Текст книги "Cress"

Автор книги: Marissa Meyer

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Текущая страница: 26 (всего у книги 27 страниц)

Iko wiggled her fingers, then her toes. She lifted her legs until they were perpendicular to the floor, then kept going so that she was practically kissing her knees. Letting out a yelp of delight, she flipped forward, using the momentum to spring up onto her feet. “It works! It all works!”

“Iko, knock it off!” Cinder scrambled up beside her. “I still need to—”

Before she could finish, Iko pulled her against her bosom, squeezing and swaying and trembling with joy.

An android. Trembling with joy.

“You’re the best mechanic an android could ever ask for.”

“Say that when you don’t have an enormous gaping hole in your throat,” Cinder said, prying herself out of the embrace.

Iko checked her reflection in the window of the podship and flinched. The paneling from the top of her throat to her sternum was flayed open to give Cinder access to her internal workings. Her central processor, wiring, and mobility mechanics were on full display.

“Oh, yuck,” said Iko, trying to cover the hole with both hands. “I hate when my wiring is showing.”

“I know the feeling.” Cinder pulled a pair of pliers off the wall’s magnetic strip. “Come here. I’ll see if I can bend some of that external paneling back into place. A lot of your skin fibers are beyond repair, so it’s not going to be perfect, but it’s all I can do right now. You might have to wear turtlenecks for a while.”

Sighing, Iko came to stand beside Cinder. “Figures that as soon as Captain Thorne brings home this marvelous body for me, those stupid Lunars go and ruin everything.”

Cinder smirked. “Stop talking for a minute while I do this.”

Iko impatiently tapped her fingers against her hips while Cinder warped the external paneling into something that resembled the shape of a clavicle.

Behind her, the door hummed open. “Here she is, Your Majesty.”

Cinder stiffened, the pliers still clamped on to Iko’s paneling. She heard footsteps and then Iko screeched and shoved Cinder and her tool away. “Don’t let him see me this way!” she yelled, diving behind the podship.

Gulping, Cinder tucked the pliers into her back pocket and slowly turned around. Kai’s gaze was dark as it swooped over her to the podship—and Iko’s legs beneath it—to the tool chests and power cords fastened to the walls, before landing on Cinder again.

Cress and Thorne hovered curiously by the door.

“You’re awake,” she stammered. Then, realizing that was a stupid thing to say, she attempted to stand straighter. “How do you feel?”

“Kidnapped. How should I feel?”

She rubbed her wrist, tempted to call up a glamour to disguise her cyborg hand. Which was also stupid, of course. And besides, it was something Levana would have done.

“I was hoping maybe you’d feel well rested?” she said, attempting a weak smile.

She was met with no reaction. No smile. No chuckle. Not even a flicker of humor.

She pressed her lips together.

“We need to talk,” said Kai.

Thorne let out a slow whistle. “No one ever likes to hear those words.”

Cinder glared at him. “Thorne, why don’t you go give Iko a tutorial with the cockpit controls?”

“Excellent idea,” Cress chirped, nudging Thorne back out the door. “Come on, Iko.”

Iko was still hiding, hugging herself self-consciously. “Is he looking?”

Kai raised an eyebrow.

“He’s not looking,” said Cinder.

A hesitation. “Are you sure?”

Cinder gestured exasperatedly at Kai. “You’re not looking.”

He cast his eyes to the ceiling. “Oh, for all the stars.” Crossing his arms, he turned his back on them.

Cinder waved at Iko. “All clear. We’ll finish that up … later.”

Braids bouncing, Iko darted to join Cress and Thorne in the hallway. “I’m so happy to see you’re all right, Your Majesty!” she called to his back.

As the door slipped shut, Iko flashed Cinder an encouraging thumbs-up.

And then they were alone.

Sixty

“I can’t believe you kidnapped me!” Kai yelled, spinning back to face her before Cinder could brace herself. “We’re on a spaceship, Cinder. In space!” He pointed at the wall. It wasn’t actually an exterior wall, but Cinder didn’t feel the need to point that out. “I can’t be on a spaceship. I have a country to run. I have people who need me. We are on the verge of a war. Do you understand that? War. Where people die. I cannot be up here, messing around with you and your band of misfits! Do you even know that you are housing one of her mutants up there?”

