What had the doctor done to her?
“Did she hit her head?” Kai asked.
The twitching stopped. Cinder pressed her hands against her body in an instinctual effort to hide them.
“Oh, she’s fine,” Dr. Erland said again. “Had a bit of a scare—but no harm done. I am sorry for that, Miss Linh. I didn’t realize you would be so sensitive.”
“What did you do?” she said, careful not to slur her words.
Kai slipped an arm beneath her and helped her sit up. She flinched against him and tugged down her pant leg in case the metal gleam of her shin was visible.
“I was merely adjusting your spine.”
Cinder squinted at the doctor, not needing the little orange light to tell her he was lying, but it popped up anyway.
“What’s wrong with her spine?” Kai’s hand slid down to her lower back.
Cinder sucked in a breath, a shiver racing along her skin. She feared the pain would come back, that the prince’s touch would somehow override her system like Dr. Erland’s had—but nothing happened, and soon Kai lessened the pressure of his touch.
“Nothing is wrong with it,” said Dr. Erland. “But the spinal region is where many of our nerves congregate before sending messages up to our brains.”
Cinder watched Dr. Erland with wild eyes. She could already imagine how quickly Kai would pull away from her when the doctor told him he was supporting a cyborg.
“Miss Linh was complaining of a bothersome pain in her neck…”
She squeezed her fists together until her fingers began to ache.
“…and so I gave her a bit of an adjustment. It’s called chiropractic, a very old practice, and yet amazingly effective. She must have been more out of alignment than I realized, and so the sudden realigning of the vertebrae created a temporary shock to her system.” He grinned at the prince, eyes devoid of concern. The orange light persisted.
Cinder gaped, waiting for the doctor to continue, to move past his inane lie and start telling the prince all of her secrets. She was a cyborg, she was immune to the plague, she was his new favorite guinea pig.
But Dr. Erland said nothing else, only smiled at her with mischievous eyes that filled her with suspicion.
Feeling Kai’s gaze upon her, Cinder turned to him, meaning to shrug as if Dr. Erland’s explanation made no more sense to her than it did to him, but the intensity of Prince Kai’s gaze snatched away her words.
“I hope he’s telling me the truth, because it would be a shame for you to die when we’ve just had the pleasure of meeting.” His eyes glinted, as if sharing a secret joke, and she forced the fakest laugh she’d ever heard from her own lips. “Are you all right?” he said, taking her hand into his—one arm still around her back. “Can you stand?”
“I think so.”
He helped her to her feet. Not a sign of the excruciating pain remained.
“Thank you.” She backed away from him, brushing herself off, even though the lab floor was immaculate. Her thigh bumped the exam table.
“What are you doing here?” he asked, hands falling to his sides and hanging awkwardly for a second before finding their way into his pockets.
Cinder opened her mouth, but was interrupted by Dr.
Erland clearing his throat.
“You two have met?” he asked, bushy eyebrows disappearing into his cap.
Kai answered. “We met yesterday. At the market.”
Cinder shoved her hands into her pockets, mirroring Kai, and discovered the wrench. “I’m, um, here…because…uh—”
“One of the med-droids was acting up, Your Highness,” interrupted Dr. Erland. “I requested that she come take a look at it. Her mechanic business has exceptional ratings.”
Kai began to nod, but stopped and scanned the room. “What med-droid?”