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Cinder found the vid-cable disconnected fro; it must have come loose when Adri had knocked it off the wall Cinder screwed it in and a flood of blue light splattered across the floor "There we are," she said, righting the screen
She jolted back when she saw the girl on the other side of the connection She est, waviest, olden nest around her head was tied in a big knot over one shoulder and cascaded in a juirl’s arirl was fidgeting with the ends, fervently winding and unwinding theers
If it weren’t for the mess of hair, she would have been pretty She had a sweet heart-shaped face, giant sky-blue eyes, and a sprinkle of freckles across her nose
She was soirl looked equally surprised at seeing Cinder and her cyborg hand and dreary T-shirt
"Who are you?" the girl asked Her eyes darted behind Cinder, taking in the di and the chicken wire "Why aren’t you at the palace?"
"I wasn’t allowed to go," Cinder answered She squinted at the roo at a home on the irl was surrounded by metal walls and machines and screens and coo ship’s cockpit
Cinder folded her legs, letting her footless calf dangle irl’s eyes fluttered, as if caught off guard by the question Instead of answering, she leaned forward "I need to speak with soht away"
"Then why don’t you coirl’s shriek was so unexpected, so desperate that Cinder nearly fell over "I don’t have a global coet down to Earth!"
"So you are Lunar"
The girl’s eyes widened to near perfect circles "That’s not--"
"Who are you?" said Cinder, her voice raising "Are you working for the queen? Are you the one who installed the chip in that android? You are, aren’t you?"
The girl’s eyebrows drew together, but rather than looking irritated at Cinder’s questions, she appeared frightened Even ashaht of questions and took in a slow breath before asking, steadily, "Are you a Lunar spy?"
"No! Of course not! I mean…well…sort of"
"Sort of? What do you irl clenched her hands together, as if fighting an internal battle "Yes, I progra for the queen, but it’s not what you think I’ve programmed all the spyware that Levana’s used to watch Emperor Rikan these past months, but I didn’t have a choice Mistress would kill me if…stars above, she will kill me when she finds out about this"
"Mistress who? You ht, her face contorted with pain When she opened her eyes again, they were glistening "No Mistress Sybil She is Her Majesty’s head thaued in Cinder’s head Kai had suspected the queen’s thau the chip in Nainsi in the first place
"But she’sto her but a prisoner and a sla-ave" She hiccupped on the last word and buried her face in a bundle of hair, sobbing "I’irl"
Cinder felt her heart tug in syuardian," but she couldn’t recall ever being afraid that Adri ht actually kill her Well, other than that tiue research
She clenched her jaw against the irl was Lunar She had helped Queen Levana spy on Eirl was onlyher emotions now, before she reh the netscreens
Blowing some hair out of her face, Cinder leaned forward and yelled, "Stop it! Stop crying!"
The crying stopped The girl peered up at her with big, watery eyes
"Why were you trying to get a hold of the palace?"
The girl shrank back and sobbed, but the tears seee to Eer, all of Earth…Queen Levana…and it’s all ht, this wouldn’t have happened It’s all ?" said Cinder before the girl could dissolve into hysterics again "You need to get a hold of yourself What do you ed herself, her eyes pleading with Cinder as if she alone could offer forgiveness "I’ into netlinks and security systeance on her wavering voice "For the last few years, Mistress has been asking me to connect feeds from Earth’s political leaders to Her Majesty’s palace At first, it was just court discussions,Her Majesty wasn’t learning anything that your emperor hadn’t already told her, so I didn’t think irl twisted her hair around both sets of knuckles "But then she asked ram a D-COMM chip that she could install in one of the royal androids, thinking then she could spy on the emperor outside of the netlinks" She raised her eyes to Cinder Guilt was scrawled across her face "If it had been any other android, any android in the entire palace, she still wouldn’t know anything But now she does know! And it’s all my fault!" She whi
"Wait," Cinder held up her hand, trying to slow the girl’s rapid words "What exactly does Levana know?"
The girl pulled the hair out as tears started to slip down her cheeks "She knows everything that android knew, everything she’d been researching She knows that Princess Selene is alive and that Prince--I’ for her She knows that the emperor wanted to find the princess and instate her as the true Lunar queen"