Copyright 2015 by Marissa Meyer.Genres: Fairy Tale, Retelling, Science Fiction, Young Adult They're coming for you.Įxcerpt from The Lunar Chronicles: Winter by Marissa Meyer. Though the pain from Scarlet's finger, which was chopped off during her interrogation with the queen, had faded to a distant memory, the candies still helped with the aches and pains of life in such cramped quarters.īut as she lifted the candy from the box, she saw something unexpected tucked beneath it. Winter had brought her many treats since her imprisonment, most of them laced with painkillers. Scarlet lifted the lid of the box, revealing the red marble-like candy in its bed of spun sugar. She crouched to give the wolf a loving scratch behind his ears, then leaned over the rail and started gathering up his pile of sticks. She waited until Scarlet had taken it from her, then stood and made her way across the path to Ryu. 'I think it will make you feel better,' she continued, pushing a box through the bars. 'I think you should eat it.' The princess's expression was innocent and meaningful all at once, in that peculiar way she had. 'I'm not hungry.' It was a lie, but she'd come to despise how much she relied on Winter's charity.

She had always been fond of the animals on the farm - at least until it was time to slaughter them and cook up a nice ragoût - but she never realized how much she appreciated their simple affection until she had been reduced to an animal herself. What a luxury it would be to have a bit of contact. Then Scarlet could pet his fur, scratch his ears. His enclosure's wall was waist high and he should have been able to clear it easily. Scarlet had spent a lot of time wishing Ryu could leap over those bars. She peered across the menagerie's pathway, to the white wolf who was standing on his hind legs and batting at the bars of his own enclosure.

If she could figure out a way to crack into them, they might not be a bad snack later.Ī gentle scratching pulled her attention back to the situation. Scarlet flinched and waited until the tree had stopped shaking before she turned the hood of her red sweatshirt inside out and shook out the nuts that had attacked her.