Lunar Chronicles Deleted Scene #4

Bagi yang belum baca novel Lunar Chronicles, baca dulu yak, terutama yang Cinder dan Scarlet.
Kalau scene #1, #2, dan #3 sebelumnya dari novel yang berjudul Cinder, scene #4 ini dari novel yang kedua, Scarlet.

-SPOILER WARNING-

ahaha.. saya saja nge-post semua deleted scene-nya nggak sambil baca loh gara-gara belum selesai baca novelnya. hehe.

Yuh,langsung aja scene #4...

***

From: Scarlet, 1st draft

Featuring: Scarlet and Wolf

Helpful set-up:
Some important clarification notes on this one…
– The Travel Ban: In this early draft, Scarlet’s grandmother was being kept in Los Angeles, not Paris. However, due to the widespread plague, America had instated a travel ban preventing anyone from coming or going across its borders. Wolf and Scarlet got into America by flying her ship into Canada and hiring a trucker to smuggle them across the border.
– As you might recall from the previous deleted scene, Wolf has amnesia in this draft and remembers nothing at all about his life prior to arriving in France.
– The wolf soldiers in the early drafts were closer to traditional werewolves in that they went through a physical transformation to become predators. (I don’t remember now if the transformation was caused by the full moon, or if Levana was able to “trigger” it at will.)

* * *

The bridge that spanned the river into Portland was ancient, unused since hovers had replaced the old vehicle technology and new hoverpaths had been constructed for them. Scarlet couldn’t help but be a little afraid of the giant steel structure, rusting and crumbling over the immense river, so long abandoned for anything other than a tourist attraction.

But surely if it had stood for this long…

Plus, it was pretty, as the sun rose to the east, highlighting the bridge in gold and pink and stretching its shadowed fingers out toward the ocean.

If Wolf had any trepidation about it too, he didn’t show it, his pace not even slowing as he led over its grated threshold. Holding her hand. He hadn’t stopped holding her hand all morning, as if the privilege of touching her might be ripped away if he didn’t take full advantage of it every minute they were together.

She found that she didn’t really mind. If his presence had been comforting before, the feel of his always-warm, strong hand wrapped around hers made her feel like she had her own personal body guard.

And maybe, in a way, that’s precisely what he was.

The city of Portland met them on the other side of the bridge, filled with the ancient bridges, but now alive also with hoverpaths and noise. The skyline glowed in the dawn, a mirage looming in the distance.

But they would not have to go into the heart of the city on foot. Restaurants and motels for weary travelers dotted the roads, and with them, computer-driven hovers lined the parking lots.

They stopped for breakfast at a small diner, not much nicer than Al’s, and avoided looking at anyone but the waitress, wondering if any of the other trucker customers could possibly be acquainted with their previous guide.

A newsscreen on the wall was droning on about the day’s weather—bright and sunny but cold, cold, cold, no cloud cover to keep in the heat. Scarlet fixed her eyes on it as the screen switched and the A.R. president was shown on a platform, talking about the duty of his citizens to assist the other nations in their fight against the plague—to send food and supplies, for their top medical researchers to help in the search for an antidote. And then he talked more about the travel ban, apologized to citizens with loved ones overseas, but explained how it was the best thing for the country at this time.
Scarlet looked around the room. It hadn’t been at all difficult for her and Wolf to get into the country. She wondered how long it would be before anger flared between the Republic and the Canadian province for the smuggling—surely they were not the first, and would not be the last, to take that route into the country.

Looking at the screen again, she saw the image of a girl she did not recognize—a young girl, a teenager, with brown almond-shaped eyes and straight brown hair. She looked sweet, and scared, dressed in a bright white prison uniform.

A band of text ran along the bottom of the screen: Lunar cyborg escapes from New Beijing prison. Convicted for attempted assassination against King Kai of the Eastern Commonwealth.

Scarlet raised both eyebrows as the shot panned out, revealing a metal appendage at the end of the girl’s long white sleeve. “Huh,” she said, half to herself. “That goes to show you can’t always trust a person’s appearance.”

Wolf glanced over his shoulder at the screen, and Scarlet found her eyes training on him while his attention was stolen.

What mysteries were still lurking beneath his exterior façade?

There was one mystery of Wolf’s that she was quite sure of. Despite his attempts to hide it, his eyes were still filled with pain, the muscles of his face drawn into a permanent, agonized scowl.

She was convinced it was more than just a headache.

* * *

“I was hoping we would be there by nightfall,” Scarlet said, looking out the computer-operated hover windows as the glowing orange sun slowly sunk toward the Pacific Ocean. “We can’t be far.”

Wolf moaned something incoherent in response.

Scarlet glanced over to see him rubbing at his temples, eyes shut.

She sighed. “Wolf, really, are you okay?”

“My head,” he mumbled.

Though she knew it was cruel, Scarlet couldn’t help the smile that flickered over her face. “About time you started complaining.”

When he only groaned, the smile fell from Scarlet’s face and she pushed herself off the hover’s bench and came to kneel before him. She gently pulled his hands away from his face and watched as he sucked in a painful breath, but he did not open his eyes.

“That bad, huh?” she said, caressing his temples with her fingertips. “Maybe we should stop and get some dinner. You might just be hungry… or dehydrated.”

He gritted his teeth together and lifted the lid of one eye—it seemed, if possible, even brighter than usual. But also bleary, tired, filled with pain.

Scarlet felt her insides gripped with panic. She didn’t doubt that anything but the most excruciating of pains could incapacitate Wolf like that.

“Wolf, how long have you been feeling like this?” Scarlet said, running her fingers through his hair.
He seemed to melt beneath her touch, nuzzling his head against his hand, though she had no idea if he realized that he was doing it.

“Just since this morning,” he muttered, so quietly that she had to strain to make out his words. “It wasn’t bad. It’s much worse now.”

Scarlet chewed on her lip, a thousand possibilities coursing through her thoughts.

Maybe he really did have a concussion and the symptoms were just now beginning to show themselves? Or maybe he was supposed to be on some medication that they didn’t know about and he’d gone too long without it?

What if she had to take him to a hospital? They would ask so many questions. They would check her ID chip. They would know.

Guilt washed over her and she pulled herself onto the bench beside Wolf, and then tugged him downward, laying his head in her lap. Like a child, he submitted without argument, grasping his temples while Scarlet continued to drag her nails through his hair.

Travel ban or not, she needed to take him to the hospital. Without question. Without remorse.

“It’s okay, Wolf,” she whispered. “Just rest. I’ll take care of you for once, okay?”

He said nothing. His breathing had gone ragged.

“Hover, take us to the nearest hospital.”

“No,” Wolf groaned.

“Changing course,” said the hover, ignoring him. “Navigating to the San Joaquin General Hospital.”

“Scarlet, no. They will know that I… that we…”

“Wolf, we don’t know what’s wrong with you. You could have some fatal medical condition that we’re completely unaware of. What if you’re supposed to be on some prescription? What if this is more than just a headache?”

He moaned and clasped his hands firmly over his head again, in an attempt to block out sound or light or pain, or maybe everything.

“Look, we’ll get you admitted, and yes, they will probably deport you. But they’ll wait until you’re all better first. And then you go to Paris, and I will go get my grandmother and meet you back there. It’ll all be okay.”

Slowly, he turned his head to look up at her, his eyes haunted and unfocused. Scarlet gulped and gripped his hand, then bent her head and placed a kiss to his palm. “I don’t want to lose you.”

Struggling for breath, Wolf pulled his hand from her grip and wrapped it around a lock of her hair, tightening his fist around it and pulling her, not harshly, down toward him.

She gladly offered the kiss, feeling steaming tears slipping from her lashes, all the while wondering where this desperation had come from. This need for his touch, his presence, his existence in her life.
Something sharp pricked her lower lip.

Gasping, she pulled away.

“Wolf,” she whispered, tasting blood. She looked down at his trembling mouth. Awed, she caressed his face, and gently pulled back his lips to reveal prominent white canines, sharpened near to razors. Her jaw fell. “Wolf… your teeth.”

If he heard her, he did not respond, just stared at her with the same frightened, dazed expression.
“What’s happening to you?” she murmured, rubbing her fingers tenderly through his hair.

“Arriving at the San Joaquin General Hospital. Please pay before exiting.”

She felt the hover slow to a crawl and then stop. Reaching for her purse, she pulled out enough bills to cover the amount blinking on the small panel beside the door. “Hover, wait here,” she said, inserting the payment, and then cupping Wolf’s hands in her face. He looked ready to drop into unconsciousness.

“Can you walk?” she asked him.

He moaned.

“Okay, hold still.” She carefully slid out from beneath him, cradling his head and laying it back down on the bench. The hover’s doors whooshed open.

“No, Scar… don’t leave.”

“I need to get a medic. They’ll bring a stretcher for you.”

“I can walk.”

