“You could stand to be a little less nice,” he spat back, scanning the walls and windows but not seeing any more cameras. “Putting it on your head. Are you insane?” She scowled at him and he scowled unapologetically back. “You’re lucky no one saw.” He gestured to the basket. “Cover it up before I rip it apart and bury it in one of these planters.”

“You’re overreacting,” Winter said, though she did tuck a few of her hand towels around the mess of branches.

“You’re not a queen, Princess.”

Her gaze met his again, aghast. “I do not wish to be queen.”

“Then stop accepting crowns.”

Huffing, Winter turned away and marched on ahead—like a true princess would march ahead of her guard.

Fourteen

Kai waited until Thorne’s podship was a glint in the distance before he pulled out the portscreen Cinder had given him. Without an official ID chip confirming his identity, his comm to Royal Adviser Konn Torin was intercepted by the palace communications mainframe. The face of a young intern appeared.

“New Beijing Palace. How may I … direct…” Her eyes widened.

Kai smiled. “Emperor Kaito, for Royal Adviser Konn Torin, please.”

“Y-yes, Your Majesty. Of course. Right away.” Her cheeks bloomed red as she scrambled to redirect the commlink. Soon her image was replaced with Torin’s.

“Your Majesty! Is it—are you—one moment. I’m stepping out of a meeting with the cabinet—are you all right?”

“I’m fine, Torin. But I’m ready to come home.”

He heard the click of a door. “Where are you? Are you safe? Do you need—”

“I’ll tell you everything when I get back. Right now I’m at our safe house on the Taihang terraces, and I’m alone. If you could alert the palace guard—”

“Right away, Your Majesty. We’ll be there right away.”

Torin suggested they keep the link open, afraid someone else would come for Kai before his own security team reached him. Although Cinder had ensured that the portscreen itself was untraceable, the link wasn’t set up for direct communications and it was possible Lunars were listening in. But Kai knew Luna had lost their best method of surveillance when they’d lost Cress, so he insisted he was fine, he would be fine, before terminating the link.

He needed a moment to think before the whole galaxy spun out of control again.

Clipping the port to his belt, Kai climbed onto one of the large rocks overlooking the valley. He folded his legs beneath him, surprised at how calm he felt staring out at the terraces, plateaus that curled around the lush mountains, the teasing sparkle of a river winding at their feet. He could have gone inside the safe house to wait, but the weather was warm and there was a breeze that smelled like jasmine and it had been far too long since he’d admired the beautiful country he’d been born to.

After weeks aboard the Rampion, with its recycled air and reprocessed water, he was glad to be home.

And though he’d never seen Luna or its biodomes filled with artificial forests and man-made lakes, he was beginning to understand why Levana might want to dig her claws into Earth too.

Little time had passed when Kai heard the hum of engines. He kept his eye on the horizon, waiting for the podships. When they arrived, they arrived in force—a dozen military ships surrounding the safe house, many with guns drawn, and any number of personnel scanning the landscape for signs of a threat.

Squinting against the sunlight, Kai pushed his hair off his brow while the largest ship landed not far from the house. Uniformed officers poured out, establishing a perimeter and scanning for nearby life-forms, all jabbering into their headphones and holding ominous guns at the ready.

“Your Imperial Majesty,” barked a gray-haired man, leading a team of four men up to him. “We are glad to see you, sir. Permission to conduct a security clearance scan?”

Kai pulled himself off the rock and handed the portscreen to one of the officers, who secured it in a crime evidence bag. He held out his arms while another officer dragged a scanner down his limbs.

“All clear. Welcome home, Your Majesty.”

“Thank you. Where is Konn—”

A bang sent half a dozen personnel spinning toward the safe house, barking and leveling their guns at a cellar door that had burst open.

Konn Torin emerged, more harried than Kai had ever seen him. “Royal Adviser Konn Torin,” he yelled, holding up his hands. His gaze flashed once over the guns, then landed on Kai near the edge of the plateau. His shoulders drooped with relief and as soon as one of the officers had scanned his wrist and confirmed his identity, Torin did something he had never done before.

He rushed toward Kai and hugged him.

The embrace was as quick as it was unexpected, before Torin pulled away and held Kai at arm’s length, examining him. Kai was surprised to find he was slightly taller than Torin. That couldn’t have happened in the past few weeks. Maybe he’d been taller for months and had never noticed. Having known Torin since he was a child, it was difficult to change his perception of him now.

Cinder told him that Torin had informed her of Kai’s second tracking chip. Maybe he was full of more surprises than Kai gave him credit for.

“Your face!” said Torin. “What did they do to you? She promised me—”

“I’m fine,” said Kai, squeezing Torin’s arm. “It’s just a bruise. Don’t worry about it.”

“Don’t worry—!”

“Your Majesty,” interrupted the gray-haired man, “it may help to avoid media attention if you return through the safe house sublevels. We’ll send a team to escort you.”

Kai glanced around. A number of palace guards had emerged to join the flocking military. “If I’d known that was an option, I would have skipped this whole charade.”

The officer didn’t react.

“Yes, fine. Thank you for your thoroughness. Let’s go.”

Torin fell into step beside him, along with way too many guards, as they were ushered toward the cellar door.

“Nainsi will have tea waiting for you, and the chefs have been ordered to prepare refreshments for your return,” said Torin. “The press secretary is drafting up a statement for the media, but you’ll want to be briefed on the palace’s official position regarding the security breach and kidnapping before we release anything.”

Kai had to duck his head entering the house’s basement. It was tidy, despite a few cobwebs in the corners, and as they headed into the passageways beneath the mountains they got brighter and cleaner.

“What’s the status on the palace?” asked Kai.

“The enemy soldiers have not yet breached the palace walls. Our tactical analysts believe that if they do overrun the palace and discover there are no people to kill, they will redirect their attention to elsewhere. So far, we’ve found that these soldiers do not seem interested in general destruction or theft, only killing.”

“Unless Levana is using the palace to make a statement. It would suggest they’re winning.”

“That is a possibility.”

They rounded a corner and in the distance Kai could make out activity—talking and footsteps and the buzz of machinery. His entire staff was crammed into this labyrinth of rooms and hallways. He almost wished he’d stayed up on the terrace.