Cress (The Lunar Chronicles #3) - Marissa Meyer Page 0,141

his personal chambers. He was pacing.

She shivered. She was so close to him, after being a galaxy apart.

“Got him.”

They kept to hallways that she expected to be unoccupied. She found herself continuously glancing at the cameras on the ceilings, but not one of them moved or flashed or indicated that it was turned on, and slowly Cinder’s paranoia began to fade.

Cress had done it. She’d shut down the security system.

Then they rounded a corner into the elevator bank of the north tower and Cinder crashed into a woman.

She stumbled back. “Oh—sorry!”

The woman eyed Cinder. She was a member of the staff, dressed in the same blush-toned top and black pants that they were.

Cinder called up her glamour, turning her cyborg hand into a human one and giving her complexion the same flawless tone as an escort’s. She flashed a smile that she hoped hid her surprise and bowed.

It took a few heartbeats more to realize why she was so startled. Not because they’d run into someone here in the hallway, but because she hadn’t sensed this woman around the corner.

It was a feeling so subtle she’d hardly known she was doing it before—reaching out with her consciousness and lightly touching on the bioelectricity that shimmered off every human being. She’d gotten used to feeling Thorne and Wolf and Jacin and Dr. Erland when they were nearby, their presence like a shadow in her subconscious. It was instinctual, no more difficult than breathing.

But this woman was a blank slate to her. Like Cress, a shell. Like Iko.

“My apologies,” said the woman, returning Cinder’s bow. “This wing of the palace is off-limits to anyone without a crown-issued pass. I must ask you to leave.”

“We have a pass,” said Iko, smiling brightly. “We’ve been asked to check with His Imperial Majesty and see if he requires any refreshments while we wait for the ceremony to begin.” She made to step around the woman, but a palm shot out and pressed against her sternum.

The woman’s serene gaze, though, remained on Cinder.

“You are Linh Cinder,” she said. “You are a wanted fugitive. I am required to alert authorities.”

“Er, sorry, but this is a bad time for me.” Stepping back, Cinder raised her prosthetic hand and fired a tranquilizer dart at the woman’s thigh. It clanged, the tip catching briefly in the fabric of her pants, before it fell to the floor.

That was all the confirmation she needed.

Cinder clenched her jaw and swung for the side of the woman’s head, but the woman ducked and whipped a leg up, her foot catching Cinder in the side.

She grunted and stumbled away, her back crashing into a wall.

With an impassive expression, the woman leaped after her, aiming an elbow for Cinder’s nose. Cinder barely blocked, using the momentum to spin around, locking her elbow around the woman’s neck.

The woman bucked her hips, sending Cinder tumbling over her head. She landed on her back, her vision spotty.

“Iko—she’s a—”

She heard a click and the fighting stalled around her.

Cinder moaned. “An android.”

“I noticed,” said Iko, holding up a control panel studded with snapped wires. “Are you all right?” Iko crouched beside Cinder, her expression a perfect model of concern.

Though she was still panting, Cinder found herself smiling. “You’re the most human android I’ve ever known.”

“I know.” Iko scooped a hand beneath Cinder and helped her sit up. “Your hair is a mess, by the way. Honestly, Cinder, can’t you look presentable for more than five minutes?”

Cinder braced herself on Iko and climbed to her feet. “I’m a mechanic,” she said, an automatic response. She glanced at the woman, whose arms had fallen limp at her sides and whose eyes were staring emptily toward the elevators.

Shaking her head to clear it, Cinder tapped the elevator call button. The screen flashed twice with a warning about a level-one security breach, before turning green. The nearest elevator opened.

Somewhere, many floors underneath the palace, Cress had just given her clearance.

Together, she and Iko dragged the android into the elevator and left her in a corner. Cinder’s hands were shaking so hard with adrenaline she almost pushed the button for the wrong floor. As the doors shut, she pulled the last few bobby pins out of her hair and instead whipped it into a quick, messy ponytail. Five minutes of being presentable had been plenty enough.

In her head, she narrowed her focus down to those two separate dots, merging ever closer.

Herself—gliding up between the tower floors.

And Kai.

* * *

Something was wrong. Thaumaturge Sybil Mira could sense