hear that, Scarlet,” Wolf said, turning back to her. His voice had lost the edge of regret and was all business and cruelty again. “Because I didn’t come to apologize. I came for something else.”
She straightened. “I don’t care what you—”
He was at her in a single stride, his hands buried in her hair, pressing her against the wall. His mouth stifled her surprised cry, and then an angry scream. She tried to shove him off her but she’d have had no more luck against the iron bars on the door.
Her eyes went wide as she felt his tongue and in a flash of rebellion she thought to bite him, but then there was something else. Something small and flat and hard being pressed into her mouth. Every muscle went taut.
Wolf pulled away. His grip softened, cradling her head. His scars were a blur in her vision. She couldn’t find her breath.
And then he murmured, so quiet she could barely catch the words even as they steamed against her lips. “Wait until morning,” he said. “The world won’t be safe tonight.”
Wolf focused on his own fingers as they took a red curl between them. He flinched, as if touching her pained him.
Indignation returning, Scarlet swiped him away and darted beneath his arm. She fled to the corner of the room and crouched down on the bed. Covering her mouth with one hand, she smashed the other against the wall for balance.
She waited, her entire body aflame, until Wolf slinked out of the room. The bars opened and shut.
Outside, the guard snickered. “I suppose we all have our thing,” he said, and then their footsteps padded down the corridor.
Slumping against the wall, Scarlet spit the foreign object into her palm.
A small ID chip winked up at her.
BOOK
Four
“The better to eat you with, my dear.”
Thirty-Five
“She’s going to be fine, you know.”
Cinder jumped, startled from a reverie. Thorne was piloting the small podship into Rieux, France, and Cinder was somewhat amazed they hadn’t crashed and died yet.
“Who’s going to be fine?”
“That Émilie girl. You shouldn’t feel bad about knocking her out with your Lunar mind-trick thing. She’ll probably be extra refreshed when she wakes up.”
Cinder screwed up her mouth. Her thoughts had been so preoccupied with finding a power cell and making it back to Iko before anyone else showed up on the farm that she’d hardly thought of the blonde girl they’d left behind. Oddly enough, once she’d made the decision to glamour the girl into trusting them, all the doubt and guilt she’d felt about it had faded away. It had seemed so natural, so easy, so clearly the right thing to do.
The ease of it frightened her more than the lack of guilt. If it was so natural for her, after only a few days of practicing her new gift, how could she ever survive against a thaumaturge? Or the queen herself?
“I just hope we’re long gone before she wakes up,” she muttered. Returning her focus to the window, Cinder redid her ponytail in the ghost reflection. She could vaguely make out her brown eyes and plain features. She tilted her head, wondering what she looked like with her glamour. She would never know, of course. Mirrors couldn’t be fooled by glamours. But Thorne had sure seemed impressed, and Kai …
You’re even more painful to look at than she is.
His words made her whole body feel heavy.
The town came into focus beneath them and Thorne made a too-fast descent. Jolting, Cinder grabbed for the harness around her waist.
Thorne straightened the ship and coughed. “There was a gust of wind.”
“Sure there was.” She let her head fall against the rest.
“You’re extra gloomy today,” Thorne said, nicking her chin. “Cheer up. We may not have found Michelle Benoit, but now we know for sure that she housed the princess. This is good. This is progress.”
“We found a ransacked house and were identified by the first civilian who spotted us.”
“Yeah, because we’re famous.” He sang the word with a certain measure of pride. When Cinder rolled her eyes, he nudged her in the arm. “Oh, come on, it could be worse.”
She quirked an eyebrow at him and his grin broadened.
“At least we have each other.” He held out his arms, like he would have given her a huge hug if they hadn’t been strapped into their seats. The nose of the ship tipped to the right and he quickly grasped the controls again, leveling it out just in time to dodge a flock