“Oh, yeah. That’s Wolf. He’s harmless.” She rolled her eyes. “Well, not harmless…”

He laughed, but it was sharp and delirious. “I can’t—how could—what were you thinking?”

“You’re welcome,” she muttered, defiantly crossing her arms.

He glowered, rather ungratefully. “Take me back to Earth.”

“I can’t do that.”

“Cinder—” He huffed. Reconsidered. Softened … just a bit.

The change put an instant dent in Cinder’s defenses, prompting a strange tingle behind her rib cage. She dug her fingertips into her elbows.

“As someone who understands why you did this, and admires your ability to actually accomplish it, I am—pleading with you. Cinder. Please. Take me back.”

She filled up her lungs. “No.”

The softness was gone, instantly. Tipping his head back, Kai strung both hands through his hair. It surprised her how familiar the gesture was.

“When did you become so frustrating?”

She scuffed the toe of her boot against the floor.

“Fine! As your emperor, I command you to return me to Earth. Immediately.”

Cinder rocked on her heels. “Kai … Your Majesty. You may recall that I’m Lunar. And Lunars are forbidden from being granted citizenship in the Eastern Commonwealth. Therefore … you’re no longer my emperor.”

“This isn’t a joke.”

She was surprised at how the words stung. Like before, in the palace, indignation reared up fast and burning. “You have no idea how seriously I’m taking this.”

“Are you? Do you even know what the consequences are going to be for what you’ve done?”

“Yes, actually. I know this is a war. I am aware that more people are going to die before this is over. But we didn’t have a choice.”

“Your choice was to stay out of the way! Your choice was to do nothing! This is my job, my responsibility. I’m the emperor. Let me handle it.”

“By letting you marry her? That’s handling it?”

“It’s my decision.”

“It’s a stupid one!”

Kai spun away, his hands clawed into his hair. Whatever product had been used to style it for the wedding was making it messier than usual, and stars, he looked good.

Cinder smothered the thought, annoyed with herself.

“Please,” he said, his voice strained as he faced her again. “Please tell me this isn’t some … some petty act of jealousy. Please tell me this isn’t all because I asked you to the ball, or that time in the elevator, or—”

“Oh, you can’t be serious. I hope you don’t really think so little of me.”

“You shot me, Cinder, and then you kidnapped me. I honestly don’t know what to think.”

“Well, believe it or not, we didn’t just do this for you. We’re trying to save the whole world from your power-crazy fiancée. I refuse to let Levana become empress. I refuse to give her free rein over the Commonwealth. But we need more time.”

“More time for what? All you’ve done is make her angrier, so that when she retaliates, her wrath is going to be that much worse. Was that a part of your master plan, or are you just making this up as you go along?”

Cinder’s blood began to boil and she desperately, desperately wished she could tell him that, yes, of course they had a grand master plan that was guaranteed to work. Guaranteed to rid them all of Queen Levana and her tyranny forever. But there was no guarantee. Only a string of hope, and the knowledge that losing wasn’t an option.

She swallowed, hard. “I have a plan, to end this for good. But I need your help.”

Kai pinched the bridge of his nose. “Cinder. I hate Levana as much as you do. But she’s the one pulling the strings here. She has this army … it’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Those little skirmishes that killed sixteen thousand people a couple weeks ago? Laughable compared to what she’s really capable of. Plus she has an antidote to letumosis, and we desperately need it—you know how much we need it. So while the idea of marrying Levana and crowning her empress makes me want to gouge out my own eyes, I don’t have a choice.”

“Gouge out your own eyes?” she said softly. “She could make you do that, you know.”

His expression darkened. “So could you, I’m told.”

She looked away. “Kai—Your Majesty—”

He waved his arms through the air. “Kai is fine. I don’t care.”

