“I thought that might be the case.”
“Are you mad that I didn’t tell you?”
A long silence followed, tying Cinder’s stomach in knots.
“No,” Iko said, finally, and Cinder wished that her lie detector worked on androids—or spaceships. “But I’m worried. Before, I figured that Queen Levana would tire of searching for us, and eventually we’d be able to go home, or at least go back to Earth and live normal lives again. But that’s never going to happen, is it?”
Cinder gulped and started flipping the chip over her fingers again. “I don’t think so.”
Click, click, click.
She exhaled a long breath and flipped the chip one last time, clutching it in her fist.
“Levana’s going to murder Kai after they’re married. She’ll be coronated as empress, and then she’ll kill him, and she’ll have the entire Commonwealth under her control. After that, it will only be a matter of time before she invades the rest of the Union.” She swept her hair off her forehead. “At least, that’s what this girl told me. The queen’s programmer.”
She loosened her grip, suddenly afraid that her metal fist would crush the chip while she was distracted.
“But I like Kai.”
“You and every other girl in the galaxy.”
“Every girl? Are you finally including yourself in that count?”
Cinder bit her lip. She knew Iko was thinking back to all the times Cinder had teased Peony for her hopeless crush on the prince, pretending to be immune to such silliness herself. But that all seemed a long, long time ago. She could hardly remember the girl she was back then.
“I just know that I can’t let him marry Levana,” she said, her voice snagging. “I can’t let him go through with it.”
She held up the chip between her thumb and forefinger. Her new hand still felt too new. So clean, so untarnished. She squinted and let the electric current flow from her spine, warming up her wrist until the hand looked human. Skin and bone.
“I concur,” said Iko. “So what are you going to do?”
Cinder gulped and let the glamour change. The flesh of her hand became metal again—not flawless titanium, but plain steel, battered with age, grime caked into the crevices, a little too small, a little too stiff. The cyborg hand she’d replaced. The one she’d always hidden—usually with heavy, work-stained cotton. Once with silk.
The girl she’d been back then. The one she’d always tried to keep hidden.
An orange light blinked at the corner of her eye. She ignored it.
“I’m going to let Wolf train me. I’m going to become stronger than she is.” She flipped the chip again. It was awkward at first, making sure the fingers in the illusion moved just how they were supposed to, that the joints flexed and moved at the right time. “I’m going to find Dr. Erland, and he’s going to teach me how to win against her. Then I’m going to track down the girl who programmed this chip, and she’s going to tell me everything she knows about Luna and its security and all the queen’s secrets.”
Click. Click. Click.
“And then I’m going to stop hiding.”
Acknowledgments
It’s amazing how many people it takes to bring a book into the world, and this one is no exception.
First and foremost, I want to thank my four spectacular beta readers for their brilliance, patience, enthusiasm, and all-around awesomeness: Jennifer Johnson, Tamara Felsinger, Meghan Stone-Burgess, and Whitney Faulconer, you make me a better writer.
To my wonderfully supportive editor, Liz Szabla, and everyone at Feiwel and Friends, thank you for making each step of this journey so much fun. Rich Deas, Jean Feiwel, Elizabeth Fithian, Lizzie Mason, Anna Roberto, Allison Verost, Holly West, Ksenia Winnicki, Jon Yaged, and countless others who have had an impact on these books, you are rock stars and I am so proud to be a part of your publishing family.
To my agency team, Jill Grinberg, Cheryl Pientka, and Katelyn Detweiler, who have worked relentlessly to get these books into the hands of readers all over the world, thank you for continuously making me feel like the luckiest author on the planet.
I’d like to give special thanks to my editor at Pocket Jeunesse in France, Xavier D’Almeida, who agreed to look at an early draft and check for authentic setting details, helped choose the perfect location for Benoit Farms, and also saved me from poisoning the poor chickens, thank heavens.
To my 2012 debut kindred spirits, the Apocalypsies, and particularly, my local writing group: J. Anderson Coats, Megan Bostic, Marissa Burt, Daniel Marks, and Jennifer Shaw Wolf, thanks for making this year rock. I look forward to watching your writing careers flourish for many years to come.
I give all the gratitude in the world to my friends and family who have been with me every step of the way, to my brother, Jeff, for loaning me all those books on spaceships, and to my wonderful husband, Jesse—one year into our happily ever after and counting.
And last, but never least, I heartily thank all the readers, teachers, booksellers, librarians, reviewers, and bloggers who keep the love alive.
About the Author
Marissa Meyer’s first book in the Lunar Chronicles, Cinder, debuted on the New York Times bestseller list and has won her many fans, all of whom eagerly await Scarlet. Marissa lives in Tacoma, Washington, with her husband and their three cats. Visit her blog at www.marissameyer.com.