“Wolf—”

“I can walk.”

Anger sizzled within her at his stubbornness. “Fine, then walk,” she said, stooping to pull one of his arms around her shoulder. But then she paused as her hand rubbed across his. Her heart jolted at the fine layer of hair that had sprouted up on the back of his hand. She gulped, looked down his fingers and saw that his nails had grown and sharpened into claw-like tines.

Shaking, she forced herself to ignore the instinctual fear brimming inside of her and pulled Wolf off the bench, taking the brunt of his weight onto her shoulders.

“Come on, Wolf, you’ve got to help me out here,” she grunted, climbing out of the hover. He stumbled along beside her. His breathing was rough and ragged.

She heard a male voice say, “Oh dear, looks like we have another one.” And then a medical android was with them, helping Scarlet support Wolf’s weight.

“He’s been having headaches,” she told the android.

“Yes, he is not the first.”

“What do you mean?” she asked as a human female doctor showed up with a stretcher and Wolf was coaxed onto it.

The android didn’t respond and Scarlet followed them through the doors of the hospital, blood pounding in her head.

And then Wolf let out a strangled cry, his entire body jerking as if struck by lightning.

She cried out his name and then, slowly, felt her feet stall beneath her when she realized that Wolf was not the only one crying out in pain. She looked around the hospital and saw three more men laid out on the stretchers, covering their heads and screaming in pain, and another man sitting in a chair in the waiting area, hunched over and pulling at his unkempt hair. As Scarlet watched, the man tumbled from his chair and began twitching on the floor as claws erupted from his fingertips.

“Scarlet!”

She tore her gaze away from the man and rushed to Wolf, grabbing his hand, but looking at the female doctor. “What’s wrong with them?”

“We don’t know,” the woman said, and the terror and panic was a hundred times more upsetting on the face of a professional doctor. “I’ve never seen this before. And there’s been half a dozen of them today.”

“Scarlet…”

She looked down at Wolf. His face gleaned with sweat. His muscles were straining against his skin. His hair seemed longer. His ears almost pointed.

“I’m here, Wolf,” she said. “I’m right here.”

He forced his eyes open.

She sucked in a breath and stumbled back a step, but his iron grip on her hand kept her close.
His eyes, once emerald green, were gold now. Glowing amber gold, with big dark pupils, wild, angry… afraid.

“You need to get out of here, Scarlet,” he said in a guttural, husky voice. “You need to run.”

“I’m not going to leave you.”

His grip tightened and she cried out in pain as she was jerked toward him. His free hand came up and gripped her long hair, pulling her toward his face.

“Listen to me. You are in danger. You need to run.”

“Wolf—”

“Run!”

He pushed her away, sending her flying against the hospital’s reception desk. She crumpled to the floor, but was too shocked to feel the pain, her eyes glued to Wolf as his body began to twitch with another seizure.

His face was morphing. His jaw, growing. The very bones contorting and morphing into… into…
A wolf.

Sudden screams burst into her thoughts. She turned toward them and saw nurses and doctors and patients running. And there, in their midst—another man, another beastly wolf creature, looming, snarling. The beast crouched for a moment, and then sprang, latching his fierce jaw onto the leg of a man who had fallen in his rush to get away.

The man cried out in pain, scrabbling for purchase on the hospital’s tiled floor.

Scarlet turned away, only to look back at Wolf.

But not Wolf.

The pain, it seemed, was gone. He had gotten to his feet and now crouched on the stretcher, his big hairy hands digging into its edge. His golden eyes staring at Scarlet. Hungrily.

She grasped for the counter above her, slowly pulling herself to her feet.

Wolf ran a tongue, a dog’s tongue, along his canine teeth. Scarlet shivered.

His intentions could not have been more clear.

And yet, she thought, she hoped, that there was a battle raging behind those golden eyes. And he had not yet sprung.

“Wolf,” she mouthed at him, unable to find her voice.

There was a growl and Scarlet felt herself being pushed over. She screamed as another one of the beasts landed on top of her. Sharp claws dug into her shoulder. Jaws snapped before her face.
But then the werewolf was ripped away from her and, stunned, she watched as Wolf threw the other beast to the wall with a sickening crunch. A framed painting crashed to the floor. Glass shards scattered along the tiles.

Holding her shoulder, Scarlet scrambled to her feet as Wolf clamped his jaw around the other beast’s neck and they tumbled into a brawl, red blood slicking the floor beneath them.

Shuddering, panting, she ran.

One of the other werewolves had made it to the parking lot and was bounding from hover to hover on his powerful legs. As Scarlet watched, the beast landed on the hood of an emergency hover that had just come in, reached a hand through the glass windshield—the glass that was supposed to be unbreakable—and wrapped his clawed fingers around the neck of the terrified driver.

She looked away. All around her was screaming and shattering glass.

The hovercab was still there—ignorant and naïve. She dove into it, already screaming, “Close door, close door!” and almost had her foot taken off as the doors whooshed shut behind her. “Go, go, go!”

“What is your destination?”

“Anywhere!” she screamed.

“Please be more specific. What is your—”

“Los Angeles. Go!”

“Setting course for Los Angeles city center,” the hover’s automated voice said calmly back to her, and the burning, crushing relief surged through her to feel the hover lifting itself from the hard ground and moving away from the hospital.

Watery tears pooled out of her eyes as she pressed her hands to the glass and watched the doors of the hospital as more doctors and patients came screaming and running from the building, all lit up by the huge glowing moon above.

The full moon. Brighter than she had ever seen it.

She waited for Wolf—not Wolf—to come chasing after them, but there was no sign of him.

When the hospital was out of sight, she collapsed, sobbing and wailing and trembling, to the floor of the hover.

***

Baca juga scene selanjutnya di Lunar Chronicles Deleted Scene #5

Read More

Lunar Chronicles Deleted Scene #3

Hai,,
sudah baca novel Lunar Chronicles?
Kalau sudah, sudah baca scene-scene yang nggak ada di bukunya?
Yang belum baca, bisa nih baca disini 👉👉 Lunar Chronicles Deleted Scene #1  dan  Lunar Chronicles Deleted Scene #2

Sekarang, yuk lanjut baca scene #3 ..

***

From: Scarlet, 1st draft

Featuring: Scarlet and Wolf


Helpful set-up: In the early version of this book, Wolf had amnesia and couldn’t remember anything about his life prior to a few weeks before. In this scene, Scarlet is taking him to the police station in an attempt to find some information about who he is and where he comes from.

* * *

They took a hovercab to the police station in the frosty late-morning. Wolf seemed to remember enough of society’s rules of politeness to hold the hover door open for Scarlet, and yet she couldn’t shake the feeeling that he was supremely grumpy for some reason. Though he always turned quickly away, she swore she’d caught him half-glaring, half-pouting at her since they’d left the apartment. It was unnerving, and a little irritating.

When he did it again on their way into the station, she finally paused on the sidewalk. “What?”

He blinked. “What?”

“Why do you keep giving me that look?”

“What look?”

“Like I—did something. You know what look I mean.” She fisted a hand on her hip. “What’s wrong?”
Wolf shook his head. “It’s nothing,” he said.

“Then why are you pouting?”

Looking uncomfortable, Wolf dropped his gaze to Scarlet’s wool scarf and coat. “You’re all bundled up.”

“Yeah. It’s thirty degrees out here,” she said, analyzing his own thin, plain T-shirt. “It wouldn’t hurt you to put on a jacket, you know.”

Still looking cranky, he fixed his eyes on her hands. “I don’t like the gloves.”

“What? What’s wrong with my—”

Turning away from her, Wolf pushed his way through the station’s door before she could finish her argument.

Scarlet stamped a foot in frustration and looked down at her black pashmere gloves. “My gloves are fine,” she muttered to herself and followed him in.

Inside, they were hit with a wall of heat, almost uncomfortably warm after the brisk autumn chill outside. Scarlet was tempted by her own pride to keep her gloves on anyway, but as she brushed past Wolf toward the main desk, she instead ripped the gloves off and smacked him on the arm with them.
“I’ll be right with you,” said a man in uniform, busy with paperwork.

Scarlet nodded at him and surveyed the police station. She’d never been there before. The walls were painted basic taupe, a wallscreen was muted in small waiting area, and there was a mixture of uniformed police and civilians wandering around.

“That’s better,” Wolf murmured at her side.

Scarlet glared up at him, bunching her gloves in a fist. “Don’t talk to me.”

“What?”

Ignoring him, she folded her arms on top of the counter and waited for the police officer to turn his attention to her.

Suddenly, Wolf wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her harshly against his chest.
Scarlet gasped and glanced up at him, instinctively pushing at his hold, but she may as well have been fighting against iron chains. And he seemed unaware of her irritation, his piercing eyes caught on something on the other side of the open room.

