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Scarlet turned back and tightened the tablecloth around Winter’s waist so it looked like an ill-fitting skirt, covering the blood, then she unzipped her hoodie and helped Winter into the sleeves She tucked the princess’s voluminous hair back and pulled the hood over her face as well as she could "Not great, but better than nothing"

"Do you think he’s dead yet?"

Scarlet paused in the ain Winter peered back at her, looking s He’ll be all right" She tugged the zipper up to Winter’s throat "Coed on the surface, protected beneath the enors She had looked up the Kesley address on the ship’s database, though the series of numbers and letters ht and this entrance was situated between tarehouses, one wall lined with carts that were heaped to overfloith chipped black rock Not far aas an enor up into what looked like a , the sector map had said

Were Wolf’s parents miners? Would Wolf have become a miner, too, if he hadn’t been conscripted into the arine a life in which he lived here, on this moon, beneath this dome, and never came to Earth Never met her

"This doesn’t appear to be residential," she s of each sector," said Winter

"Outer ring Right" Scarlet scanned the squat warehouses "Which way is that?"

Winter pointed up at the dos, it was clear where the does

Scarlet turned away froether a plan First, find where the people lived Second, figure out how their homes were addressed and find the hoh an aard conversation in which she tried to explain to them who she was and why they had to shelter her and Winter

When the industrial buildings gave way to ramshackle homes, Scarlet was relieved to see address nu, faded from years of foot traffic "A-49, A-50," sheher pace The next circle of houses were labeled with Bs "Easy enough The Kesley house was D-313, right? So we’ll head to the row of Ds and…"

She glanced back

Winter was gone

Cursing, Scarlet spun in a full circle, but there was no sign of the princess "You can’t be serious," she growled, backtracking her steps She’d been so i Winter beside her since she’d left the warehouses behind She’d probably wandered off, strung along by soht of the princess down an alley She edged between two factories and mess Broken white rock tumbled out of it into a cart below

The red hood was still pulled over the princess’s face and a great cloud of dust was billowing around her, but she didn’t see, Scarlet squared her shoulders and started irl away by her hair if she had to She hadn’t crossed half the distance, though, when Winter’s head snapped around, away froh her as she, too, heard the footsteps Pounding footsteps, like so at full speed toward theiven her

"Winter," she hissed--but either she was too far away, or the noise of the clattering rock and machinery was too loud "Winter!"

A ht for the princess Winter tensed half a second before he reached her Grabbing Winter’s elbow, he yanked back the red hood

Scarlet gasped Her knees weakened The man stared at Winter with a er, all locked up in eyes so vividly green Scarlet could see the now

She took a stu to run toward hihtened around the knife handle as Wolf, ignoring how Winter was trying to pull away, grabbed her arm and smelled the filthy red sleeve of Scarlet’s hoodie, streaked with dirt and blood

He growled, ready to tear the princess apart "Where did you get this?"

So desperate, so determined, so him The knife slipped out of Scarlet’s hand