Kai counted one, two, three seconds before he spun around to face Cinder.
"I can't believe you kidnapped me!" he yelled, knowing he should feel guilty about her startled expression but too angry to care. "We're on a spaceship, Cinder. In space!" He pointed at the wall, even though he could not see whether it had a window or not. "I can't be on a spaceship. I have a country to run. I have people who need me. We are on the verge of a war. Do you understand that? War. Where people die. I cannot be up here, messing around with you and your band of misfits! Do you even know that you are housing one of her mutants up there?"
Cinder blinked. "Oh, yeah. That's Wolf. He's harmless. Well, not harmless..." She rolled her eyes.
A hysterical laugh burst out of him before he could rein it in. "I can't—how could—what were you thinking?"
Cinder crossed her arms over her chest in a defiant gesture Kai would have found adorable any other day. "You're welcome," she muttered.
He glowered."Take me back to Earth."
She had one hell of a nerve; he had to admit that.
"I can't do that."
"Cinder—" He let out a huff of a breath. Maybe he was going the wrong way with this. Maybe he needed to be a little gentler.
Already his change of tone was taking effect on Cinder. Caught off guard, she pinched her elbows, and Kai could see she was trying to gather her composure.
"As someone who understands why you did this, and admires your ability to actually accomplish it, I am—pleading with you. Cinder. Please. Take me back."
She filled up her lungs with air, and Kai waited.
"No."
And just like that, Plan B evaporated. Kai dug both hands through his hair.
"When did you become so frustrating?"
She scuffed the toe of her boot against the floor, not meeting his eyes.
"Fine! As your emperor, I command you to return me to Earth. Immediately."
Cinder rocked on her heels. "Kai ... Your Majesty. He was surprised how much the formality from her irritated him.
"You may recall that I'm Lunar. And Lunars are forbidden from being granted citizenship in the Eastern Commonwealth. Therefore ... you're no longer my emperor."
"This isn't a joke."
Her expression morphed, giving away that she'd been stung. "You have no idea how seriously I'm taking this."
"Are you? Do you even know what the consequences are going to be for what you've done?"
"Yes, actually. I know this is a war. I am aware that more people are going to die before this is over. But we didn't have a choice."
Choice.Kai hated that word.
"Your choice was to stay out of the way! Your choice was to do nothing! This is my job, my responsibility. I'm the emperor. Let me handle it." He should've known it wouldn't be that simple.
"By letting you marry her? That's handling it?" That probably hadn't been his smartestchoice, but...
"It's my decision."
"It's a stupid one!"
Kai spun away from her. He caught a glimpse of Cinder's expression-wide eyed for a second, then gone, replaced by sheer annoyance-at him or herself, he couldn't tell.
But the slight change made him think...
"Please," he said, his voice strained as he faced her again.Please let me be wrong."Please tell me this isn't some ... some petty act of jealousy. Please tell me this isn't all because I asked you to the ball, or that time in the elevator, or—"
Cinder's annoyance became more pronounced. "Oh, you can't be serious. I hope you don't really think so little of me."
Ignoring the little sting behind his ribs, Kai looked at her. "Youshotme, Cinder, and then youkidnappedme. I honestly don't know what to think."
"Well, believe it or not, we didn't just do this for you."
I know that. Kai wasn'tthatself-centered.
"We're trying to save the whole world from your power-crazy fiancée. I refuse to let Levana become empress. I refuse to give her free rein over the Commonwealth. But we need more time."
"More time for what? All you've done is make her angrier, so that when she retaliates, her wrath is going to be that much worse. Was that a part of your master plan, or are you just making this up as you go along?" Kai knew he wasn't being fair to her, but the hurt and confusion had tangled together, morphing into an emotion he could barely recognize.
The anger was clear on Cinder's face, and she opened her mouth to tell him something. But then she closed it again.
Swallowed.
"I have a plan, to end this for good. But I need your help."
His help.He liked that more than he would admit. But nowsowasn't the time.
He pinched the bridge of his nose."Cinder. I hate Levana as much as you do. But she's the one pulling the strings here. She has this army ... it's like nothing I've ever seen before. Those little skirmishes that killed sixteen thousand people a couple weeks ago? Laughable compared to what she's really capable of." He really wished he were lying, that it was all a joke, that he could go back to being a boy-not a man, but a boy-whereit was going to be all right.Where he could talk to Cinder like a boy and a girl, where war and marriage alliances and plague didn't exist.
"Plus she has an antidote to letumosis," he continued, "and we desperately need it—you know how much we need it. So while the idea of marrying Levana and crowning her empress makes me want to gouge out my own eyes-" he cringed "I don't have a choice." There was that word again.
"Gouge out your own eyes?" she said softly. The anger had gone. "She could make you do that, you know."
His gut plummeted. "So could you, I'm told." In her own way, she was terrifying.
She looked away. "Kai—Your Majesty—"
He waved his arms through the air. "Kai is fine. I don't care."Not when it comes to you.
But she pressed her lips together, obviously not getting the implication. "You have to trust me. We can defeat her. I know we can."
"How? Even if ... let's say you did. Let's say you even managed to kill her. There's still a whole posse of thaumaturges ready to take her place, and from what I've seen, they're not much better." Not unless she meant...
Kai refused to even acknowledge his theory in his mind, having been tempted by false hope far too often.
"We'll choose the person to replace her. We ... already have her replacement, actually."
He snickered. "Ah. I see. Because you think the Lunar people will bow to just any ... one..." He trailed off, eyes widening.Too many coincidences."Unless ... wait. You don't mean...?"
