Winter (The Lunar Chronicles #4) - Marissa Meyer Page 0,138

of her, now that she was Lunar and a wanted felon. Her reaction confirmed it.

“Why wouldn’t Dad say something?” said Pearl. “Why wouldn’t he tell us?”

“Maybe he knew you’d sell me for ransom the first chance you got.”

Pearl ignored her. “And if you really are the princess, why are you in here?”

Cinder glared at her. Waited. Watched as understanding dawned across Pearl’s face. “She wants to kill you, so she can stay the queen.”

“Give the girl a treat,” Cinder said.

“But what does it have to do with us?” Tears began to pool in Pearl’s eyes. “Why are we being punished? We didn’t do anything. We didn’t know.”

Cinder’s adrenaline and anger were slipping, exhaustion crawling into the spaces they’d left behind. “You gave me your invitations to the royal wedding, which allowed me to kidnap Kai, which drove Levana crazy. Thanks for that, by the way.”

“How can you think only of yourself at a time like this?” Adri snapped. “How can you be so selfish?”

Cinder’s hands curled into fists. “If I don’t take care of myself, nobody will. That’s something I learned early on, thanks to you.”

Adri pulled her daughter closer and smoothed down her hair. Pearl slumped against her without a fight. Cinder wondered if she was in shock. Maybe they both were.

She turned back to the wall and carved a C into the stone. These walls were scored with hundreds of words, names, pleas, promises, threats. She considered adding a “+ K” but the idea of such whimsy made her want to beat her head against the iron door.

“You’re a monster,” Adri whispered.

Cinder smirked, without humor. “Fine. I’m a monster.”

“You couldn’t even save Peony.”

At the mention of her younger stepsister a new bout of rage surged like a thousand sparking wires in Cinder’s head. She spun back. “You think I didn’t try?”

“You had an antidote!” Adri was screaming now too, her eyes wild, though she stayed hunkered over Pearl. “I know you gave it to that little boy. It saved his life. Chang Sunto!” She spat the name like poison. “You chose to save him over Peony. How could you? Did you taunt her with it? Did you give her false hope before you watched her die?”

Cinder gaped at her stepmother, her own anger eclipsed with a surprising jolt of pity. This woman was full of so much ignorance it was almost like she wanted to stay that way. She saw what she wanted, believed anything to support her limited view of the world. Cinder could still remember how she had felt running to the plague quarantines. How she’d desperately clutched the vial of antidote. How she’d been so hopeful she could save Peony’s life, and so devastated when she failed.

She’d been too late. She still hadn’t quite forgiven herself.

Adri would never know, would never understand. To her, Cinder was just a machine, incapable of anything but cruelty.

Five years she had lived with this woman, and never once had she seen Cinder as she was. As Kai saw her, and Thorne and Iko and all the people who trusted her. All the people who knew her.

She shook her head, finding it easier than she’d expected to dismiss her stepmother’s words. “I’m done trying to explain myself to you. I’m done seeking your approval. I’m done with you.”

Kicking at the pile of rock shavings, she jabbed the screwdriver into the wall at the same moment she heard footsteps.

Her jaw tightened. Her time was up. Turning, she reached Adri and Pearl in three long strides. They both shriveled away.

Cinder grabbed the front of Adri’s shirt and pulled her upward.

“If you even think about telling them my foot can be as easily removed as that finger, I will force you to gouge out your own eyes with your fingernails if it is the last thing I do—do you understand me?”

Adri paled and gave a trembling nod before a man’s voice sounded beyond the door.

“Open it.”

Dropping her stepmother back into the corner, Cinder spun back.

The door opened and the cell filled with the corridor’s light, a single guard, Thaumaturge Aimery, plus four additional thaumaturges dressed in a mix of red and black. Five of them. How flattering.

“Her Majesty has requested the pleasure of your company,” said Aimery.

Cinder lifted her chin. “I can’t promise my company will be as pleasant as she expects.”

She strode toward them to show she wasn’t afraid, but suddenly felt herself being thrown against the wall. The pain jolted down her spine, knocking the air from her lungs. It reminded