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He had to find Princess Selene.
So why was he only thinking of Cinder?
Her hair, her smile, that grease spot above her eyebrow when they'd first met, and that kiss she'd given him before everything went wrong.
She was...perfect. Beautiful. Everything to him, and then Kai brought his head down hard on his desk, angrily fisting his hair in frustration.
These thoughts weren't his. Were they? No, no. It couldn't be, he couldn't have such vivid adoration for a convicted felon, a cyborg, a Lunar.
Especially not a Lunar.
Yes, because when he thought of her it was almost that same knee-buckling haze he found himself in when Levana threw up her glamour, such a powerful feeling of wild, irrational love that it made him sick to his stomach.
And still, it was different than when he'd seen her at the bottom of those stairs, crackling glamour surrounding her and making her look wickedly gorgeous.
Making her look Lunar. One of them.
"And there I go again," he muttered self-deprecatingly. "Stop it, Kai. Stop daydreaming and start searching."
"Entry request from Adviser Konn Torin," Nainsi said, her robotic voice cleaving through his thoughts like a smoldering torch through heavy fog.
"Permission granted," Kai answered dully.
Torin strode over briskly. "Kaito. You aren't still pursuing that Lunar princess, are you? It's a frivolous hope."
"No, it's not!" Kai shot back. "She could save us all. She's the rightful heir to the Lunar throne; she could end Levana's reign for good!"
Torin shook his head in exasperation. He was silent, but Kai heard his unspoken words.
He pulled up an article on his portscreen about Princess Selene.
She had to be out there.
Yet halfway through the article, his thoughts once more found their way to Cinder.
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"It's me, Kai. I'm Princess Selene."
"Just checking, you're not using your glamour on me right now, right?"
"We're going to start a revolution."
The same person.
It had been her all along.
It always was her.