Cress (The Lunar Chronicles #3) - Marissa Meyer Page 0,145
gestured at the unconscious wedding coordinator, then waved her hand like shaking it off. “But she’ll be fine, I swear. Maybe a little nauseous when she comes to, but otherwise … And your android … Nainsi, right? I had to disable her. And her backup processor. But any mechanic can return her to defaults in about six seconds, so…” She rubbed anxiously at her wrist. “Oh, and we ran into your captain of the guard in the hallway, and a few other guards, and I may have scared him and he’s, um, unconscious. Also. But, really, they’ll all be just fine. I swear.” Her lips twitched into a brief, nervous smile. “Um … hello, again. By the way.”
“Ugh,” said the other girl, rolling her eyes. “That was painful.”
Cinder shot her a glare, but then the girl took a single step toward Kai and dipped into a graceful bow. “Your Imperial Majesty. It is such a pleasure to see you again.”
He said nothing.
Cinder said nothing.
Torin, half positioned between Kai and Cinder, said nothing.
Finally the girl lifted her head. “Anytime now, Cinder.”
Cinder jumped. “Right. Sorry.”
She took a tentative step forward and looked about to speak again, but Kai finally found his voice.
“Are you insane?”
Cinder paused.
“Do you—are you—Queen Levana is in this palace. She’ll kill you!”
She blinked. “Yes. I know.”
“Which is why we need to stop wasting time,” the girl muttered under her breath.
Kai frowned at her. “Who are you?”
She brightened. “Oh, I’m Iko! You may not remember me, but we met at the market that day you brought in the android, only I was about this tall”—she held her hand at hip height—“and shaped kind of like an enormous pear, and significantly more pale.” She batted her eyelashes.
Kai returned his attention to Cinder.
“She’s right,” said Cinder. “We need to leave, now. And you’re coming with us.”
“I’m what?”
“He will do no such thing,” said Torin. He started to move toward Cinder, but then his foot stalled midair and reversed. Suddenly he was stepping over Priya, walking backward until the backs of his knees hit a settee and he sank down onto the cushion.
Kai gaped at him, beginning to think this was all some bizarre anxiety dream.
“I’m sorry,” said Cinder, holding up her cyborg hand. “But I have one more tranquilizer and, if you try to interfere, I’m afraid I’ll have to use it on you.”
Torin glared at her, putting as much seething hatred into the look as Kai had ever seen.
“Kai, I need to remove your ID chip.”
He faced her again and felt—for the first time—a twinge of fear. Something clicked and he glanced down to see her ejecting a short knife from one of her fingers.
She was cyborg. This he’d almost gotten used to.
But she was also Lunar, and while he’d known that for just as long, he’d never before seen her act Lunar. Not so blatantly. Not until now.
Cinder took a step toward him.
He took a step back.
She paused, hurt flickering in her eyes. “Kai?”
“You shouldn’t have come back here.”
She licked her lips. “I know how this must look, but I’m asking you to trust me. I can’t let you marry her.”
He let out an abrupt laugh. The wedding. He’d almost forgotten about it, and he was the one in groom’s clothes. “It’s not your decision to make.”
“I’m making it anyway.” She moved forward again, and with another step back, Kai found himself pressed against a small table. Cinder’s gaze dipped down and her eyes widened.
Kai followed the look.
Her foot was on the table. The child-size foot that had fallen off on the garden steps, its plating dented and the joints packed with dirt. He’d taken it out of his office when the security team had done the sweep for Levana’s spy equipment.
His ears grew hot, and he felt as if he’d just been caught hoarding something strange and overtly intimate. Something that didn’t belong to him.
“You, uh…” He gestured halfheartedly. “You dropped that.”
Cinder peeled her attention away from the foot and met his gaze, speechless. He couldn’t begin to guess what she was thinking. He didn’t even know what it meant that he’d kept it.
The other girl, Iko, cupped her chin with both hands. “This is so much better than a net drama.”
Cinder briefly lowered her gaze to compose herself, then held her hand toward him. “Please, Kai. We don’t have much time. I need your wrist.” Her voice was gentle and kind, and somehow that gave him greater pause than anything. Lunars—always so convincingly gentle, so deviously kind.