Turning, Scarlet followed his gaze, and then gasped as she found herself captured in the leering, bone-chilling smile of a man in a community jail cell.

Her heart stopped.

The man seemed pleased with her reaction and grinned at her, swiping a tongue along his upper teeth. His hands, hanging out past the bars that confined him, flexed as if imagining what it would be like to feel her.

But it was not the sick grin that had stunned her. It was his eyes. They were Wolf’s eyes. The same penetrating brightness. The same tint of emerald green.

Otherwise, they looked nothing alike. The man in the cell was shorter, stockier in his proportions, and had pitch-black hair pulled into a low ponytail.

But the eyes were unmistakable.

As she gaped at him, the man slightly tilted his head back and made a great show of sniffing delightedly at the air. Wolf’s arms tensed, his fingers pressing into the soft skin of Scarlet’s arm.
She shivered.

“Thank you for waiting.”

Sucking in a breath, Scarlet was relieved to turn to the policeman. He seemed to notice her surprise and Wolf’s fervent glare and turned toward the holding cell.

Seeing that the object of their attention was a prisoner already locked away, he shrugged it off and returned a polite smile to Scarlet. “How can I help you?”

She gulped. “Yes, hello,” she said, trying to wiggle her away out of Wolf’s hold without making it too obvious. His arms didn’t budge. “Uh… we were wondering if you have a… uh… file for missing persons?”

“Have you filed a report about the missing person?”

“Well… no, you see, actually…” She tried to jerk her thumb at Wolf, but it was too confined to be much more tham a limp gesture. “…he’s the missing person. But he has amnesia and doesn’t know who he is or anything, so we thought if we could search through other reports of missing people, then…”

The man nodded. “Odd. You’re the second case of amnesia I’ve heard of this week,” he said. “But yes, of course we’d be happy to let you go through the files. Has he been to a hospital?”

“No,” Scarlet said. “But he seems fine.”

“Amnesia is most often caused by head injuries or severe traumas. It wouldn’t hurt to get him looked at, to head-off any future complications.”

“Of course. We’ll do that, thanks.”

The man nodded, dropped his gaze to Wolf’s hand, making white indentations on Scarlet’s arm, then back up at her. “You can follow me.”

“Okay,” she said with a smile, then turned to glare at Wolf. “Snap out of it,” she hissed.

When he still failed to respond, she stomped on his foot.

Wolf gasped and pulled back, dropping his gaze to hers. She’d been hoping for something more along the lines of a yelp of pain, but mute attention worked too. “Snap out of it,” she repeated.

“I don’t like the way he’s looking at you,” he growled, low, as if afraid the man on the other side of the room could hear them.

“Well I don’t like the way you’re holding me like some neurotic, overprotective boyfriend,” she said, struggling out of his hold. This time, he let her go, his expression showing signs of hurt, but she refused to acknowledge them.

“He’s in a jail cell, Wolf. He can’t do anything to me. Now come on.” Grabbing his elbow, she pulled him off toward where the policeman was waiting for them. She flashed the man another grateful grin, hoping he caught the apology contained within, as they passed.

“Take a seat here and I’ll bring you the files,” the policeman said when he’d led them to a small meeting room with a round table. Scarlet gladly took a seat and pulled Wolf down beside her.

“Who was he?” Scarlet muttered when the officer had left.

“I don’t know.” Wolf glared at the desk’s surface, leg bouncing up and down.

“He looked like you, Wolf.”

He glanced sideways at her, frowning. “No he didn’t.”

“He had your eyes.”

He looked away.

“And it seemed like maybe he could smell me. Like you do.”

Wolf’s jaw flexed. “I don’t know him. But I would have ripped his throat out if he hadn’t been behind those bars.”

“Oh yes, that would have been productive,” Scarlet said, rolling her eyes.

The policeman returned and set a palmscreen and a handful of data chips on the table. “Here you go,” he said. “Let me know if you need any help.”

Scarlet thanked him and took the palmscreen, switching it on while Wolf continued to glare at the table and twitch his leg.

Finally, Scarlet reached beneath the table and put a hand on his knee. It jerked to a halt. “Don’t you ever just hold still?” she muttered, setting the screen on the desk and inserting the first chip. She could feel Wolf’s gaze turned on her, but refused to return it.

“I—”

She slid her gaze along the table toward him, but when he didn’t continue, she opened up the search screen on the palm to look for specific characteristics: male, age 20 to 29, brunette, missing within the last thirty days.

“I feel, sometimes…” he started again.

Pursing her lips, Scarlet forced herself to meet his gaze.

He shifted uncomfortably in the seat. “Like I’m filled with… energy,” he said. When Scarlet didn’t respond, he continued, with hand gestures, “Like… like I’m filled with some sort of… burning… power. And it makes me… that’s why I fight, like I do. Because when I… release… this energy, I… I can’t stop it. And I just…” He flexed his fists on the table.

Reaching forward, Scarlet placed a hand firmly on top of his knuckles and held it there until she felt him relax.

“And that’s why you’re always moving?”

“Yes. But…”

She slowly pulled her hand away from him. “But what, Wolf?”

“But being near you. You calm me, somehow. Your voice. Your… your scent. Even your eyes.” Voice dropping to a whisper, he looked up at her, his eyes sharp, but he quickly turned away.

Scarlet gulped and slowly turned back to the screen, but it was hard to focus.

“Your heart is beating so fast,” he said.

A blush spread across her face. “You can tell that?”

“Yes.”

“How?” When he didn’t immediately answer, Scarlet shook her head. “Never mind. I don’t want to know.”

“I’ve made you nervous again.”

“You have a special knack for that, Wolf.”

“I didn’t mean—”

“It’s okay,” she said, turning to him. “You didn’t say anything wrong. It doesn’t make any sense to me, but if I calm you, then I calm you. Good. I’m glad.”

Hunching over the table, Wolf dragged a hand roughly through his hair.

“All right, try to pay attention,” she said, scooting toward him and holding the screen so they could both see. She began flipping through the entries, glancing at each picture of each missing picture, before moving on to the next. A dozen pictures later, she paused and set the screen down on the table. “So if you’re so calmed around me, then why did you flip out just now with the guy in the cell?”

“I didn’t flip out.”

“You didn’t?”

“No. If I’d done what my instincts told me to do, I would have killed him.”

She blinked at him, dragging in a shaky breath. “You probably shouldn’t stay stuff like that in a police station,” she said a moment later, then returned her attention to the screen.

After a hundred entries, she took out the chip and switched to the next one. Wolf said nothing, just watched her silently, his gaze occasionally focusing on the images of missing men on the screen.

“Maybe,” he said after a long silence between them, “I am not missing.”

“No? What do you think you are, then?”

“Found.”

She set the screen down and looked at Wolf again. “You didn’t just fall from the sky, Wolf. You had to come from somewhere. Don’t you want to know where that is?”

He shrugged. “I’m fond of where I am now.”

“Well,” she said, lifting the screen again, “maybe that’s because you don’t have anything else to compare it to.”

She finished the chip and put in the third, and final, chip that the policeman had brought them. Wolf said nothing as she sifted through each of the entries, until, finally, she had to resign and put the screen down.

She heaved a sigh. “Okay. You evidently have not been reported as a missing person in the great Parisian area.”

“Now what?” he asked.

“I don’t know.” She sighed and rubbed her fingers along her forehead. “I need to go home and get ready for work.”

“Can I come with you?”

“What, you don’t need to prepare for your fight?” she asked, teasing.

But Wolf didn’t return the gentle smile. “No,” he said. “I’m always prepared.”

She laughed ironically and started pulling on her gloves. “Of course you are. I would expect no less from you.”

“Do you need to put those on?”

With one glove on, she cast a glare at Wolf. “Wolf. It’s freezing out there. I don’t care if you’re unimpressed with my fashion sense, I don’t want to—”

“It isn’t your fashion sense,” he muttered, standing from the desk as well with slightly slumped shoulders.

“Then what?” she said, pulling on the other glove.

Wolf sighed and gathered up the palmscreen and chips. “It hides your scent,” he said after a pause. “Being all bundled up like that.”

Scarlet’s jaw fell and she had that eerie chill on her spine again. “And my scent calms you.”

He nodded, unable to meet her gaze, and started heading back toward the front of the police station to return the materials.

Scarlet rolled her eyes skyward and, with a grunt, ripped the gloves from her hands and stuffed them into her pockets.

At the front desk, Wolf continued to avoid her gaze, but she couldn’t help but notice the satisfied glint in his eyes.

***


Baca scene #4 di sini Lunar Chronicles Deleted Scene #4

Read More

Lunar Chronicles Deleted Scene #2

Bagi yang belum baca scene #1 bisa dibaca di sini yaa 👉👉 Lunar Chronicles Deleted Scene #1
atau langsung di web-nya Marissa Meyer .