Cinder pressed her lips. It felt like a victory, but an unearned one. “You have to trust me. We can defeat her. I know we can.”

“How? Even if … let’s say you did. Let’s say you even managed to kill her. There’s still a whole posse of thaumaturges ready to take her place, and from what I’ve seen, they’re not much better.”

“We’ll choose the person to replace her. We … already have her replacement, actually.”

He snickered. “Ah. I see. Because you think the Lunar people will bow to just any … one…” He trailed off, eyes widening. And, for a moment, his anger was gone. “Unless … wait. You don’t mean…?”

She looked at the floor.

He took a single step toward her. “Did you find her? Princess Selene? Is that what this is all about?”

Cinder took the pliers out of her pocket, needing something to fiddle with while her nerves sparked and sputtered. She remembered that her metal hand was still bare, but Kai hadn’t glanced at it once through the whole argument.

“Cinder?”

“Yeah,” she breathed. “Yeah. I found her.”

Kai pointed toward the cargo bay. “Is it that blonde girl?”

She shook her head, and Kai frowned. “The girl from France? What was her name … Scarlet something?”

“No. Not Scarlet.” She squeezed the pliers, trying to direct all her frazzled energy into them.

“Then where is she? Is she on this ship? Can I meet her? Or is she still on Earth somewhere? Is she in hiding?”

When Cinder said nothing, Kai frowned. “What’s wrong? Is she all right?”

“I have to ask you something, and I want you to be honest.”

His eyes narrowed, instantly suspicious, which bothered her more than she cared to admit. She loosened her grip on the pliers. “Do you really think I brainwashed you before? When we met? And all those times, before the ball…”

His shoulders drooped. “Really? You’re changing the subject to talk about this?”

“It’s important to me.” She turned away and started gathering the tools she’d used to fix Iko. “I understand if you do. I know how it must have looked.”

Kai fidgeted with his ceremonial sash, then, after a moment, pulled it over his head and bunched it up in his fists. “I don’t know. I never wanted to believe it, but I’ve had to wonder. And when you fell, and I saw your glamour … Cinder, do you have any idea how beautiful your glamour is?”

Cinder cringed, knowing that he didn’t mean it as a compliment. Painful to look at were the words he’d used at the time.

“No,” she said, distracting herself by returning each tool to its designated place on the magnetic wall. “I can’t see it.”

“Well, it’s … it was a lot to take in that night. But then, Levana has manipulated me plenty of times, so I know what it feels like. And it never felt like that with you.”

She released the last tool.

“Of course, the media wants to think that’s what happened. It would be convenient.”

“Right.” She glanced at him over her shoulder. “A convenient excuse for inviting a cyborg to the ball.”

He blinked. “For inviting a Lunar to the ball.”

The knot that had been tied up in her stomach for weeks began to unravel, just a little. “Not that it makes a difference what I say, but … I never did. Manipulate you, I mean. And I never will.” She hesitated. It was a promise that she didn’t know if she’d be able to keep. Not if he didn’t agree to help them. “And I did try to tell you about being cyborg. I mean, kind of. I’m sure I considered it at least twice.”

Kai started to shake his head and she held her breath. “No, you were right before. If you’d told me, I probably never would have spoken to you again.” He stared down at the sash twisted between his fists. “Although, I like to think I would act differently now.”

He met her gaze and she noticed, with a start, that his ears had gone pink. And then his lips quirked into the faintest of smiles.

It was the smile she’d been waiting for.

It didn’t last long.

“Cinder. Look. I am glad I’m not married right now, but this was still a huge mistake. I can’t risk angering Levana. Whatever you’re planning, you have to leave me out of it.”

“I can’t. I need your help.”

He sighed, but it was shaky, and she could tell his resolve was crumbling.

“You think Selene can overthrow her?”

Biting the inside of her cheek, she nodded. “I do.”

“Then I hope she intends to do it soon.”

Dragging her hands down her sides, Cinder felt nervousness pressing against her rib cage. “Kai, she may not be exactly what you were hoping for. I don’t want you to be disappointed. I know you put a lot into trying to find her and—”

“Why? What’s wrong with her?”

