“Uh … Cinder?”
“Europe.” She pressed her back into the crate, forcing herself to sit straight, to feign certainty. “We’re going to Europe.”
A brief silence. “Any reason in particular?”
She met his gaze and pondered a long moment, before choosing her words. “Do you believe in the Lunar heir?”
Thorne propped his chin on both palms. “Of course.”
“No, I mean, do you believe she’s still alive?”
He peered at her as if she were being cute. “Because it was so vague the first time. Yes, of course I think she’s alive.”
Cinder drew back. “You do?”
“Sure. I know some people think it’s all conspiracy theories, but I’ve heard that Queen Levana was really paranoid for months after that fire, when she should have been ecstatic because she was finally queen, right? It’s like she knew the princess had gotten away.”
“Yeah, but … those could only be stories,” Cinder said, not knowing why she was trying to dissuade him. Perhaps because she’d never believed any of it, until she’d known the truth.
He shrugged. “What does this have to do with Europe?”
Cinder shifted to face him more fully, crisscrossing her legs. “There’s a woman who lives there, or at least, she used to live there. She used to be in their military. Her name is Michelle Benoit, and I think she might be connected to the missing princess.” She took in a slow breath, hoping she hadn’t said anything that could give her secret away.
“Where did you hear this?”
“An android told me. A royal android.”
“Oh! Kai’s android?” Iko said, excitedly changing the screen to one of Kai’s fan pages.
Cinder sighed. “Yes, His Majesty’s android.”
Unbeknownst to her at the time, her cyborg brain had recorded every word that the android, Nainsi, had spoken, as if it had known that Cinder would someday need to draw on this information again.
According to Nainsi’s research, a Lunar doctor named Logan Tanner had brought Cinder to Earth when she was still a child, after Levana’s murder attempt had failed. He’d eventually been incarcerated in a psychiatric hospital and committed suicide, but not before passing her off to someone else. Nainsi had thought that someone else was an ex–military pilot from the European Federation.
Wing Commander Michelle Benoit.
“A royal android,” Thorne said, showing the first sign of speculation. “And how did it get this information?”
“That, I have no idea. But I want to find this Michelle Benoit and see if it was right.”
And hope that Michelle Benoit had some answers that Dr. Erland didn’t. Perhaps she could tell Cinder about her history, about those eleven long years lost to her memory, about her surgery and the surgeons and Linh Garan’s invention that had kept Cinder from using her Lunar gift until Dr. Erland had disabled it.
Perhaps she had her own ideas about what Cinder should do next. Ideas that left her some choices for the rest of her life.
“I’m in.”
She started. “You are?”
“Sure. This is the biggest unsolved mystery of the third era. There’s got to be someone out there offering a reward for finding this princess, right?”
“Yeah, Queen Levana.”
Thorne tilted toward her, nudging her with his elbow. “In that case, we already have something in common with the princess, don’t we?” He winked, setting Cinder’s nerves on edge. “I just hope she’s cute.”
“Could you at least try to focus on the important things?”
“That would be important.” Thorne pulled himself up with a groan, still sore from all the rearranging. “Hungry? I think there’s a can of beans in there calling my name.”