Sangat direkomendasikan untuk membaca novel yang sudah diterbitkan terlebih dahulu 😊

From: Cinder, 1st draft

Featuring: Cinder and Kai

Naming Notes: Like last week’s, Adele later became Adri, Merlin became Dr. Erland, and Coen became Konn Torin.

Helpful set-up: Two semi-important things to know about this early draft to keep from being too confused:
1. Originally, the Lunar gift was much more sorcery-based, to the point where talented Lunars could literally shoot fireballs out of their hands.
2. Part of Cinder’s cyborg programming in this early draft included being installed with a “codeword,” and anyone who used the codeword would be able to control her. I ultimately decided this was much too similar to Ella Enchanted and removed it, but the concept did become the basis for the Lunar ability to use mind-control.
Also, notice the stuff in ALL CAPS? That’s me leaving revision and editing notes to my future self, a tactic I still use all the time!

* * *

She sucked in a quick breath when she emerged from the hallway and found herself standing at the top of a grand staircase that overlooked the ballroom. The high ceiling had been hung with hundreds of crimson paper lanterns, each one glimmering and sending a rich, golden light over the room. The dance floor had been set up in the center, with round tables surrounding the space. Each table was bedecked in tealights and bouquets of orchids and peonies and small jade statuettes. The walls of the room were lined with folding silk screens hand-painted with intricate designs of cranes and tortoises, and each screen was flanked with massive urns filled with green, thriving bamboo stalks. All ancient signs of longevity passed on from the Commonwealth’s ancestry that hinted at a single defining message: Long Live the King.

From the vantage point, she could see almost all of the people gathered for the ball, and it was not hard to spot King Kai in the crowd. Her heart swelled to see him alive and safe, grinning and holding a glass of wine in one hand and speaking to a man that Cinder didn’t know. He was dressed in the same crimson red tunic he’d been wearing during his address earlier that evening, and his cheeks were slightly flushed—with joy or beverage, she had no idea.

“Good evening, Miss… Cinder, was it?”

She turned to the voice and felt her heart jolt to see Coen standing beside her at the top of the stairs, hands clasped behind his back. She could not help but imagine he had a LASER? gun hidden there,
even as logic told her that was a ridiculous assumption.

“Sir Coen,” she croaked, dipping into an awkward curtsy, made more so by Nainsi’s small foot. (Marissa 2016: I *think* Nainsi was an escort-droid in this draft, and lent her foot to Cinder at some point? Hmmm.)

“I did not think you would be able to join us this evening.”

“Oh—It was… a last-minute decision.”

He was smiling, but there was a cold ruthlessness in his eyes. Cinder wasn’t sure if she would have picked up on their distaste if she hadn’t been aware of his intentions, but in these circumstances, it was quite obvious that Coen despised her.

“Well,” he said, pulling his lips into a tight grin. “I’m sure King Kai will be delighted to see you.”

“I heard his announcement earlier today,” she said, nervously bunching her skirt up in both gloved fists. “Congratulations on becoming next in line.”

He stared at her a moment, still with his smile stretched uncomfortably across his face. The expression didn’t change when he said, “Hopefully the need for it will never come.” There was a pause, followed by, “Long live the king.”

The words stung Cinder, hollow as they were. She gulped. “And hopefully soon, it will be long live the king and queen.”

“Yes,” Coen said dryly. “I do believe there will be an engagement announced by the end of this evening. How lucky the people of the Commonwealth will finally be allied with the Moon Kingdom after all these years.”

It occurred to Cinder that one good knock to the man’s head with her metal fist would probably lend him unconscious for the rest of the evening, but she doubted that was a wise course of action to take. At least, not while she was standing on this platform for all to witness.

So instead, she forced herself to bow her head politely and agree. “Yes. How lucky. Good evening, Master Coen.”

“Good evening.”

She turned away from him and found herself scanning the crowd again as she carefully descended the stairs, gripping the railing with one hand and her skirts with the other. She found Kai roughly in the same place as before, but now speaking with a group of two women and a man—none of whom Cinder recognized. Content that the king was in no immediate danger, she set to looking out for Adele and Pearl. They were harder to spot as their pink and silver dresses—pink for Adele and silver for Pearl—blended well with all the other pastel and shining metallic ballgowns in the room.

Cinder, who had thought her gold dress would stand out like a sore thumb (EXCEPT SOMETHING ELSE THAT ISN’T SO CLICHE), was happy to see that almost every other girl in the room was wearing some gold or silver.

Pearl and Peony were nothing if not trendy.

Finally she did spot her stepmother and her daughter though, standing together to the side of the dance floor. Their eyes were glued to the king. They both looked nervous, and Pearl’s cheeks were bright pink—she must have been drinking.

That was another thing to be glad about. Clearly they had not yet had the opportunity to introduce themselves to Kai, which meant that he was still unaware of Cinder being cyborg or Lunar.
That is, unless Coen had told him about the whole cyborg thing.

At the bottom of the steps, Cinder threaded her way through the crowd, thinking to head toward the food tables where she would be both covered by the large crowd gathered around them, and inconspicuous, but also able to keep an eye on the king and his advisor.

She tried to find Merlin in the crowd, hoping to have a reliable ally in him, but he was nowhere to be seen.

And then her eyes swept by the king again and her feet stalled beneath her.

He was looking right at her, wide-eyed and disbelieving.

She cursed and ducked her head. How was it possible that in this huge room, filled with so many people, so many women, so many ball gowns, that he had spotted her?

When she dared to glance up again through lowered lashes, she saw Kai apologetically ending the conversation he’d been having and then he was walking toward her.

She spun away from him, knowing without looking that Adele and Pearl would still be watching the prince, and that in mere moments they would spot her and everything would be ruined.

Keeping her head down, she started through the crowd, praying that Kai wouldn’t follow her even while she knew such a hope was useless. She spotted an exit on the other side of the ballroom and hurried toward it, all the while chanting “be graceful” in her head, and then she heard Kai calling her name.

Not loud. He wasn’t yelling by any means, but loud enough that she was forced to stop and hold her breath. At least Adele wouldn’t be able to see her face.

“Cinder?” Then he was at her side, and then standing before her, staring at her with a mix of confusion and concern and wonderment.

“Your Majesty,” she stammered, dipping into a curtsy.

Kai frowned.

“I did not mean to interrupt your conversation,” she said. “And so thought I might just step out for a breath of air. Are the gardens this way?”

He glanced at the massive double doors she’d been heading toward, then looked back at her with the beginnings of a smile. “Yes, they are. May I come with you?”

She was forced to think about the question for a moment. On one hand, if she got Kai alone she would be able to tell him what she knew—if he would listen. On the other hand, she was certain that Coen was watching and if Coen was planning on murdering Kai that night, Cinder doubted he would have any qualms about murdering her too, in which case the two of them being alone could be a dangerous prospect.

She gulped. She would just have to be quick about it.

“I would be honored. But I don’t wish to keep you from your guests for long.”

“They won’t even notice I’m gone,” he said, holding out his elbow toward her.

She was forced to take it with her left arm, carefully avoiding touching him with the concealed robotic hand.

As they made their way outside, she found that Kai was watching her from the corner of his eye, and his face was positively glowing with joy.

“I knew you would come,” he said, his voice low even though she doubted they could be heard above the violins and OTHER ORCHESTRA INSTRUMENT.

“Did you?”

“Yes. I just had a feeling.”

She opted not to tell him how wrong he had almost been.

“And I’m glad that you’re here. I was beginning to fear that I might never see you again.”

“I had something I needed to tell you,” she said, glad when two guards opened the double doors before them and they were free to step out into the chilly air.

Above them, the moon was full and bright, spreading its silver sheen over the entire courtyard.

“I wanted to speak with you too,” Kai said. “I sent you some comms.”

Her gaze dropped as Kai led her out onto the brick pathway, edged with pavers and small ornamental statues and moss-covered stones.

“I know. I wanted to reply, but my stepmother forbid it.”

“Forbid it?” He seemed honestly shocked, and she supposed she could see why. What mother would forbid her daughter, or even stepdaughter, from communicating with the king?

“It’s complicated.”

“Well I’m glad to hear that you weren’t outright avoiding me,” he said, his eyes twinkling at her.

When they had gone far enough down the courtyard pathway that the music had faded behind them in a dull din and their faces were lit more from the moon than the glowing golden halo from the windows, Kai came to a standstill. He turned to face Cinder and took both of her hands into his. She couldn’t help the intake of breath when his fingers wrapped around her metal hand, but he must have had too many things on his mind to notice the hardness beneath her glove.

“Merlin told me about you.”

Her heart jolted. Her gaze flew up to meet his.

“And about your meeting with him last week, the day that we met by the meeting rooms.”

“What? He did?”

She found herself trembling, and all the while Kai’s sensitive fingers holding her, caressing her. His thumbs tenderly rubbed along her knuckles until her nerves were squirming with the touch.