Cringing, she knotted her fingers together. Metal and skin. “Well. She was rescued from that fire, but it destroyed a lot of her body. She lost some limbs. And a lot of her skin had to be grafted. And … she’s just not … entirely whole.”

He furrowed his brow. “What do you mean? Is she in a coma?”

“Not anymore.” She braced herself for his reaction. “But she’s a cyborg.”

His eyes widened, but then his attention was darting around the room as though he couldn’t look at Cinder while he adjusted to that information. “I see,” he said slowly, before meeting her gaze again. “But … is she all right?”

The question caught her by surprise and she couldn’t help a startled laugh. “Oh, yeah, she’s great. I mean, half the people in the world want to kill her and the other half want to chain her to a throne on the moon, which is just what she’s always wanted. So she’s fantastic.”

He stared at her like he was once again questioning her sanity. “What?”

Cinder shut her eyes and tried to bury her mounting panic. Opening them again, she spread her hands, placating. Hesitated.

She looked at the ceiling.

Took in a breath.

Met his gaze again.

“It’s me, Kai. I’m Princess Selene.”

Sixty-One

Kai’s face was made up of confusion, like she’d spoken gibberish. His wedding sash slipped out of his hands and drifted to the floor.

When the silence slipped toward awkward, Cinder cleared her throat. “And in case you weren’t sure, I was being sarcastic before about all that ‘great’ stuff. Not that, I mean—I know you have your own things to worry about, so you don’t need to … I don’t … I’m fine, really. It’s just been a rough few weeks with the whole”—she circled her hands wildly through the air—“Peony-ball-Levana-wedding thing. And now Dr. Erland is dead and Scarlet is gone and Thorne is blind and Wolf … I’m not sure. He’s so still these days and I’m really starting to worry about him. But I’ve got it under control. I can do this. I’m—”

“Stop. Please stop talking.”

She clamped her mouth shut.

The silence dragged on.

Cinder opened her mouth, but Kai held up his hand. She shut it again. Bit her lip.

“You?” he finally said. “You are Princess Selene?”

Grimacing, she rubbed at her wrist. “Surprise?”

“All this time?”

She ducked her head, suddenly uncomfortable at the way he was looking at her. “Um, yeah, technically. Dr. Erland figured it out first, when I was taken in for the cyborg draft. He ran my DNA and … yeah. But he decided not to tell me until I was locked up in prison, which complicated a few things.”

Kai guffawed, but not in a mean way. Inhaling a shaky breath, he rubbed the palms of his hands into his eyes. Then, as quickly as his disbelief had come, the comprehension came faster. “Oh, stars. Levana knows, doesn’t she? That’s why she hates you so much. That’s why she’s so determined to find you.”

“Yeah, she knows.”

“And it was you. This whole time, it was you.”

“You’re actually taking this better than I thought you would.”

He dragged both hands down his face. “No, you know, it almost makes sense. Kind of.” He scraped his gaze over her. “Although … somehow, I always pictured the princess … I don’t know. In a dress.”

Cinder laughed.

“And I always thought that when I found her, it would be so easy. We would just … present her to the world and announce her as the true queen, and Levana would crawl away to some hole. I never imagined that Levana would already know. That she would be fighting it.”

She quirked an eyebrow. “I’m beginning to think you may not know your fiancée very well.”

He scowled at her. “That’s it, Cinder. No more secrets. I don’t know if I can survive any more big reveals from you, so if you have anything else to tell me, out with it. Right now.”

Cinder rocked back on her heels, pondering.

Cyborg. Lunar. Princess.

No more secrets. No more lies.

Well, just one.

She thought she might be a tiny bit in love with him.

But there was no way she could tell him that.

“I can’t cry,” she whispered instead, hunching her shoulders.

Kai blinked, twice, then scratched his ear and looked away. “I already knew that.”

“What? How?”

“Your guardian may have said something about it. And I … I’ve seen your medical records.”

