

"Well, there haven't been too many trials lately, and I wanted to see what other types of things they do in the Lunar Court. Just because...I was curious."

"Okay..." said Ze'ev, also wondering where she was going with this.

Cress took a deep breath and spoke so fast that she almost seemed to be reciting something from memory, as though she needed to get the information off of her chest as quickly as possible.

"There was a trial only about a week ago and the strange thing about it was that it was the trial of an Earthen which according to the records has never happened because there are no Earthens on Luna and so it brought out a lot of people to the court and the Earthen made a few disturbances and Princess Winter was there and—"

"Cress..." said Thorne again, but this time he was gentler. "Take a deep breath. What are you talking about, an Earthen?"

"Sybil Mira brought an Earthen to the court for questioning."

"Sybil Mira?" they all said in unison.

"Yes," said Cress slowly, looking nervous again. "They didn't provide the name of the Earthen but it was a female and she was under questioning for helping Linh Cinder escape." She looked up at Ze'ev, her eyes wide with worry.

Ze'ev felt the breath get stuck in his lungs. But—wait—did she—?

"Is it Scarlet!?" Cinder's mouth formed the words that Ze'ev's brain could barely process. Everyone turned to look at him.

"Is—is she—" he could barely choke out the words. He felt his protective instincts kick in. "Tell me everything."

Cress gulped. "I—I warned you that it might not all be good."

"Is she still alive?" he practically barked.

"I think so," she replied hurriedly, "records indicate that Princess Winter took her after the trial in order to practice her gift. She requested the Earthen specifically from Queen Levana."

"Practice her gift?" asked Kai.

"Lunars don't hold Earthens in any regard," said Wolf bitterly. "It probably means that since Winter is known to be ungifted, she is going to practice controlling Scarlet's mind in order to get better at using her glamour. This usually isn't comfortable for the Earthen."

Kai looked shocked at the thought. Ze'ev was beginning to understand exactly why all the Earthens feared Lunars so much. Sometimes, he feared them too.

"There's one more piece of bad news," said Cress quietly. Ze'ev turned to look at her and she shrank back. Cinder walked over to Cress and took her hand.

"It's okay, Cress, it's not your fault," said Cinder. "It's better if we know, right Wolf?" But Ze'ev couldn't even shake his head yes. He was just terrified to hear what could be worse.

"Scarlet wouldn't tell anyone where you went, Cinder. They wanted your precise location. When she didn't tell them, they...had her chop off her own finger."

Ze'ev felt bile in his mouth and clung to the one thought that kept him from tearing the Rampion to shreds in anger.

He would avenge her.

Thorne cursed. "Oh, Scarlet."

"I'm so sorry, Wolf," said Kai. "But...if it just says they chopped off her finger..." he winced, "...then it probably does mean that she's still alive, right Cinder?"

"Right," said Cinder quickly. "I know it doesn't make it any better, Wolf, but...limbs can be fixed." She looked at her own hand. "The important thing is that Scarlet is alive."

"I think I know where she might be too," said Cress.

Ze'ev started. "You do?"

"Well, I know where Princess Winter lives. So, if she has Scarlet, I think finding Princess Winter might be the best place to start."

"Great work," said Cinder firmly, putting her hand on Cress's shoulder. "Wolf, are you okay?"

All he could do was clench his fists together tighter so all the energy went somewhere. He could feel himself begin to shake.

"We needed to find Princess Winter anyway. This is as good of a place to start as any." Cinder looked at him again for a response, but he could give none.

"That's right," said Thorne. "Let's go get Scarlet."

All of the pent up energy in Ze'ev's body seemed to crumble as the words sunk in. He collapsed to his knees, shaking all over. Scarlet was...she was going to be...there was hope!

He covered his face with his hands as tears threatened to spill out. Tears that he hadn't known he had. Tears that his subconscious had been saving for a worse situation. The situation he had kept telling himself had to be true, even if he hadn't wanted to believe it.

Suddenly, he felt arms try to wrap around him, and he stiffened, not used to having anyone touch him. To his surprise, it was Cress. "She's waiting for you," said Cress softly. "She's waiting for her Alpha star." At her words, he felt his body relax. Cress' sweet innocence was overwhelming. He let Cress try to hug him, though he realized that she could barely get her arms around his body. After a few moments, he let out a strangled laugh that mixed with a sob and hugged her back, lifting them both to their feet. She let out a little squeak of surprise, and he laughed some more.

Scarlet, he thought, I'm coming.

Cinder watched them, feeling incredibly moved at Wolf's embrace with Cress. She was having a hard time not becoming emotional herself, even though she knew that that they still faced an uphill battle. She felt a small bit of relief though, as if one of their burdens had been lifted. Just a bit. Hope was good, and it was something that they—she—needed at times like these.

She left Kai and walked over to Thorne, who was just leaning against the wall, arms crossed. A faint smile was playing on his lips.

"You know," she said, nudging him, "Cress is pretty special."

Thorne raised one eyebrow. "I'm glad you noticed."