“Yes. I wish you would have told me, Cinder. It explained so much.”

He knew. He knew everything and yet… he wasn’t pulling away from her. He wasn’t looking at her differently. If anything, he seemed even more compassionate, more adoring.

“I… I didn’t know how.”

“I understand.” His lips turned into a faint smile. “But when he told me, I felt so insensitive. There I was, kissing you, trying to convince you to marry me, going on and on about all these responsibilities and decisions, and all the while, you…”

She what? She knew that she could never be candidate for queen? She was harboring this awful secret? She was short-circuiting?

“You were still in mourning.”

“Mourning?”

“For your sister.”

He jaw dropped.

Merlin had told Kai about her sister, about Peony, dying from the plague. That was all. He hadn’t told Kai that she was cyborg. He hadn’t told Kai that she was Lunar.

Her hopes began to crumble. Of course. Of course, he would not be touching her or speaking to her if he knew.

“It was your sister, wasn’t it?”

“Yes,” she breathed. “But I… I mean, I’m okay now.”

Finally his hands released hers and moved along her upper arms, bare and chilled in the autumn air. She drew in a shuddering breath. His hands were so warm. So soft. So strong.

“After he told me, I kept thinking about the conversation we’d had, and what you must have been thinking. I thought, no wonder she wouldn’t marry me. No wonder she only wanted to go see Merlin. I do wish you would have told me.”

She shut her eyes. “I… Yes. I’m sorry, Kai. I should have told you.”

It wasn’t a lie. She wished that she had told him the truth. Much, much sooner.

Then maybe he would have forgotten about her. Maybe he would be dancing with a beautiful Earthen girl at that very moment, preparing the words he would use to ask her to be his queen.

Instead of wasting his time out in the gardens, where every moment brought him closer to midnight, and a future with the Moon Queen.

“Cinder,” he said, “you must know that seeing you here has given me a great deal of hope. And… I… I need to know if that hope is justified.”

She ducked her head with guilt, but could not bring herself to pull away from his heat and his touch, despite the fact that it both thrilled and terrified her.

“Kai…”

“I know the timing is horrible. And I know you have a lot on your mind right now and the last thing you need in your life is what I’m… proposing.”

She chewed on the inside of her cheek, wishing he would never finish the question, because she didn’t know what she would answer.

Marrying him was not an option.

But she did not want him to marry the Moon Queen.

“I know it’s unfair of me. Even selfish. But…” His voice dropped to a whisper and he shifted toward her so that her hands were snuggled between them and she could feel strands of his hair tickling her forehead. “Cinder, I do believe that I’m falling in love with you.”

Her breath snagged. There was a strange heat in her lower back and she was sure that if Kai’s declaration had given her such misery and filled her with such turmoil, she would be suffering excruciating pain from that spot that refused to allow her emotions.

“Kai, please…”

“Marry me, Cinder. Be my queen.”

She shivered. His hands automatically gripped her shoulders in a futile attempt to warm her.

“Rescue me, Cinder.”

“Rescue you?” she murmured, eyes flashing.

He chuckled mildly, as if now that the words had left him he saw that they were silly. Melodramatic, even. But he did not retract them.

“Kai. That’s why I’m here. I need to… I need to tell you something. It’s important.”

He drew back from her, just barely, his brow creasing in confusion.

Clearly, he had noticed that she had not answered his question.

“It-it’s about Coen.”

Kai frowned. “Coen? What about Coen?” Already, hurt and betrayal were in his eyes and she could not begin to imagine what he suspected her to say.

She opened her mouth to speak, but stammered on the words now that they were so dire.

And then she heard another voice from the shadows. “Yes, my dear. What about Coen?”

She turned to see Coen himself standing in the courtyard, on the pathway between them and the entrance to the ball. He was standing quite still and complacent, his hands tucked into their opposing sleeves.

He was smiling, a cold, secretive smile that filled Cinder with dread.

“Coen,” Kai said in confused greeting. “What is this about? What’s going on?”

“Why don’t you ask her? After all, she is the one with something very important to tell you. And I am quite intrigued to know what it has to do with me.”

She gulped and felt Kai’s gaze on her again, but she dared not look away from Coen.

Did he have a gun in that sleeve? Would he dare kill Kai, and herself, out here in the open courtyard?
“Well? We are waiting,” he said in his level, ironic tone that grated along her skin.

She opened her mouth to speak, but a chill rushed up her and she found her tongue frozen solid.
Like in the elevator with Coen. When the world had gone so cold and still. When she could not move or speak or hardly even think.

And this, she realized, was magic.

She forced her jaw shut and glared at him, cursing herself for not being better prepared. She should have thought to bring a weapon at least. Or to find Merlin first and ask for his help.

But—she was a weapon in her own right, she thought, flexing her heavy metal fingers. If only he would move close enough…

She wasn’t sure when Kai’s grip had left her shoulders, but the cold was now suffocating against her skin.

She opened her mouth again, and forced her tongue to form the words. “I know… the truth.”

Coen quirked an eyebrow, as if impressed with her ability to speak.

“The truth? Ah yes, the truth.” His arrogant grin broadened. “I know the truth too,” he said. “I know that you are a Lunar rebel.”

Her jaw fell. “What?”

“I know that your fugitive, outlaw group does not want to see an alliance forged between the Earth and the Moon. I know that they have sent you here to keep our King from marrying Queen Levana. Even if that requires force.”

She could only blink at him, desperately attempting to make sense of his words through her muddled brain.

Lunar rebel? Outlaw group?

“I know that you intended to assassinate King Kai tonight in order to succeed in your mission.”

“What? But that’s—”

“Tell him.” Coen’s voice rose, clear and powerful and stinging in the quiet night air. “Tell him, Miss… Ashes. ”

Her body stiffened. Her head buzzed with an electric heat seething through blood and bones. “No…”
Kai did not bother to correct Coen on the name, he was too busy gaping at her, wondering if such an accusation was possible.

“Tell him that what I have said is the truth.”

She wet her tongue and her lips opened of their own accord, her teeth and tongue in league against her, and even as her mind shrieked and body rebelled, she heard herself saying, “It is the truth.”

“Cinder…” Kai breathed, but she dared not look at him.

She watched Coen with loathing as his smirk grew.

“Tell him you are a Lunar rebel.”

“I am a Lunar rebel.”

“Tell him you’d meant to kill him tonight.”

Her voice was scarcely above a breath and warbled as it left her, but she complied. “I’d meant to kill you tonight.”

Kai took an uncertain step away from her.

“Good girl,” Coen said. “Now then, I brought force with me, to make sure our prince was well-protected.” His gaze darted up to the castle walls surrounding them and Cinder and Kai followed the look.

Half a dozen gunmen filled the windows on the above stories, dressed in black and silhouetted in night. Cinder’s heart pounded as she scanned the walls and their guns.

All poised at her.

Except one.

A cry escaped her.

One gunman had targeted Kai. She knew. Not his head and not his heart, nothing too obvious, but it would be fatal all the same.

And it would look like an accident. It would look like he’d been aiming for Cinder and Kai had gotten in the way.

They probably wouldn’t even be able to tell which of the gunman it had been.

“Coen, this isn’t—”

“I apologize for endangering you like this, Your Majesty,” Coen said. “Please understand it was necessary… for everyone to hear the truth.”

Cinder stretched her fingers, glad that Coen had only taken possession of her voice. If only she could be quick enough. If only she could protect Kai.

“Cinder?”

She had to look at him, though the pained, horrified expression nearly tore her apart.

If only her eyes were not so dry. If only tears of sorrow and anguish would well up inside her, so that he would know, at least part of him would know, how much she was hurting inside.

But no. She knew that she must look only cold and emotionless before him. Unable to speak the truth. Unable to cry.

But there was one thing she could say. Even if he would never believe her.

She tried to soften the agony of her face. “Kai,” she whispered. “I’m falling in love with you too.”
She heard a snort from Coen, but ignored him, only interested in Kai’s reaction. It was confusion, disbelief, maybe even disgust.

Certainly not hope. Certainly not happiness.

“Don’t shoot,” he said desperately, which was something. He glanced at Coen, and then up at the gunmen. “Don’t shoot.”

“They won’t shoot. Not if she comes easily, without any trouble,” said Coen. “But, Miss Ashes, you won’t come easy.”

She smirked at the man’s irony. “No. I guess I won’t.”

“Cinder,” said Kai, almost scolding.

“Which one’s going to fire first?” she said, looking at Coen. “The one in the north window, to make sure he has a clear shot?”

He ignored her question, and that same smug grin curled up his lips again. “Take one step toward the king,” he said, and it sounded like a threat, but she knew it was an order.

“Fine,” she snapped.

And she managed three steps and a lunge before the gunshot rang out. Her arms wrapped around Kai and pushed him to the ground. A startled cry. A thud.

