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His finger reached for the release button

"Wait" Cinder reached toward her feet and dreo vials froer i one to him

They each tossed back the antidote without cere the vehicle before he could s There was a whoosh of air as the bubbled ceiling of the terrain-speeder split down thehis harness, Jacin hauled hi on a squishy patch of racefully on the other side

Jacin hadn’t given ht to this moment No doubt there were people in this sector who needed the antidote, but to tell them they had entire pallets of it could lead to a brawl

Snatching a single vial froainst the back floorboards, Jacin tucked it into his palone four steps when, suddenly, he was not facing a bedraggled assortshots and a whole lot of sticks

He froze

Either he’d been far too distracted to notice they were all ar for aa wooden club "Who are--?"

Recognition was already pooling in their eyes, though, as Cinder wobbled up to Jacin’s side She held up both hands, showing theto you that I’lamour," she started, "but I am Princess Selene, and we’re not here to hurt you Jacin here is a friend of Princess Winter’s He’s the one who helped her escape the palace when Levana tried to have her killed" She paused "The first time"

"No friend of ours has Arte his club at the speeder

Jacin snarled "She didn’t say I was a friend of yours Where’s the princess?"

"Jacin, don’t try to help" Cinder cast hi withon out here?"

A faed frorease There were dark circles beneath her eyes and an unhealthy pallor to her skin

Scarlet froze "Cinder!" But as soon as she started to ser "Where did you and I first meet?"

Cinder hesitated, but only for a moment "In Paris, outside the opera house I tranquilized Wolf because I thought he was attacking you"

Scarlet’s grin was back before Cinder had finished speaking She pulled her into a hug, then cursed and stepped back Half a dozen wolf soldiers had followed in her wake and were crowding around her like overeager security guards They looked tame, for the moment, but also like they could tear apart every person in this crowd in all of ten seconds if they chose to

"Sorry--you shouldn’t be here Levana--" Scarlet started to cough into her elbow, nearly doubling over with the cough’s unexpected force When she caught her breath, there were dark spots of blood on her sleeve "It’s not safe here," she finished, as if it wasn’t obvious

"Is Winter alive?" Jacin said

Scarlet crossed her arms, but not in a defiant way More that she wanted to hide the evidence of the disease "She’s alive," said Scarlet, "but sick A lot of us are sick Levana poisoned her with letumosis and it spread fast We have Winter in a suspended--"