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He dropped the dust ed his feet into the guard’s boots He raised questionable eyebrows at Wolf

Wolf nodded "Passable"

"Give me at least four more minutes," said Iko

"Got it Two knocks rabbed the guard’s rifle He heard Wolf cracking his knuckles as he slipped back through the door to take up the guard’s post The grilad that, for once, hisin handy

He counted off six seconds before the guard patrolling this portion of the doun held over his shoulder, searching for errant civilians or laborers who should have been working

If the guard looked at hiaze pinned to the horizon, stoic and serious

The guard passed by

Behind the dust mask, Thorne smirked

Cinder wished she had more floor space in which to pace Her nerves were a wreck as she waited to hear froged on the rocking chair She was fidgety too, toying with the drawstring of her freshly cleaned hoodie

"I’m fine," Cinder lied The truth was that she was as tense as a coiled spring, but she didn’t want to talk about it They’d already talked their strategy to death Everything that could go right Everything that could go wrong

The people would answer her call, or they wouldn’t Either way, she was about to show Levana her hand

In the kitchen, Princess Winter was hu since her arrival the evening before She’d dusted, swept, beat rugs, reorganized cabinets, and folded laundry, and done it all with the grace of a butterfly All her as uest

Cinder wasn’t sure what to make of the princess She both adlaift, and she’d too often been terrified to think she was beco more and ift, she couldn’t i on the princess’s sanity

But to write off the princess as ht, either She was quirky and strange and ridiculously charismatic She also seemed to honestly care about the people around her and she showed glience that would have been easy to overlook While she exuded hunorant of her own charms as she pretended to be

She wished she could remember her from when they were children, but all hercoals and seared flesh There was nothing about a friend, a cousin It had never even occurred to her she ht have such a connection from her brief life on Luna--she’d assumed everyone in the palace would be her enemy

A comm popped up on her retina display

Cinder froze, read it, and released a heavy breath "They’re in position The video is set to play onethe end of the workday announce watch No alarms raised--yet"

Cinder placed a hand over her knotted stomach This was the moment all her preparations had been for