Lightning in her spine.

Cinder screamed and crumpled over the prince.

Even in the agony she could feel the pride in knowing that she’d succeeded. The gunman hadn’t hit the king.

She gritted her teeth as flames arched through her back, scorching her bones, igniting her nerves.
She did not think a bullet would hurt so badly. She had expected pain, but she’d thought it would be followed by a dulled shock, at least.

But this.

It felt as though her entire body were about to combust. It felt as though flames were licking at her skin. Her muscles stung. Her marrow sizzled.

There was nothing, nothing but the fire.

She sobbed, without tears, and when she sucked in a breath, her lungs filled with smoke.

But then, slowly, slowly, the pain began to ebb. And there was no fire. There was no smoke. The scorching heat burned down to embers and coals within her—a power only needing to be stoked.
She was still on Kai, straddling his waist, curled into a ball against his chest. He was breathing hard beneath her. She could feel his heart racing. She could feel his lungs contracting. She could feel his tendons stretched and the muscles in his arms taut as he pressed his body into the soft earth of the garden, trying vainly to escape her.

She pushed herself away and looked down at him. He was okay. He was not hurt.

But he was terrified.

He was looking at her with such blatant, unconcealed horror that she shrunk away from him, wrapping her arms around herself for naive protection.

“K-Kai?”

“You are Lunar,” he murmured.

She gaped at him a silent, confused moment, then dared to look down at herself and peel her hands away from her waist.

Still gloved, the left hand did not appear changed.

But the right hand, the human—Lunar—hand, was glowing.

She trembled.

The revealed skin of her arms, also glowing. Not bright, but a subtle, luminescent silvery glow. Like the moon filtered through a cloudy haze.

She gasped and mindlessly moved her hand behind her, feeling for the wound in her back.
The bullet had hit her spine. It was warm and wet, but she was not broken. She was not paralyzed. She was not dead.

“Stop her! She is Lunar! She is after the king!”

She looked up at Coen’s enraged voice. He was staring at her, looking stunned, but not terrified.
He had probably seen his share of Lunars before. But had he not actually believed that she was one before this? Had he been making that up, in an attempt to criminalize her?

And a crowd had begun to gather in the courtyard, drawn by Cinder’s screaming and the spectacle of the injured Lunar assassin.

But her attention was focused on the true villain, the true traitor, crying for her blood. Coen’s glare turned on the gunman who had attempted Kai’s life and loathing and bitterness boiled up in Cinder and she knew that, while her fate might be sealed unfairly, his fate would be all too well deserved.
And it suddenly did not matter to her if she was the only person who knew that.

While his gaze was still turned from her, while she still hovered protectively over Kai’s body, while pain still lingered at the base of her spine, while this new power tasted fresh and crisp on her tongue, she raised her palm out toward Coen and released every ounce of burning hatred at him.

It was easier to use the mysterious Lunar gift than she ever would have guessed.

The fire welled up inside of her as beckoned and soared out from her fingertips in a glowing, seething ball of flame.

Coen glanced at her just in time to see the white-hot flames before they enwrapped him.

“No!” Kai screamed, scratching at the earth beneath him, but unable to move. Cinder’s metal hand on his chest held him captive—she was only protecting him, but he would never know that.

Coen’s scream of agony filled the courtyard. But it was over fast. While the terrified crowd remained stunned and frozen in terror, Coen’s body dissolved into nothing more than a pile of white-ash upon the cobblestone path.

And that is when Cinder noticed Adele and Pearl among the crowd, staring at her.

Even more horrified than the king.

“You,” she breathed, panting from the exertion. She narrowed her eyes at Adele. “You did this. You told him the word for controlling me. It was you!”

Adele stumbled backward, colliding with the other faces in the crowd, and shook her head.
“You are not mine,” she said, then, louder, “She is not mine! I do not know this demon!”

Cinder’s fingers twitched. She could reach out right now and—

Adele cried out and collapsed into a faint, barely supported by the people behind her.

That is when the crowd was hit with sudden realization, and the stampede out of the courtyard began, terrified men and women alike running for their lives, crying and screaming, but Cinder barely heard them.

She turned away from her fainted stepmother and looked up into the windows around the courtyard. The gunmen lingered, looking much less bold than they had before.

But any minute now, they would regain sense and shower her with bullets.

And Kai, too.

No one would attempt his life again, not with so many watching. But so long as she was this near to him, he was in danger.

She looked down at his face. He was still staring at her, wide-eyed, shocked, pale.

But more than a little curious.

“I am sorry,” she whispered.

And then she jumped to her feet and ran.

Not expecting to escape. She never thought for a moment that she would escape.

And she was right.

But it was not even a storm of bullets that ultimately led to her undoing. It was not magic, eating her from the inside out.

Rather, it was that stupid, useless mechanical foot.

The model was too small for her. Too imbalanced. Too loose.

Definitely not meant for sprinting.

She’d made it to the stairs at the end of the courtyard, stairs that she hoped would lead to the city streets beyond the castle walls, when she heard the bolts snap. She felt the wires tear loose, and the loss of power at the base of her calf.

She screamed and stumbled forward, crashing to the bottom of the stairs. She landed sprawled on her side, knowing without looking that her left leg would be dinged and battered and her right knee would be bleeding. There were holes in her gloves where she’d tried to catch her fall. Blood was staining the beautiful cream-colored silk over her right hand.

She did not bother to get up as the guards caught up to her at the top of the stairs and stopped, gawking down at the beaten and tattered girl before them.

It briefly occurred to her that she might be able to kill them all where they stood. She wasn’t sure. She hadn’t really any idea what this subtle burning in her core could accomplish.

But it was an idea.

If only she really had been a villain. Things would have been so much more simple.

Kai reached the stairs not long after.

What an idiot he was for following her. But how she somehow adored him for it, even if it was only masochistic curiosity that propelled him. Even if now he would know everything. Truth and lies alike.
His eyes drunk her in and as if he could not process any more surprises, his expression became only pure loss. Pure despair. Pure pain.

She could not face him, so instead, gasping for breath, she let her eyes drift up to the cold, dark night sky.

The moon had never looked so big and bright.

And somewhere in the distance, she heard the subtle, rhythmic chimes of a clock striking midnight.

***

Baca selanjutnya di sini 👉 Lunar Chronicles Deleted Scene #3

Read More

Lunar Chronicles Deleted Scene #1

Ini hanyalah repost saya dari blog penulis Lunar Chronicles, yaitu Marissa Meyer. Karena kebetulan saya baru membaca novel-novel ini, dan ternyata Marissa Meyer ini mempublish scene yang tidak ada di buku. In case, suatu waktu postingan ini bakal dihapus, jadi saya repost diblog saya sendiri karena saya belum selesai baca semua bukunya, hehe. Teman-teman bisa baca di blog saya ini atau baca part 1-nya langsung di blog Marissa Meyer👈👈

Oya, disarankan baca bukunya terlebih dahulu yaa.. biar nyambung sama ceritanya :)

Here we go...

From: Cinder, 1st draft

Featuring: Cinder and Kai

Naming Notes: For clarity, “Adele” later became Adri, “Merlin” (yes, Merlin) became Dr. Erland; and “Coen” became Konn Torin (and pssst, he was originally a villain, secretly working for Levana! DUN DUN DUN).

Editing Notes: I really debated whether or not I should “clean up” the text of these deleted scenes before posting them. Truly, there were times when it was painful for me to read over them and not allow myself to fix this run-on sentence or delete that superfluous adverb, but I thought that posting them in their unedited versions might be useful for some aspiring writers out there to see the text rough and un-polished. Therefore, these scenes have been left untouched, with the exception of very obvious typos or misspellings.

Helpful set-up: This scene took place about halfway through the book, when Cinder went to the palace to see Prince Kai but was met with a crowd of protestors and turned away by the guards. In this initial draft, she didn’t have a handy royal android (Nainsi) to alert Kai to her presence, though, so she had to get resourceful… by using her cyborg brain to find a secret passage into the wall, of course!

* * *

At first, nothing happened. But when she pulled harder, she felt something budge, just a little. Putting all the might of her robotic limb into it, she pulled until a slab of interconnected stones pulled out from the wall, and she was left holding a heavy stone-and-grout door and staring into a dark tunnel, filled with cobwebs.

She looked at the guards and, seeing them still preoccupied, climbed into the corridor before she could change her mind. The door was outfitted with handles on the inside too and, with a little bit of grunting, she was able to lift it up and pull it back into place behind her.

It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the darkness, which she spent brushing the cobwebs from hair and shoulders, glad that years of cleaning attics and chimneys for Adele had left her with a lack of fear of the everyday creepy-crawlies.

