As Our Story Ends (A Lunar Chronicles Fanfiction)

Chapter Twelve: Thorne

Thorne was not a sentimental man. He didn’t care much for emotions, and he knew that he was the stronger one in his relationship with Cress. She felt the emotions, he helped her get through what she was feeling. But he couldn’t ignore both Cress and Cinder’s solemn faces at their discussion meeting. Cress was clearly devastated that she had done even a small part in killing someone, and Cinder was still upset about Kai’s disappearance and their encounter with her stepmom.

He walked over to Cinder, “Hey, cheer up. We’ll find your prince charming.”

“How can you all be so sure?” she asked, eyes giving no hope away.

“Well for one, we did find Scarlet on Luna. And two, we have you,” Thorne told her. “Cinder quite frankly, you're a bad-ass. We need that side of you right now. Cinder you are the root of this team, the glue that holds us together. So you need to stop moping and get going. You are the only one who can help us find Kai.”

Cinder sat up straight. His words had gotten through to her, “We will find him. Together.” Then she gave him a small smile, “Thanks, Thorne.”

“Any time, Princess,” Thorne said. He knew that he was the only one besides Kai that could get away with calling her that.

Thorne walked over to Cress, “How are you holding up? It's not your fault, you know.” He could see tears welling up in her eyes when he said this. “Hey, look at me,”she looked at him as the tears spilt over. He grabbed her around the waist, “it is not your fault that she didn’t get vaccine in time.”

“But it is!” Cress’s voice broke, “I forced her wait in line when I should have just given it to her. It took over two hours for her to reach me again.”

“And maybe by making her wait you saved someone else’s life,” Thorne spoke gently.

Cress stared up at him, “But we don’t know that.”

Thorne was about to say something else when Jacin spoke up. “It’s time to discuss our plans.” Thorne had never wanted to strangle him more.

“There are a million places levana could go,” Scarlet said. “How will we know where to search?”

Jacin had an answer, “ We need to split up!”

“What?” everyone cried. Thorne wasn’t a big fan of this idea himself. He knew the divide and conquer strategy.

“We need to search Luna and Earth.” Jacin spoke calmly yet firm. “We have to get both. There are more places Levana could hide on Luna so we should have four there. I’m a guard and Winter’s a princess so we should go there.”

Cinder stood, “Right now, I guess I’m in a way in charge of the Eastern Commonwealth, so I should stay on Earth.”

Wolf nodded, “We need a pilot for each side, which means Scarlet should be with one group and Thorne with another. And I want to stay with Scarlet.”

“I want to stay with Thorne,” Cress added.

“Can I stay on Earth,” Scarlet requested. “I’ve had enough of Luna to last a lifetime, and I know Earth better than anyone here.”

Thorne was going to argue, but decided it wasn’t worth it. As long as he got to stay with Cress he was happy.

The eight decided they would leave tomorrow, and Thorne went to head to his room. He heard Cress rushing up behind him. He turned around to face her right as she caught up to him. “We need to talk.”

Thorne spoke calmly, “What’s wrong? Are you scared?”

“Levana escaped, and besides Winter, I was the biggest betrayal to her in the war. What if she takes her anger out on me?”

“Don’t worry,” Thorne said, putting his arms around her. “As long as you’re with me, nothing bad can happen to you.”

That’s when they heard the bang from the dining hall, and collapsed to the ground.