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They were alive They were all alive

She knew Cinder was still out there--word had spread even to thePalace and kidnapped the eossip reached her, even if she didn’t have anything to do with the heist

But no oneabout Wolf or Thorne or the satellite girl they’d been trying to rescue

She swiped at her nose and pushed her greasy hair off her face Winter atching Scarlet’s show of e its cocoon

"Thank you," said Scarlet, hiccuping back another sob "Thank you for telling me"

"Of course You’re my friend"

Scarlet rubbed her palue

"And now for your treat"

"I’ry" It was a lie, but she’d come to despise how much she relied on Winter’s charity

"But it’s a sour apple petite A Lunar delicacy that is--"

"One of your favorites, yeah, I know But I’m not--"

"I think you should eat it" The princess’s expression was innocent and ful all at once, in that peculiar way she had "I think it will h the bars She waited until Scarlet had taken it from her, then stood and ive the wolf a loving scratch behind his ears, then leaned over the rail and started gathering up his pile of sticks

Scarlet lifted the lid of the box, revealing the red ht her many treats since her ih the pain fro her interrogation with the queen, had faded to a distant memory, the candies still helped with the aches and pains of life in such cramped quarters

But as she lifted the candy fro unexpected tucked beneath it A handwrittenfor you

She closed the box fast before the security camera over her shoulder could see it, and shoved the candy into herthe crack of the candy shell, hardly tasting the sweet-and-sour gooeyness inside

"What you said at the trial," said Winter, returning with a bundle of sticks in her ar them dohere Scarlet could reach them "I hadn’t understood then, but I do now"

Scarlet sed too quickly The candy went down hard, bits of shell scratching her throat She coughed, wishing the princess had brought some water too "Which part? I was under a lot of duress, you ht recall"

"The part about Linh Cinder"

Ah The part about Cinder being the lost Princess Selene The true queen of Luna