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She’d known for less than twenty-four hours Dr Erland, who had known for weeks, decided to infor her bloodline only after Queen Levana had recognized her at the annual ball and threatened to attack Earth if Cinder wasn’t thrown into jail for being an illegal Lunar erant

So Dr Erland had sneaked into her prison cell and given her a new foot (hers had fallen off on the palace steps), a state-of-the-art cyborg hand with fancy gadgets that she was still getting used to, and the biggest shock of her life He’d then told her to escape and come meet him in Africa, like that would be noa new processor on a Gard39

This order, siiven her so to focus on other than her newfound identity Good thing too because when she dwelled on that, her entire body had a tendency to seize up, leaving her useless, and this was a bad tiardless of what she would do when she got out, she was sure of one thing: not escaping meant certain death when Queen Levana caain If she had a close destination inspaceship at that, it could be the key to her escape

He was still twiddling his thu her command--just leave me alone The words had been fire in her mouth when she’d said them, while her blood had boiled and her skin had burned The sensation of overheating was a side effect of her new Lunar gift--powers that Dr Erland had ed to unlock after a device i theic to her, it was really a genetic trait Lunars were born with that allowed the creatures They could trick people into seeing things that weren’t real or experiencing s they wouldn’t otherwise do Without argu how to use this "gift" and she wasn’t entirely sure how she’d ed to control Carswell Thorne, just as she wasn’t sure how she’d uards to move her to a more convenient cell All she kneas that she’d wanted to strangle this inift had surged at the base of her neck, spurred on by stress and nerves She’d lost control of it for a moment and in that breath Thorne had done precisely what she’d wanted hiuilt had been instantaneous She didn’t knohat kind of effect it had on a person, all that brain manipulation And, more than that, she didn’t want to be one of those Lunars who took advantage of her powers just because she could She didn’t want to be Lunar at all

She huffed, blowing a strand of hair away froh the hole that had been created when she’d pried the urinal out of the wall

He looked up as she came to a halt before hih she hated to adirl happened to like that square-jaw, bright-blue-eyes, devilish-dih he was in desperate need of a haircut and a good shave

She took in a stabilizing breath "I forced you to do what I wanted you to do, and I shouldn’t have It was an abuse of power and I’m sorry"

He blinked down at her er joint "Are you the saly clear, even with his heavy American accent For some reason, she’d expected him to slur his words after the brain manipulation

"Of course I am"

"Oh" His brow furrowed "You see, Cinder considered retracting her apology, but instead crossed her arms over her chest "Cadet Thorne, was it?"

"Captain Thorne"

"Your records say you were a cadet when you deserted"

He frowned, still puzzled, before he brightened and cocked a finger toward her "Portscreen in the head?"

She bit the inside of her cheek

"Well, if you wanted to be technical about it," he said "But I’m a captain now I prefer the sound of it Girls are estured toward the mechanical room on the other side of the wall "I’ve decided you can come with me if we can make it to your ship Just … try not to talk too"It was hing, she retreated through the hole, careful to step over the disconnected pluht? From the American military?"

"I don’t like to think of it as ‘stolen’ They have no proof that I didn’t plan on giving it back"

"You’re kidding, right?"

He shrugged "You have no proof either"

She squinted back at hi it back?"

"Maybe"

An orange light blinked on in the corner of Cinder’s vision--her cyborg prograht," she muttered "Is the ship traceable?"

"Of course not Reo"

"Good Which re up her hand, she retracted the screwdriver and, after two attempts, released the stiletto knife "We need to remove your ID chip"

He drew half a step back

"Don’t tell me you’re squeah, cuffing his left sleeve "It’s just … is that thing sterilized?"

Cinder glowered