“My—” Her eyes widened. “You’ve seen … you know…?”

“You were a fugitive and I needed to know more about you and I … I’m sorry.”

She squeezed her eyes shut. She’d seen the diagram of her cyborg implants. Every wire. Every synthetic organ. Every manufactured panel. Thinking about it made her feel nauseous. She couldn’t imagine what someone else would think when they saw it. What Kai must have thought.

“No, it’s all right,” she said. “No more secrets.”

He took a step toward her. “Your eyes … are they really…?”

“Synthetic,” she murmured, when he couldn’t say the word himself.

“And that’s why you can’t cry?”

She nodded, unable to look up at him, even as he came to stand not two steps in front of her. “I don’t need the tear ducts for lubrication, and they were getting in the way of … um.” She tapped a finger against her temple. “I have a retina scanner and display in my eye. It’s like a really small netscreen, so there’s a lot of wiring. Oh, stars, I can’t believe I’m telling you this.” She buried her face in her hands.

“It’s kind of brilliant,” said Kai.

She nearly choked on her own laugh.

Kai reached for her wrists. “Can I see?”

She groaned, knowing that if she had the ability to blush, her face would be as red as his wedding sash.

Mortified and resigned, she let him pull her hands away and struggled to hold his gaze. He stared into her eyes like he could see through to her control panel, but then, after a moment, he shook his head.

“You’d never even know.”

Trying not to fidget, Cinder raised her eyes to the ceiling, hating herself a little bit for what she was about to do. But what did it matter now? He would never again be fooled into thinking she was human.

“Watch the bottom of my left iris,” she whispered. She turned on the retina display, pulling up a newsfeed she’d been watching before they got to New Beijing—news from the African Union. An anchor was talking, but Cinder didn’t bother to turn on the audio.

Kai dipped his head. It took a moment, but then his lips parted. “There’s … is that…?”

“Newsfeed.”

“It’s so small. Just a dot, really.”

“It looks a lot bigger to me.” A tingle traipsed down her spine at how he was studying her, almost in childish awe, and how he was so close, and how he was still holding her wrists.

He seemed to realize it at the same time. His expression changed suddenly, and she knew he wasn’t looking at the retina display anymore, or even her synthetic eyes. He was looking at her.

Her heart pattered.

Kai licked his lips. “I’m sorry I had you arrested. But I’m glad you’re all right.”

“Really? You don’t hate me for … shooting you?”

His lips twitched and he glanced down. Taking her cyborg hand into both of his, he lifted it between them, eyeing the metal fingers. “I don’t remember that medical diagram saying anything about a gun. My security team probably would have found that to be useful information.”

“I like to maintain an air of mystery.”

“I’ve noticed.”

She watched his thumb trace the length of her fingers, finding it hard to breathe, impossible to move. “The hand is new,” she whispered.

“It appears to be excellent craftsmanship.” His voice, too, had dropped.

“It’s plated with one-hundred percent titanium.” She didn’t know why she said it. Hardly knew what she’d said at all.

Bending his head, Kai pressed his lips to her knuckles. The plating had no nerve endings, and yet the touch sent a tingle of electricity along her arm.

“Cinder?”

“Mm?”

He lifted his gaze. “Just to be clear, you’re not using your mind powers on me right now, are you?”

She blinked. “Of course not.”

“Just checking.”

Then he slid his arms around her waist and kissed her.

Cinder gasped, pressing her palms against his chest. Kai pulled her closer.

Seconds later, her brain began registering all the new chemicals flooding her system. INCREASED LEVELS OF DOPAMINE AND ENDORPHINS, REDUCED AMOUNTS OF CORTISOL, ERRATIC PULSE, RISING BLOOD PRESSURE …

Leaning into him, Cinder sent the messages away. Her hands tentatively made their way to his shoulders, before stringing around his neck.

Then, somewhere in the rush of sensations, Cinder’s attention snagged on the retina display, alone against the darkness of her eyelids. At first, it was only a dim, annoyed awareness. But then—

FARAFRAH.

