Page 30 (2/2)
Barely able to breathe around her hah for warm air to slip between theainst herher up in his arasped as Wolf buried one hand into her mess of curls and kissed her back
BOOK
Three
"Oh, Grand teeth you have!"
Twenty-Four
"Hide" Cinder said the word slowly Tenderly A breathy plea ending in the soft, careful d "Hide Rampion, hide Hide, Rampion Disappear … Fade away … You do not exist… You cannot be seen…"
She was sitting cross-legged on her bunk, in the dark, envisioning the ship that surrounded her The steel walls, the churning engine, the screws and soldered seals that held everything together, the colass of the cockpit s, the closed exit rao bay, the podship dock beneath her feet
Then she i past radars, and the radars re into blackness under the watchful eye of satellite stations
Gracefully dancing between all the other ships that cluttered the solar systeled, beginning at the top of her neck and running down to her tailbone A war every ers and back into her knees Recirculating
She released the air fros, let her ain "Hide, Ra?"
Her eyes popped open In the darkness, all she could see were pinpoints of stars beyond herThey were on the side of Earth opposite fro the ship cloaked in shadow and the vastness of space
Cloaked Hiding Invisible
"Good question," she said, turning her attention up toward the ceiling as had already becoh she kneas ridiculous Iko was not so, was not even the speakers that projected her chipper voice She was every co but the steel and bolts holding the ship together
It was a little disconcerting
"I have no idea what I’lanced out theThere were no ships visible through the small portal, only stars and stars and stars In the distance, a vague purple haze, perhaps soas left off the tail of a co rumbled beneath her feet, soft as a kitten’s purr It reminded her of the way Iko’s fan used to spin extra fast when she was processing infor died down "Still gargantuan"
Cinder untucked her legs, allowing blood back into her foot "That’s orries me I feel like it shouldn’t be this easy The entire Commonwealth military is after us For all we know, they could have elicited the help of other Union militaries by this point too, not to mention Lunars and bounty hunters How many ships have you picked up on our radars?"
"Seventy-one"
"Right--and not one of theot suspicious? Does that see after all Maybe you’re a natural at this Lunar thing"
Cinder shook her head, forgetting that Iko couldn’t see her She wanted to believe she was having an effect, but it felt wrong Lunars had control over bioelectricity, not radio waves She had a suspicious feeling that all this chanting and visualizing was an enormous waste of time
Which left the question: Why hadn’t they been spotted yet?
"Cinder, how long will I have to stay like this?"
Cinder sighed "I don’t know Until we can install another auto-control system"
"And until you find ether The subtle warers had faded, and for once they were colder than the harda ship It’s awful" There was a distinct whine in Iko’s tone "Itback on her cot, Cinder studied the black shadows of the bunk She knew exactly how Iko felt--for the brief ti as the auto-control syste stretched in every direction Like she’d lost touch with her physical body, had detached her brain and was hovering in a nonexistent space between the real and the digital Pity welled up in her for Iko, who had never wanted anything but to beco the hair off her forehead "As soon as it’s safe to get back to Earth, we’ll--"
"Hey, Cinder! Are you watching the net?" Thorne crowded into the doorway, outlined by the energy-saving lights in the hallway "What is this, nap tihts on"
Cinder’s muscles knotted across her shoulders "Can’t you see I’ood one"
Throwing her feet off the bed, Cinder sat up "I’ood work, mate In theabout us on all the channels We’re fa like a maniac at the most important social event of the year" She’d only watched the footage from the ball once--of when she’d lost her foot and crashed down the stairs, landing in a heap of wrinkled silk andhad been plenty