When he pulled away, though, he was frowning. “Do you really think the neighbor kids will be afraid of me?”
“Definitely,” she said. “But I have a feeling you’ll win them over in the end.”
His eyes crinkled. “I’ll do my best.” Then his smile turned wicked. His hand gathered the material at the small of Scarlet’s back and he fell back on the bed, pulling her down beside him.
“Scarlet! Scar—oh.”
They both froze. Groaning, Scarlet pushed herself up onto her elbows. Iko was half inside her suite, gripping the door handle. Her android body was covered in bandages, which were purely aesthetic, but there weren’t a whole lot of android supply shops on Luna and she’d told Scarlet she was sick of everyone staring at her.
“Sorry! I should have knocked. But you weren’t answering your comms and—” Iko beamed, with more happiness than a person who ran on wires and power cells should have possessed. “Cinder’s awake!”
Ninety-Two
DIAGNOSTICS CHECK COMPLETE. ALL SYSTEMS STABILIZED. REBOOTING IN 3 … 2 … 1 …
Cinder’s eyes sprang open, met with a white ceiling and blinding lights. She jerked upward and hissed at the shock of pain in her chest.
The woman who had been hunkered over Cinder’s hand cried out and fell off her rolling stool, landing hard on the ground. Metal fuse pullers clattered beside her.
Kai jumped up from a chair in the room’s corner and rushed to Cinder’s side, pushing his messy hair out of his eyes. “It’s all right,” he said, supporting Cinder as she pressed both hands against her chest. She could feel a lump of bandaging there, on top of the ache.
She pried her startled attention off the woman—a stranger—and turned to Kai.
Blinked. Noticed first how handsome he looked, and second how exhausted.
A spurt of data began to scroll against her vision in sterile green text.
EMPEROR KAITO OF THE EASTERN COMMONWEALTH
ID #0082719057
BORN 7 APR 108 T.E.
FF 107,448 MEDIA HITS, REVERSE CHRON
POSTED 13 NOV T.E.: IN A STATEMENT RELEASED THIS MORNING, EMPEROR KAITO INFORMED THE PRESS THAT HE HAS DELAYED HIS RETURN TO EARTH FOR AN INDETERMINATE AMOUNT OF TIME, STATING THAT HIS PRESENCE IS NECESSARY AT THIS TIME TO OVERSEE THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE LUNAR CAPITAL—
Cinder squeezed her eyes shut and willed the text to descend out of her vision. She waited for her heart rate to calm before opening her eyes again.
Her lap was draped with a white linen blanket so thin she could see a groove in the fabric where the flesh of her left thigh met the top of her prosthetic leg. Her left hand was splayed out, palm up, on top of the blanket. The palm chamber was open, revealing a multitude of disconnected wires inside.
“What are you doing to my hand?” she croaked.
The woman climbed to her feet and straightened her white lab coat. “Fixing it.”
“Here, drink this.” Kai held out a glass of water. Cinder stared at it for longer than she should have, her brain working through mud, before she took it from him. “This is Dr. Nandez,” Kai said, watching her drink. “She’s one of Earth’s best cybernetic surgeons. I had her flown up yesterday to … to look at you.” His lips tightened, as if he wasn’t sure if he’d overstepped some boundary between them.
Handing the glass back to Kai, Cinder studied the doctor, who stood with her arms crossed, tapping the fuse pullers against her forearm. Cinder reached for the back of her head, where her panel was shut tight.
“I’m not dead?”
“You almost were,” said Kai. “The knife penetrated one of your prosthetic heart chambers, which drove your body into survival mode. That chamber shut down while the rest of your heart was able to keep functioning … more or less.” Kai glanced at the doctor. “Did I get that right?”
“Close enough,” said Dr. Nandez with a weak smile.
Cinder’s heart throbbed with every breath. “My retina display is functioning again.”