LUNARS.

MASSACRE.

Her eyes snapped open. She pulled herself away.

Kai started. “Wha—”

“I’m sorry.”

She started to tremble, still focused on the newsfeed.

A moment passed in which she was watching the feed with horror, and then Kai cleared his throat. His voice had gone heavy. “No. No, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have—”

“No!” She grabbed his shirt before he could pull away from her. “It’s not—It’s Levana.”

His expression turned cold.

“She’s … she’s retaliated. She attacked…” Cursing, she tore her hands away from Kai, covering her face while she digested the news. A swarm of Lunar soldiers attacked the oasis town not two hours ago, before disappearing into the desert as fast as they’d come. They murdered both the civilians and the Commonwealth soldiers who had been sent to question them.

Pictures flashed across the scene.

Blood. So much blood.

“Cinder—where? Where did she strike?”

“Africa. The town…” She gulped. “The people that helped us.”

Something snapped in her head. Screaming, Cinder reached for the strip of tools, seized a wrench, and threw it at the far wall. It clattered harmlessly to the floor. She grabbed a screwdriver next, but Kai just as quickly lifted it from her hand.

“Has she put forth any demands?” he said, absurdly calm.

She clenched her empty fists. “I don’t know. I just know they’re all dead. Because of me. Because they helped me.” She fell into a crouch, covering her head. Her entire body was burning up with fury.

At Levana.

But mostly at herself. At her own decisions.

Because she’d known this would happen. She’d made the choice anyway.

“Cinder.”

“This is my fault.”

A hand settled on her back. “You didn’t kill them.”

“I might as well have.”

“Did they know the risk they were taking when they helped you? The danger they’d be in?”

She turned her head away from him.

“Maybe they did it because they believed in you. Because they thought the risk was worth it.”

“Is this supposed to be helping?”

“Cinder—”

“You want to know another secret? The biggest secret?” She sat, splaying her legs like a broken doll in front of her. “I’m scared, Kai. I’m so scared.” She thought it might feel better, to say the words out loud, but instead they only made her feel pathetic and weak. She wrapped her arms around her waist. “I’m scared of her, and her army, and what she can do. And everyone expects me to be strong and brave, but I don’t know what I’m doing. I have no idea how to overthrow her. And even if I succeed, I have no idea how to be a queen. There are so many people relying on me, people who don’t even know they’re relying on me, and now they’re dying, all because of some ridiculous fantasy that I can help them, that I can save them, but what if I can’t?”

A headache began to throb against her temples, a reminder that she would be crying right now. If she were normal.

Arms wrapped around her.

Cinder pressed her face against his silk shirt. There was some sort of cologne or maybe soap there—so faint she hadn’t picked up on it before.

“I know exactly how you feel,” Kai said.

She squeezed her eyes shut. “Not exactly.”

“I think pretty close.”

She shook her head. “No, you don’t understand. More than anything, I’m afraid that … the more I fight her and the stronger I become, the more I’m turning into her.”

Sitting back on his heels, Kai pulled away just enough to look into her face without releasing her. “You’re not turning into Levana.”

“Are you sure about that? Because I manipulated your adviser today, and countless guards. I manipulated Wolf. I … I killed a police officer, in France, and I would have killed more people if I’d had to, people in your own military, and I don’t even know if I would feel bad about it, because there are always ways to justify it. It’s for the good of everyone, isn’t it? Sacrifices have to be made. And then there are the mirrors, such a stupid, stupid thing, but they—I’m beginning to get it. Why she hates them so much. And then—” She shuddered. “Today, I tortured her thaumaturge. I didn’t just manipulate her. I tortured her. And I almost enjoyed it.”

“Cinder, look at me.” He cupped her face. “I know you’re scared, and you have every right to be. But you are not turning into Queen Levana.”

“You can’t know that.”

“But I do.”

“She’s my aunt, you know.”

He smoothed back her hair. “Yeah, well, my great-grandfather signed the Cyborg Protection Act. And yet, here we are.”

