Scarlet

and into the cockpit, where the main screen was showing Emperor Kai at a podium before an audience of journalists. “The conference is just starting, and he looks so handsome today!”
    “Thanks, Iko,” said Cinder, claiming the pilot’s seat.
    “Hey, that’s my—”
    She silenced Thorne with a wave and adjusted the screen’s volume.
    “—thing we can to find the escaped convicts,” Kai was saying. The circles beneath his eyes suggested that it had been a long time since he’d experienced a proper night’s rest. Nevertheless, seeing him made Cinder both warm with longing and miserable when she thought of the last few moments she’d seen him. Her, having just tripped on the garden steps and lying sprawled on the gravel pathway with her wires sparking out of her ankle.
    He—disgusted, baffled, disappointed.
    Betrayed.
    “We’ve deployed our fastest ships with the most advanced search technology and the best pilots in order to track down the fugitives. They’ve been lucky in their evasion of us so far, but we don’t expect that luck to last. The class of ship they’re inhabiting is not meant for extended periods of orbit. Eventually they will have to return to Earth, and we’ll be ready for them.”
    “What kind of ship are they on?” asked a lady in the front row.
    Kai checked his notes. “It’s a stolen military cargo ship from the American Republic—a 214 Rampion, Class 11.3. Its tracking devices have been stripped, which is largely responsible for the difficulties we’ve had in apprehending them.”
    Thorne proudly poked Cinder in the back.
    On the screen, Kai nodded at another journalist near the back.
    “You said our military would be waiting for them when they return to Earth. How long do you suspect that to be, and are you abandoning the space search in the meantime?”
    “Absolutely not. Our primary objective is to find them as soon as possible, and we plan to continue the search in space until they’re found. However, my experts project the ship will be returning to Earth anytime from two days to two weeks, depending on their fuel and power reserves, and we will be prepared for that return if necessary. Yes?”
    “My sources have told me that this cyborg, this Linh Cinder—”
    “That’s you,” Thorne whispered with another jab. She batted him away.
    “—was given a VIP invitation to the annual ball and was, in fact, an invited guest of yours, Your Majesty. Do you refute that claim?”
    “A what?” Thorne asked.
    “VIP invitation?” said Iko.
    Cinder scrunched up her shoulders, ignoring them both.
    On the screen, Kai shifted back from the podium, arms fully extended as if to give himself space to breathe, before clearing his throat and nearing the mic again. “I do not refute the claim. I met Linh Cinder two weeks prior to the ball. As many of you know, she was a renowned mechanic here in the city and I had hired her to fix a malfunctioning android. And, yes, I did invite her to the ball as a personal guest.”
    “ What? ”
    Cinder flinched from the shriek that pierced through the cockpit’s speakers.
    “When did this happen? It better have happened after Adri dismantled me because if he asked you to the ball and you didn’t tell me—”
    “Iko, I’m trying to listen!” Cinder squirmed in her seat. Kai had asked her to the ball before Iko’s body had been taken apart and sold off. Cinder had had the chance to tell her, but at the time she’d been determined not to accept the invitation, so it hadn’t seemed that important.
    When Kai called on another journalist, Cinder realized she’d missed an entire question.
    “Did you know that she was cyborg?” asked a woman in an unhidden tone of disgust.
    Kai stared at her, appearing confused, then let his gaze dance over the crowd. He shuffled his feet closer to the podium, a wrinkle forming on the bridge of his nose.
    Cinder bit the inside of her cheek and braced herself for adamant disgust. Who would ever invite a cyborg to the ball?
    But instead, Kai said simply, “I don’t see that her being cyborg is relevant. Next question?”
    Cinder’s metal fingers jolted.
    “Your Majesty, did you know that she was Lunar when you extended this invitation?”
    Looking like he might keel over from exhaustion, Kai shook his head. “No. Of course not. I—naively, it seems—was under the impression that there were no Lunars in the Commonwealth. Other than our diplomatic guests here at the palace, of course. Now that