Scarlet

Wolf, or Alpha Ze’ev Kesley, reports to the thaumaturge, Master Jael. He passes Ran, and the two have a tense exchange in which they “apologize” for the roles they played in the forest. Ran implies that Wolf was a little too caught up in the role he was playing, and as Ran leaves, Wolf catches “a trace of Scarlet’s scent” (308) on Ran and tries to “[bury] the animal instinct to tear out his brother’s throat” (308). Jael tells Wolf that Queen Levana wants “all packs stationed on Earth” (308) to be prepared to launch an attack tomorrow. The Queen’s “negotiations” with the Eastern Commonwealth have “not gone according to her desires” (309), and she wishes to send a message to the Emperor. Levana wants Linh Cinder, although Jael cannot say why Levana decided to give up the search for Princess Selene. When Jael mentions Scarlet, Wolf tenses and wonders if she is safe. Wolf has been chosen to “lead tomorrow’s attack” (310) in Paris, and as he starts to leave, Jael gives him a package of stolen ID chips and tells him to “take them down for wiping and reprogramming” for the “new recruits expect[ed] to arrive tomorrow morning” (312).

Cinder, Thorne, and Iko arrive on the Benoit farm, somehow avoiding detection. The farm “appear[s] to be wholly deserted” (314), and Cinder is suddenly driven to open up the hangar door instead of going into the farmhouse. The hangar is in disarray, but Cinder’s “brain-machine interface [is] picking up something” (316) that sparks her suspicions. She realizes that “someone had been there [...] looking for her” (316). As flashes of memory return to her, she finds a secret passageway, which leads to a room that holds a large tank and “a collection of complex machines [...] life monitors, temperature gauges,” and “bioelectricity scanners” (318). There is also an operating table with medical instruments, cyborg and android parts, and computer chips. She tells Thorne that the tank is “a suspended animation tank,” which is “designed to keep someone alive, but unconscious, for long periods of time” (319). She tries to remember waking up in the tank, and when Thorne asks what the tank was for, she replies that “it was hiding a princess” (319).

Cinder remembers that Levana “tried to kill her when she was only three years old,” and “her operation [was] completed when she was eleven” (320). Cinder spent eight years of her life in this room and explains to Thorne that the princess’s body must have been so badly damaged that “their priority would have been keeping her alive, and also keeping her hidden” (321). She remembers her recurring nightmare of lying on a “bed of coals, the fire burning off her skin,” and she wonders if this is “more memory than nightmare” (322). They find a report stating that Michelle Benoit had a “spinal and nervous system bioelectricity security block” (322) placed on her body to make her immune to the Lunar glamour. Thorne pulls up a photo of Princess Selene before the surgeries, and he and Cinder are horrified by the damage to the child’s body. Cinder can’t believe that Levana did this “to a child, barely more than a baby,” and “her own niece” (325). They leave the hangar and check the farmhouse, which is also deserted. They find Michelle Benoit’s ID chip, and as they turn to leave, they see a girl standing in the doorway, and the girl faints when she sees Cinder’s cyborg hand.

Cinder and Thorne pick up the unconscious girl and move her to the couch. Cinder wants to run before the girl wakes up and calls the police, but Thorne wants to question her. Suddenly, the girl regains consciousness and says that she recognizes Cinder and Thorne as “the fugitives [...] from the netscreens” (331). The girl is Scarlet’s friend Émilie, and she begs Cinder not to kill her. Thorne tries to calm Émilie down and find out if she knows anything about Michelle Benoit, but Émilie is too hysterical to be of any help. After some internal debate, Cinder begrudgingly uses her glamour on Émilie, who becomes trusting and compliant. Émilie explains that Michelle Benoit “disappeared three weeks ago” (334), and Scarlet “left a couple days ago” (335) to go look for her. Émilie has not heard from Scarlet since then.

Scarlet is returned to her holding cell, and the next day, Wolf comes to see her. Scarlet is full of disgust and hate for Wolf, and she “[strikes] his jaw, his ear,” and “his chest” (337). He admits that he “lied to [her] about a lot of things,” but he “meant every apology” (338) and never wanted to hurt her. Suddenly, Wolf kisses her, and Scarlet feels him pass something “small and flat and hard” (340) into her mouth. He tells her to “wait until morning” because “the world won’t be safe tonight” (340). Wolf leaves, and Scarlet discovers that the thing he pressed into her mouth is “a small ID chip” (340).