She bit her lip. Here they were.

“Now, let’s never talk about you being related to her again. Because I’m technically still engaged to her, and that’s really weird.”

Cinder couldn’t help laughing, even exhaustedly, even just to cover up the screaming inside, as he bound her up in his arms again. Her headache began to fade, replaced with the strength of his heartbeat and the way she felt almost delicate when she was pressed up against him like this.

Almost fragile.

Almost safe.

Almost like a princess.

“You won’t tell anyone, will you?” she murmured.

“I won’t.”

“And if it turns out I make a terrible princess?”

He shrugged against her. “The people of Luna don’t need a princess. They need a revolutionary.”

Cinder furrowed her brow. “A revolutionary,” she repeated. She liked that a lot better than princess.

The door zipped open.

Cinder and Kai jumped apart, Kai scrambling to his feet.

Cress, breathless and flushed, paused in the doorway.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “But the newsfeeds—Levana—”

“I know,” said Cinder, forcing herself to stand. “I know about Farafrah.”

Cress shook her head, wild-eyed. “It isn’t just Farafrah. Their ships are swarming Earth, every continent. Thousands of soldiers are invading the cities. Her other soldiers.” She shuddered so hard she had to grasp the door frame. “They’re like animals, like predators.”

“What is Earth doing?” asked Kai, and Cinder recognized his leader voice. “Are we defending ourselves?”

“They’re trying. All six countries have declared a state of war. Evacuations are being ordered, military is assembling—”

“All six?”

Cress pushed her hair off her brow. “Konn Torin has temporarily assumed the role of leader of the Commonwealth … until your return.”

A heavy silence pressed against Cinder’s chest. Then Kai turned to face her, and she could feel the gravity of his emotions without looking at him.

“I think it’s about time you told me about this plan,” he said.

Cinder curled her hands into tight fists. The possibility of their success had seemed so faint that she’d hardly considered what would come next. She’d hoped they would have some time, at least a day or two, but she saw now that there would be no such respite.

War had begun.

“You said yourself that the people of Luna need a revolutionary.” She lifted her chin, holding his gaze. “So I’m going to Luna, and I’m going to start a revolution.”

Acknowledgments

Where, oh where, to begin.

The marvelous team at the Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group continues to amaze me with their brilliance, creativity, and enthusiasm. My editor, Liz Szabla, my publisher, Jean Feiwel, along with Lauren Burniac, Rich Deas, Lucy Del Priore, Elizabeth Fithian, Courtney Griffin, Anna Roberto, Allison Verost, Emily Waters-Curley, Ksenia Winnicki, and no doubt countless others who work tirelessly behind the scenes to bring these books out into the world—you are all awesome. Thank you.

My agency team—Jill Grinberg, Cheryl Pientka, and Katelyn Detweiler—is a constant source of comfort and encouragement. I am so grateful for everything you do.

I’m lucky to have amazing beta readers who have given me priceless feedback on this series since day one. Tamara Felsinger, Jennifer Johnson, and Meghan Stone-Burgess, I really couldn’t do it without you. And thanks to the rest of the UM Girls, who are so clever and hilarious and supportive, and to Tuxedo Mask, for bringing us together.

Thanks to blog readers Melissa Anne and Mark Murata, along with Kasey Andrews, Brittney, Chantalle, Elisabeth, Megan, and Miniwriter12 from Goodreads, who helped me develop the discussion questions for Scarlet, a task no author should have to conquer alone.

Last, but never, ever least, a thousand thank-yous to my husband, my parents, my family, and my friends who have helped me plan launch parties (thanks, Mom!), designed swag (thanks, Leilani!), styled my hair for a book tour (thanks, Chelsea!), kept me from going crazy on said tour (thanks, honey!), and who smile knowingly when I space out during a conversation because I just had a really great idea for The Book. I love you guys.

A

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EIWEL

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RIENDS

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OOK

An Imprint of Macmillan

CRESS.

Copyright © 2014 by Rampion Books, Inc. All rights reserved. For information, address Feiwel and Friends, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

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