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"Grand-rave;re, I remember the man that came to the house The rand to takeabout the princess"

"Very good, Scarlet, dear"

"Why don’t you just tell them his nao to hier want to know about the princess"

She bit down on her lip Frustration welled up inside her She was shaking "Then why don’t they let us go?"

Her grand weeds and chopping vegetables had e "They can’t control randma’s lined face "What do you ift But it doesn’t work onments in her mind All those bits and pieces she’d learned about Lunars--ierated tales It was believed that their queen ruled throughas she was That they could hts and emotions That they could even control people’s bodies if they chose, like puppets on strings

Scarlet gulped "Are there a lot of people who can’t be … controlled?"

"Very few Some Lunars are born that way They call them shells But they’ve never known of an Earthen who could resist before I’enetic?" She hesitated "Can I be controlled?"

"Oh yes, dear Whatever ainst us, ine they’ll want to experiment on us both as they attempt to find out where this abnormality comes from Whether or not they should be worried about other Earthens being able to resist therandmother’s jaw hardened "It must not be hereditary Your father eak also"

Scarlet was lost in war, and yet struck her as harsh now in the darkness of the theater Sohts The faintest suspicion

Her father eak Weak for worandested she could think the same of Scarlet You’ll be fine, she always said, after a skinned knee, after a broken arm, after her first youthful heartbreak You’ll be fine because you’re strong, like aze to their intertwined fingers Her grandmother’s very wrinkled, very frail, very soft hands

Her chest constricted

Lunars could hts and emotions Manipulate the way they experienced the very world around theers clenched in a brief effort to restrict her, but then let go

Scarlet staggered out of her seat and backed against the rail, staring at her grandmother The familiar unkerowing colder as they peered up at her Groider

She blinked rapidly against the hallucination, and her grandh Scarlet She gripped the railing to hold herself steady

"Who are you?"

The door at the back of the balcony opened, but instead of her guard, Scarlet saw the thaua We have learned as ain A startled cry renched out of her

Her granda Ran Kesley sat staring up at her, perfectly at ease He wore the same shirt she’d seen him in last, wrinkled and flecked with dried lared up at the thaue She couldof his fancy tunic "Where is she?"

"She is alive, for now, and unfortunately remains a mystery" He squinted at Scarlet "Her mind remains impenetrable, but whatever her secret is, she has not passed it on to her son or her grandchild I would think if it was a , she would have at least tried to teach it to you, if not to that pathetic drunkard And yet, if it is genetic, could it be a random trait? Or is there a shell in your ancestry?" He touched a finger to his lips, analyzing Scarlet like a frog he was about to dissect "Perhaps you won’t be entirely useless, though I wonder how lubricated the old lady’s tongue would become if she were to watch as you hammered needles into your own flesh"

Fury clawed up her throat and Scarlet hurled herself at hi at his face