Levana agreed to a cease-fire,” said Wolf, “but we’re waiting to hear if it’s been implemented.” “Also, Cress destroyed me in a game of Mountain Miners,” said Iko. Thorne nodded, as if these two announcements carried the same weight. “She is a genius.” Cress.
Konn Torin bowed to her. Diplomatic respect, Cinder thought, remembering all the many glares she’d received from this man since she’d first seen him at the annual ball. But when he raised his head, he was smiling. In fact, he seemed downright friendly.
Cinders. Embers. Ashes.
I knew you liked him. You pretend to be immune to his charms, but I could see the way you looked at him at the market.” Iko rubbed at the lipstick, smearing it across her blank white chin. “Yeah, well.” Cinder pinched her metal fingers with the pliers’ nose. “We all have our weaknesses.” “I know,” said Iko. “Mine is shoes.
Maybe her programming was overwhelmed by Prince Kai’s uncanny hotness.
It was unnerving, to think she was being psychoanalyzed by someone who frequently complained that the castle walls had started bleeding again.
It seems that you’ve stumbled into the wrong jail cell. Do you need directions to get back to yours?” She blinked. Thorne smiled. The girl frowned. Her irritation made her prettier, and Thorne cupped his chin, studying her. He’d never met a cyborg before, much less flirted with one, but there was a first time for everything.
The hall was filled with doctors, nurses, androids, officials, technicians, and they all fell into an awkward hush and stared at the prince and the girl in the baggy cargo pants he was flirting with. Flirting.
Estimated time of arrival is nine minutes, thirty-four seconds. Which, by my estimation, is enough time for Cinder to be defeated and embarrassed in seven more brawls.” Cinder glared up at the ceiling. “Also just enough time to disconnect your audio device.
A confidence that glimmered. Though her station was beneath the head thaumaturge, her posture and faint smile seemed to indicate that she didn’t much believe herself to be beneath anyone at all. Levana liked her immediately.
Channary did not like to take the elevators. She had once told Levana that she felt queenly having to lift her skirts as she went up and down the stairs. It had taken all of Levana’s efforts not to ask if that was the same reason she lifted her skirts all those other times too.
Now I understand why you’ve been so immune to my charms. I had no idea I was competing with an emperor. That’s a tough hand to beat, even for me.
Her soldiers? You mean, her mutant wolf soldiers? Are you insane?” Winter started to giggle. “I might as well be,” she said, placing a hand on Thorne’s cheek. “For everyone tells me so.
We were just discussing Earth’s relationship with Luna when you deigned to join us.” Kai clasped his hands together. “Right. Now, is that the one where the dominatrix queen throws a tantrum and threatens war every time she doesn’t get her way? That relationship?
We are all mad here, don’t you know?
The courtship period is the foundation upon which a happy marriage will stand, and should not be hurried by any devoted lover – not even a king.
She was just a mechanic, and he was the prince with all the charms she pretended to be immune to. And he was there, before her, while she tottered on a single foot and tried to calm her rapidly beating heart. How she could barely meet his gaze. How he leaned forward, forced her to see him, smiled. There. That moment. That smile. Again and again and again.
Dr. Erland’s expression had gone dark. He reached forward and pinched Cinder hard above her elbow. “Ow, hey!” “Hmph. For a moment I thought you must be another one of my hallucinations, as surely your plan couldn’t be that stupid.
In the sudden silence, the crunching became absurdly loud, the demolition of small artificially flavored rice puffs filling the entire living room.
I serve my princess. No one else.