Standing at full height, the corridor’s ceiling was a good four feet from the top of her head, the same height as the castle’s ceilings, and the walls so close together that she had to walk at a slight angle as she made her way slowly into the shadows. There were two horizontal slits in the walls on either side, just above her eyelevel. She stood on her tiptoes to peer through one and saw that it looked out into one of the meeting rooms, but the view was dark and hazy. She guessed that the slit was hidden behind some sort of sheer curtain.

And so she’d been right—it was meant for spying.

As both of the meeting rooms were still empty, she proceeded down the hallway. It was much longer than it had seemed on the palmscreen’s tiny holographic map. One meeting room she passed had a couple servants in it laughing quietly together and drinking a bottle of rice wine. But otherwise, they all seemed deserted at the day’s late hour.

But as she made her way deeper into the castle’s framework, she began to hear more voices and footsteps on either side of her, some low and secretive, others boisterous and chatty, none suspecting that a spy could be in their midst, lingering in their very walls.

Cinder was suddenly hit with a feeling of discomfort. This was far too easy. She should not have been able to breach the castle’s security so easily.

When this was over, she would have to tell Merlin and make sure that something was done about this right away. She didn’t want to think that someone with evil intentions could steal into the castle just as she had done.

She was lost in these thoughts when she rounded a corner in the hidden stairwell and was suddenly grabbed by a strong arm.

A gasp and scream welled up in her but a hand clapped over her mouth.

And the scream sizzled away when she found herself staring into dark eyes, almost black in the corridor’s shadows, and looking just as wild and startled as she herself felt.

It was Prince Kai.

Recognition seemed to hit him at the same moment it hit her, and his grip loosened over her mouth. But he did not move the arm that was around her, pinning both her arms to her sides and holding her firmly against a metal support stud.

Without speaking, his eyes flickered to the wall behind her. That’s when Cinder heard the voices, quiet and murmuring, in the next room. There was a spyhole just over her shoulder and Kai kept his gaze on it as he held her, his brown drawn in concentration as he tried to make out the words.
It became clear that he’d all but forgotten her in his focus, even with one arm still tight around her, and one hand now lingering on her shoulder, and their bodies so close that she could feel his quick heartbeat.

She licked her lips and tried to keep her breathing as slow and quiet and possible, and listened as the words slowly became clear.

“—knows that it is the best choice for this country. And for all of the earthen kingdoms,” said one voice, deep and rough. Advisor Coen?

“I’m just not sure that it is,” said another male voice, not as deep. “She is not who I would have thought to be an ideal… choice.”

“You are not looking at the big picture. We all know it would be a marriage in name only, I certainly don’t expect them to fall in love or anything naive like that. But think what it would do for the relationship between the earth and the moon. No more threats of war would be only the beginning. The combination of our technology and the moon’s sorcery could lead to the greatest, most advanced civilization this galaxy has ever seen. But how will we ever accomplish that if there is no communication between the two cultures?”

“Communication, yes—we all agree there needs to be communication. But why must he marry her?”

“To ensure that we do not repeat this phase of distrust and silent threats that we’ve been experiencing for the past two decades. To unite the two royal families through blood—a common heir—would lead to an unbreakable alliance.”

A third, feminine voice interrupted. “What I worry about is the queen’s motives. Do we really think she desires only peace and a unity that could give her a child, after all this time?”

“What other motive could she have?” asked Coen.

There was a momentary silence, before the woman said, “Well, we’ve all heard the rumors about her. How she runs the country. If she is indeed drunk with power as the sources would suggest then expanding her rule to the earth would be a logical step.”

“I would like to remind everyone that what we know are only rumors. The moon people are severely misunderstood, largely because no one on earth has sought to debunk the myths surrounding them. And as for the queen wishing to arrange this marriage only so that she may increase her empire, well, she could just as easily do that by aiming a few missiles in our direction. Or infiltrating the minds of our world leaders and demanding allegiance through her magic powers, IF she has the ability as the rumors suggest. Look, in her thirteen years of rule, Queen Levana has done nothing to the people of the earth, and no one can doubt that it isn’t in her power to do significant harm if she wished it. That alone is a credit to her goodwill.”

Cinder watched Kai’s face for signs of disbelief or disgust, but he was as emotionless as stone. Only his eyes seemed haunted as they stared into nothing.

“And what of this army she’s supposedly raising?” asked the unknown man. “These… these beasts.”
Coen gave a sound, something like a snort. “I am convinced that the American Republic has been duped by a practical joke. Those images were clearly fakes. Can you imagine the queen dreaming up such a scheme, and then leaving it out in the open for any satellite to see? It’s absurd. It’s the stuff of fairy tales.”

“But shouldn’t we investigate further before asking our king to unite himself to this woman?”

“We are already working on investigating it,” Coen said, and Cinder saw a flicker of confusion in Kai’s face, as if he hadn’t known about any such investigation. “But we haven’t much time. The people of the Eastern Commonwealth will be anxious for a royal wedding as soon as Kai is coronated. Plus, we all know that Levana will request an answer at the meeting of the full moon. Kai needs to be prepared to give her one.”

“Well then let Kai make the decision. He will be king, after all.”

“And a great king he will be. But he is young still and I worry he will allow his youthful prejudices to influence this decision. I am asking for your help to convince him that his marrying Queen Levana is the best thing he can do for his kingdom and his people. It is possibly the only way he can keep us from entering into another horrific war.”

There was some uncertain grunting and humming before chairs were pushed back and Coen thanked his audience for giving him the time. The sound of a door opening and closing followed.

And then Cinder found herself alone in the secret, narrow hallway with Prince Kai still pressed up against her. They were surrounded by silence and heat and despite the conversation she’d just overheard, Cinder could not help delighting in the unfamiliar feel of a strong arm wrapped around her and warm, sensual breath upon her shoulder and a stray lock of silky hair on her ear.

Slowly, Kai seemed to reawaken from his thoughtful stupor and he heaved a sigh that spoke of desperation and responsibility. His gaze refocused on Cinder with something of surprise and she just blinked at him. She felt his fingers tense around her arm, as if testing the feel of her sleeve.

“Hello again,” he said in the most mild voice imaginable.

“Hello.”

His face was softened after the intense struggle to concentrate on the meeting, filling Cinder with peculiar, warm tingles.

“They want you to marry the moon queen?”

His gaze danced away to the spy hole. “Coen does.”

“But the people don’t. They’re protesting it outside.”

“I know.”

She expected him to release her at any moment, but he didn’t. In fact, she found his fingers gently, absently caressing her shoulder, and she wondered if it was possible that he was just as enamored with the sensation of holding as she was with the sensation of being held.

With a gulp, she clenched the gloved fingers of her robotic hand and tried to tuck it behind her, afraid that should he brush against it he would feel the cool, hard metal through the thin cotton glove.

But her other hand stretched forward cautiously until it found Kai’s waist and grasped at the material of his tunic. In response, he pulled her closer, though it was hard to tell if he did it consciously.

“I don’t want to marry the moon queen,” he whispered, and there was aching in the voice that nearly broke Cinder’s heart.

“Then don’t,” she said. “It’s your choice, isn’t it?”

“And risk insulting her by rejecting her offer? That would be one quick way to turn our country into a war zone.”

His chin settled down on her shoulder. The hand on her shoulder made its way around her back until she was almost drowning in the embrace that was so peculiar and startling and yet almost natural. Her stomach flipped at the realization that it did feel almost natural. It felt as though being cradled against him was the only reasonable place for her to be.

But then, she’d never been held by any boy before. How was she to know that it didn’t always feel that way?

And… it was the prince.

The very thought of it made her muscles tighten with nervousness. She desperately tried to dispel it and found herself chuckling awkwardly to herself. “All the girls in the kingdom will be so disappointed when they find out that you’re probably going to marry someone else,” she murmured, followed by another partial laugh.

A mildly amused chuckle followed from him as well. “I’d like to think so.”

“They all think you’re going to find a bride at the ball. They’re all planning their dresses and hairstyles right now in hopes that you’ll choose them.”

A silence followed. It occurred to Cinder that this may have been a very stupid thing for her to say, but when the prince pulled away from her—just barely, just enough to look into her eyes again—he did not look upset. Perhaps a little sad. Perhaps even a little hopeful.
And then he kissed her.

Cinder froze against him, stunned and wide-eyed at the feel of soft, warm lips against hers.

It was a short kiss, tender and longing, and left her trembling to the core. When Kai pulled away, still holding her close, she found herself unable to breathe as she stared up at him. She was heartened to see that he looked stunned too, as if the falling, suffocating feeling was not restricted to her alone.
A hint of a shy smile touched his lips and he looked as if he would say something.

And then a sharp stab of pain shot up Cinder’s spine. With a cry, she collapsed against the prince, shuddering as the pain arched through every nerve and fiber, ending in a hot, angry burning where her skin melded with metal.

“What’s wrong?” Kai asked her, his voice full of fear, but she barely heard him over the tumultuous agony frothing in her head. She gritted her teeth and grunted, struggling to breathe as the pain constricted her lungs and throat. Her legs gave out and she found herself supported by Kai’s grasping, terrified hands.

