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“Your Highness,” she stalad that he couldn’t see her empty ankle behind the tablecloth

The prince flinched and cast a glance over his shoulder before hunching toward her “Maybe, uhness stuff?”

Wide-eyed, Cinder forced a shaky nod “Right Of course How—can I—are you—” She sed, the words sticking like bean paste to her tongue

“I’ for a Linh Cinder,” said the prince “Is he around?”

Cinder dared to lift one stabilizing hand froher on her wrist Staring at the prince’s chest, she stammered, “I-I’m Linh Cinder”

Her eyes followed his hand as he planted it on top of the android’s bulbous head

“You’re Linh Cinder?”

“Yes, Your High—” She bit down on her lip

“The mechanic?”

She nodded “How can I help you?”

Instead of answering, the prince bent down, craning his neck so that she had no choice but to rin at her Her heart winced

The prince straightened, forcing her gaze to follow him

“You’re not quite what I was expecting”

“Well you’re hardly—what I—uaze, Cinder reached for the android and pulled it to her side of the table “What seehness?”

The android looked like it had just stepped off the conveyer belt, but Cinder could tell from the n was sleek, though, with a spherical head atop a pear-shaped body and a glossy white finish

“I can’t get her to turn on,” said Prince Kai, watching as Cinder exa fine one day, and the next, nothing”

Cinder turned the android around so its sensor light faced the prince She was glad to have routine tasks for her hands and routine questions for her et flustered and lose control of her brain’s net connection again “Have you had problems with her before?”

“No She gets a monthly checkup from the royal mechanics, and this is the first real problem she’s ever had”

Leaning forward, Prince Kai picked up Cinder’s s it curiously over in his pal as he peered into the wire-filled cavity, fiddled with the flexible joints of the toes He used the too-long sleeve of his sweatshirt to polish off a se

“Aren’t you hot?” Cinder said, instantly regretting the question when his attention returned to her

For the briefest ,” he said, “but I’ to be inconspicuous”

Cinder considered telling hiht better of it The lack of a throng of screa her booth was probably evidence that it orking better than she suspected Instead of looking like a royal heartthrob, he just looked crazy

Clearing her throat, Cinder refocused on the android She found the nearly invisible latch and opened its back panel “Why aren’t the royalher?”

“They tried but couldn’t figure it out So her to you” He set the foot down and turned his attention to the shelves of old and battered parts—parts for androids, hovers, netscreens, portscreens Parts for cyborgs “They say you’re the bestan old man”

“Do they?” she murmured

He wasn’t the first to voice surprise Most of her custoirl could be the best mechanic in the city, and she never broadcast the reason for her talent The fewer people who knew she was cyborg, the better She was sure she’d go mad if all the market shopkeepers looked at her with the sa Sacha did

She nudged some of the android’s wires aside with her pinkie “Sorade to a new model”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that She contains top-secret information It’s a matter of national security that I retrieve it…before anyone else does”

Fingers stalling, Cinder glanced up at him

He held her gaze a full three seconds before his lips twitched “I’ Nainsi was my first android It’s sentimental”

An orange light flickered in the corner of Cinder’s vision Her optobionics had picked up on soh she didn’t knohat—an extra s, a too-quick blink, a clenching of the prince’s jaw