Cinder stared towards the floor.
Ignoring the boundaries that had been erected between them during the separation, Kai stepped closer to her."Did you find her? Princess Selene? Is that what this is all about?"
Cinder fidgeted with a pair of pliers; the nervous tick was oddly charming. She hadn't covered her metal hand and this seemed to be bothering her-why, he didn't know.
Did you think I would care?
"Cinder?"
"Yeah. Yeah, I found her," she breathed, coming back to Earth-well, space.
Remembering the short girl from earlier, Kai pointed to the cargo bay. "Is it that blonde girl?"
Cinder shook her head. As though they were playing a guessing game, Kai frowned. "The girl from France? What was her name-Scarlet something?"
She squeezed her pliers, as if trying to forget a painful memory. "No. Not Scarlet."
"Then where is she? Is she on this ship? Can I meet her? Or is she still on Earth somewhere? Is she in hiding?"
Cinder said nothing. Kai felt a frown etch onto his face. "What's wrong? Is she all right?"
"I have to ask you something, and I want you to be honest." Why was she avoiding the question?
Suspicion clawed at him, the emotion feeling oddly out of place associated with someone who, not so long ago, he'd thought he could trust. It hurt him and he could tell it hurt Cinder too.
Her death grip on the pliers loosened. "Do you really think I brainwashed you before? When we met? And all those times, before the ball..."
His shoulders drooped, disappointment as well as a hint of embarrassment taking over. "Really? You're changing the subject to talk about this?"
"It's important to me." She turned away and started gathering her tools. Kai watched, slightly fascinated. "I understand if you do. I know how it must have looked."
Kai fidgeted with his ceremonial sash, then, after a moment, pulled it over his head and bunched it up in his fists, needing something to hold onto. "I don't know. I never wanted to believe it, but I've had to wonder."
I don't believe it.
Because it was you.
"And when you fell, and I saw your glamour ... Cinder, do you have any idea how beautiful your glamour is?"
She cringed. Both of them knew that this wasn't a compliment.
You're even more painful to look at than she is.
Wasthatwhat he'd said? He could hardly believe it now.
"No," she said, returning her tools to the wall. "I can't see it."
"Well, it's ... it was a lot to take in that night. But then, Levana has manipulated me plenty of times, so I know what it feels like. And it never felt like that with you."I've never felt that way before.
She released the last tool, seemingly relieved.
"Of course, the media wants to think that's what happened. It would be convenient." Bitterness seeped through his words.
"Right." She glanced at him over her shoulder, a slight frown on her face. "A convenient excuse for inviting a cyborg to the ball."
He blinked. "For inviting a Lunar to the ball." Thecyborgthing was getting ridiculous.
Cinder's expression softened, lightening his heart a little. "Not that it makes a difference what I say-"It does, to me. More than you know."-but ... I never did. Manipulate you, I mean. And I never will." She hesitated, visibly. But even then, Kai couldn't help feeling that this promise was special.
A small thing, just between the two of them.
"And I did try to tell you about being cyborg. I mean, kind of. I'm sure I considered it at least twice."
Kai started to shake his head. He couldn't deny it; he'd believed the stupid prejudice at first. "No, you were right before. If you'd told me, I probably never would have spoken to you again." He stared down at the sash twisted between his fists, wishing the thing he was going to say would be a little less embarrassing. "Although, I like to think I would act differently now."
He felt his ears redden.Smooth.
But then her gaze met his, and he allowed himself a brief smile.
He could tell she'd been waiting for it.
But he could feel it starting to fade.
"Cinder. Look. I am glad I'm not married right now, but this was still a huge mistake. I can't risk angering Levana. Whatever you're planning, you have to leave me out of it."
"I can't. I need your help."
He sighed, unable to hold his resolve together. Not when it came to her.
"You think Selene can overthrow her?"
She bit the inside of her cheek, another adorable tick. "I do."
"Then I hope she intends to do it soon."
Cinder dragged her hands down her sides, her expression nervous. "Kai, she may not be exactly what you were hoping for. I don't want you to be disappointed. I know you put a lot into trying to find her and—"
"Why? What's wrong with her?" Anxiousness knotted his stomach.
Cinder tied her fingers together. She reallywasnervous. "Well. She was rescued from that fire, but it destroyed a lot of her body. She lost some limbs. And a lot of her skin had to be grafted. And ... she's just not ... entirely whole."
He furrowed his brow, mind running through a hundred possibilities at once. "What do you mean? Is she in a coma?"
"Not anymore." She was adorably worried. "But she's a cyborg."
He processed.
Cyborg.
Lunar.
Female.
She couldn't mean...
His eyes glanced around the room, needing to look away from the face that had haunted his dreams for months to adjust to this.
"I see," he told her slowly, finally daring to meet those brown eyes. "But ... is she all right?"
Cinder let out a laugh that bordered on hysterical. "Oh, yeah, she's great. I mean, half the people in the world want to kill her and the other half want to chain her to a throne on the moon, which is just what she's always wanted. So she's fantastic."
He stared at her, not sure whether it was normal to be slightly in love with such a mad woman. "What?"
Cinder shut her eyes, looking like she was trying not to freak out. She opened them again and spread her hands out as if she were going to negotiate with him.I know I have a few big secrets, and I stole your heart, but maybe we can talk our way through?
He almost snorted at the thought.
She seemed to be hesitating. Looking at the ceiling, she took in a breath.
Then she looked into his eyes again, and no amount of trusting her, of knowing her, could have prepared him for what she said next.
"It's me, Kai. I'm Princess Selene."