“It’s okay,” she said through her teeth. “It… it won’t last long.” Even as she said it, the pain was fading and she found herself struggling to gulp down the air.

“What was it? What happened?”

Cinder shook her head against his shoulder. “It just… happens, sometimes.”

“Did I do something?”

She flinched at his worry, unable to answer the question. She wasn’t honestly sure she knew the answer. In the past, the pain from the base of her spine had only struck her at times of supreme, passionate anger. She’d never experienced it when she was happy.

But then, how many times in her life had she been supremely, passionately happy?

“No, it’s all right,” she said, trying to keep her limbs from trembling as she backed out of Kai’s supporting embrace. “It just comes and goes. I never know when it will happen.”

She met his gaze and tried to smile reassuringly, but he did not look at all calmed.

“What should I do?”

“I need to go see Merlin,” she said.

Kai nodded, but slowly. “He can help?”

“I… maybe.”

“Okay. Can you walk?”

“Yes. The pain is almost gone now. I’m really fine.”

Kai was silent a moment as he analyzed her face, then his frown softened. “Good,” he said, reaching up and brushing a strand of hair back from her face.

She had a deep, unnatural fear that his kindness would trigger the pain again and shivered at the touch. Then Kai reached down to take her hand—her mechanical hand—and she jerked it away as if burned.
When he looked at her with uncertainty, she tried to smile at him and pretend that she’d only been caught off guard, before slipping her gloved, human hand into his. A thrill rushed up her and Kai gently squeezed her fingers, even though it was clear that his panic had not entirely disappeared.
They had to walk single file, and at an awkward angle, as they proceeded down the secret corridor. They didn’t speak and Cinder was glad for the silence as she tried to figure out what could have caused the eruption of pain.

The kiss, it would seem.

She had always thought the pain was related to stress, and maybe it was.

Falling in love could be stressful, couldn’t it?

But the thought brought both denial and hopelessness falling all around her. Denial, because she barely knew the prince. Sure, she’d had a crush on him since she was thirteen, as all red-blooded girls in the Eastern Commonwealth did, but she’d met him less than a week ago. And this was only the second real conversation they’d ever shared, and it was about him marrying somebody else.

Which was, of course, the source of her hopelessness.

He was going to marry somebody else. He was going to marry the Moon Queen.

The thought sickened her, and it wasn’t just jealousy.

***

Baca juga scene #2 di sini yak 👉👉 Lunar Chronicles Deleted Scene #2

Read More

La La Land

La La Land
Film yang berhasil mendapat banyak penghargaan Golden Globe. 7 piala loh. Buanyak kan.. Katanya ini adalah rekor baru sebuah film bisa mendapat penghargaan sebanyak ini. Dari 7 nominasi yang diikuti film ini,, semuanya dimenangkan 😆😆 super sekali... Nah,7 nominasi itu apa aja? ini dia..

1. Best motion picture, musical, or comedy
2. Best actor
3. Best actress
4. Best director
5. Best screenplay
6. Best original song
7. Best original score

Jadi kemaren karena gembar-gembornya ini film bagus, terbukti meraih banyak penghargaan, saya dan teman-teman bikin acara dadakan nonton film ini. Teman-teman saya ini ekspresinya macam-macam. Ada yang dikit-dikit ketawa, ada yang sampai nangis juga. duh keterlaluan ini bapernya. wkwkwk. Secara ini bukan film drama romantic 😂😂

Pertama film ini dimulai .......
Penonton diperlihatkan bahwa kehidupan tak bisa dipisahkan dengan musik, bahkan saat berada di kemacetan, kita akan mengurangi kejenuhan dengan mendengarkan musik dan menyanyi.
Lalu.... taraaaa... mulailah orang-orang yang kena macet ini keluar mobil dan nyanyi-nyanyi. wkwk.
Coba dipikirkan, dalam realitanya, mana mungkin macet panas-panas gitu malah keluar nari-nari 😂😂 yaa cuma di La La Land..
Yang bikin awsem adalah... bisa gitu yah jalannya dibikin macet sepanjang itu cuma buat shooting film ini 😮😮

Itu awsem pertama. Awsem kedua...
View yang dipakai di film itu. Langit senjanya.... awseeeeeemmm! Secara aku pecinta langit senja 💜
Ada dua senja yang aku suka. Salah satunya senja yang ada di poster film ini, eh aslinya di film nya bagus loh. yang di poster itu pas sudah semakin malam deh.
Semacam VIP-nya Bukit Bintang😄😄 (orang Jogja pasti tau Bukit Bintangnya Gunung Kidul)
Jadi lokasinya semacam di bukit, pinggir jalan, lalu berlatar langit senja dan kelap-kelip lampu kota.
Romantiss.. buat dansa bareng..
Tapi kalau di La La Land jadilah komedi romantis😄😄

Oke, next, awsem ketiga.
Ada banyak musik dipakai di film ini. Iyalah. judulnya aja drama musikal.
Layak banget untuk dinikmati, apalagi bagi penggemar musik Jazz. Bisa bikin manggut-manggut alias mengangguk-anggukan kepala, menggoyangkan tangan, bahkan kaki.
Musik yang paling aku suka, sebenarnya malah bukan lagu utama film ini. Yaitu lagu yang dimainkan saat band yang diikuti Sebastian (pemeran utama cowok) manggung. Walaupun kalau katanya si Seb lagu ini bukan jazz murni yang disukainya, tapi lagunya buat saya awsem. Asik banget lah. Saya suka juga sama karakter vokal penyanyinya.. 👍👍👍

Awsem keempat.
Endingnya.
Sebetulnya endingnya diluar dugaan saya juga. Saya pikir bakalan happy ending. Setelah keduanya berjuang keras menggapai untuk menggapai mimpi masing-masing, dan akhirnya menemukan jalan terang menuju mimpi itu.
Yaah.. hidup kadang memang tak selalu seperti harapan, begitupun ending sebuah film 😄 tapi mungkin ini happy ending juga sih,
Hanya saaja, ketika senyum kebahagian yang terakhir ditunjukkan kedua pemeran utama, saya melihatnya malah...pedih.
Saya dapet bapernya justru di bagian endingnya ini. hiks. hiks.
Ke-legowo-annya si Seb ini, saya melihatnya sebagai awsem character. 😊😊

Saya pikir, kalau cerita ini dibikin drama tanpa musikal, aku yakin pada baper. Komedi sama musikalnya kental saja temanku ada yang menangis. Hihi.
Jadi yang membuat temanku ini suka tiba-tiba ketawa adalah,, ketika adegan dramanya sudah mulai, tiba-tiba aktor atau aktrisnya (Mbak Emma ini cantik banget) malah menyanyi. Langsung buyar. wkwk.
Kalau temanku bilang, ibaratnya lagi makan,mau ditelan, tapi nggak jadi 😂

Ada satu scene yang saya suka. Waktu Seb main musik, Mia ini menirukan lirik lagu pake ekspresi muka lucuuuu banget.. bikin ketawa pokoknya.
Bagian waktu di bukit bintang sebenarnya saya juga suka. Scene ini isinya percakapan Mia sama Seb yang dilagukan, gerak-geriknya kayak pas Mia lepas sepatu, rebutan tas.. juga dibikin sesuai irama.. jadi lucu gitu.. padahal view nya udah romantis abis 😅😅

Baiklah, setelah menonton film La La Land ini, rasanya wajar kalau film ini menang banyak penghargaan. Banyak hal masuk dalam cerita ini, mulai komedi, drama, musik, tegang, sedih, adaaa..
Mungkin kalau saya penggemar drama musikal, film ini saya beri skor 4,5.
Tapi berhubung genre film yang betul-betul awsem bagi saya adalah model science fiction-nya Marvel, jadi skor saya untuk film ini.. 3,9 deh 😀😀

Oya, ada satu lagi pertanyaan yang agak nggantung dari film ini.
Ceritanya di awal, Mia (mbak Emma Stone) kan udah punya pacar namanya Greg. Setelah ketemu Sebastian (mas Ryan Gosling yang ganteng nan keren tapi sedikit alay kalo dikit-dikit nari wkwk) kan ceritanya dua insan ini jatuh cinta. Tau-tau udah jalan berdua gitu, jalan-jalan kesana kemari, tapi nggak diperlihatkan Mia ini mutusin Greg gitu. Kan aku mikirnya "ih mbaknya selingkuh" hehe. Atau mungkin aku ketinggalan cerita? Etapi di bioskop kan nggak ada iklan dan aku duduk manis depan layar nggak kemana-mana kok. Sepertinya saya juga nggak melihat Greg ini marah-marah kok Mia berubah atau apaaa gitu..Ah yasudahlah.. semua itu hanya film 😃

Read More