Scarlet (42 page)

Queen Levana. Cinder’s aunt.

The D-COMM chip
click, click, click
ed against her fingers.

“Cinder? Are you in here?”

Her fingers stilled with the chip balanced on her pinkie knuckle. “Yeah, Iko. I’m here.”

“Maybe next time we’re on Earth you can pick up some sensors? I feel like I’m eavesdropping having the audio on all the time. It’s becoming awkward.”

“Awkward?”

The running lights brightened, reminding Cinder of a blush. She wondered if it was intentional.

“Scarlet and Wolf are saying gushy things in the galley,” Iko said. “Normally I like gushy things, but it’s different when it’s real people. I prefer the net dramas.”

Unexpectedly, Cinder found herself smiling. “I’ll do my best to get some sensors next time we’re on Earth.” She resumed her fiddling. The chip flipped, clacked, flipped, rolled. “How are you feeling, Iko? Are you getting used to being the auto-control system? Is it getting easier?”

Something hummed on the computer panel. “The shock has worn off, but it still feels like I’m pretending to be much more powerful than I really am, and I’m going to let everyone down. It’s a lot of responsibility.” The yellow running lights brightened by the floor. “But I did well in Paris, didn’t I?”

“You were brilliant.”

The temperature of the engine room spiked. “I was kind of brilliant.”

“We’d all be dead if it weren’t for you.”

Iko let off an unusually pitchy noise, one that Cinder thought might be a nervous giggle. “I guess it’s not so bad being the ship. You know, so long as you need me.”

Cinder smirked. “That’s very …
big
of you.”

One of the engine fans slowed. “That was a joke, wasn’t it?”

Laughing, Cinder practiced spinning the chip like a top on the tip of her finger. It took a few tries before she got the hang of it and could watch it sparkle and dance without much effort.

“How about you?” Iko said after a moment. “How does it feel to be a real princess?”

Cinder flinched. The chip tumbled off her finger and she barely caught it. “So far it’s not nearly as fun as one would imagine. What were you saying about having too much power and responsibility and feeling like you’re going to let everyone down? Because that all sounded pretty familiar.”

“I thought that might be the case.”

“Are you mad that I didn’t tell you?”

A long silence followed, tying Cinder’s stomach in knots.

“No,” Iko said, finally, and Cinder wished that her lie detector worked on androids—or spaceships. “But I’m worried. Before, I figured that Queen Levana would tire of searching for us, and eventually we’d be able to go home, or at least go back to Earth and live normal lives again. But that’s never going to happen, is it?”

Cinder gulped and started flipping the chip over her fingers again. “I don’t think so.”

Click, click, click.

She exhaled a long breath and flipped the chip one last time, clutching it in her fist.

“Levana’s going to murder Kai after they’re married. She’ll be coronated as empress, and then she’ll kill him, and she’ll have the entire Commonwealth under her control. After that, it will only be a matter of time before she invades the rest of the Union.” She swept her hair off her forehead. “At least, that’s what this girl told me. The queen’s programmer.”

She loosened her grip, suddenly afraid that her metal fist would crush the chip while she was distracted.

“But I like Kai.”

“You and every other girl in the galaxy.”

“
Every
girl? Are you finally including yourself in that count?”

Cinder bit her lip. She knew Iko was thinking back to all the times Cinder had teased Peony for her hopeless crush on the prince, pretending to be immune to such silliness herself. But that all seemed a long, long time ago. She could hardly remember the girl she was back then.

“I just know that I can’t let him marry Levana,” she said, her voice snagging. “I can’t let him go through with it.”

She held up the chip between her thumb and forefinger. Her new hand still felt
too
new. So clean, so untarnished. She squinted and let the electric current flow from her spine, warming up her wrist until the hand looked human. Skin and bone.

“I concur,” said Iko. “So what are you going to do?”

Cinder gulped and let the glamour change. The flesh of her hand became metal again—not flawless titanium, but plain steel, battered with age, grime caked into the crevices, a little too small, a little too stiff. The cyborg hand she’d replaced. The one she’d always hidden—usually with heavy, work-stained cotton. Once with silk.

The girl she’d been back then. The one she’d always tried to keep hidden.

An orange light blinked at the corner of her eye. She ignored it.

“I’m going to let Wolf train me. I’m going to become stronger than she is.” She flipped the chip again. It was awkward at first, making sure the fingers in the illusion moved just how they were supposed to, that the joints flexed and moved at the right time. “I’m going to find Dr. Erland, and he’s going to teach me how to win against her. Then I’m going to track down the girl who programmed this chip, and she’s going to tell me everything she knows about Luna and its security and all the queen’s secrets.”

Click. Click. Click.

“And then I’m going to stop hiding.”

Acknowledgments

It’s amazing how many people it takes to bring a book into the world, and this one is no exception.

First and foremost, I want to thank my four spectacular beta readers for their brilliance, patience, enthusiasm, and all-around awesomeness: Jennifer Johnson, Tamara Felsinger, Meghan Stone-Burgess, and Whitney Faulconer, you make me a better writer.

To my wonderfully supportive editor, Liz Szabla, and everyone at Feiwel and Friends, thank you for making each step of this journey so much fun. Rich Deas, Jean Feiwel, Elizabeth Fithian, Lizzie Mason, Anna Roberto, Allison Verost, Holly West, Ksenia Winnicki, Jon Yaged, and countless others who have had an impact on these books, you are rock stars and I am so proud to be a part of your publishing family.

To my agency team, Jill Grinberg, Cheryl Pientka, and Katelyn Detweiler, who have worked relentlessly to get these books into the hands of readers all over the world, thank you for continuously making me feel like the luckiest author on the planet.

I’d like to give special thanks to my editor at Pocket Jeunesse in France, Xavier D’Almeida, who agreed to look at an early draft and check for authentic setting details, helped choose the perfect location for Benoit Farms, and also saved me from poisoning the poor chickens, thank heavens.

To my 2012 debut kindred spirits, the Apocalypsies, and particularly, my local writing group: J. Anderson Coats, Megan Bostic, Marissa Burt, Daniel Marks, and Jennifer Shaw Wolf, thanks for making this year rock. I look forward to watching your writing careers flourish for many years to come.

I give all the gratitude in the world to my friends and family who have been with me every step of the way, to my brother, Jeff, for loaning me all those books on spaceships, and to my wonderful husband, Jesse—one year into our happily ever after and counting.

And last, but never least, I heartily thank all the readers, teachers, booksellers, librarians, reviewers, and bloggers who keep the love alive.

About the Author

Marissa Meyer’s first book in the Lunar Chronicles,
Cinder
, debuted on the
New York Times
bestseller list and has won her many fans, all of whom eagerly await
Scarlet
. Marissa lives in Tacoma, Washington, with her husband and their three cats. Visit her blog at
www.marissameyer.com
.

A F
EIWEL AND
F
RIENDS
B
OOK

An Imprint of Macmillan

SCARLET.
Copyright © 2013 by Marissa Meyer. All rights reserved. For information, address Feiwel and Friends, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

Meyer, Marissa.

Scarlet / Marissa Meyer. — 1st ed.

p. cm. — (Lunar chronicles; 2)

Summary: Scarlet Benoit and Wolf, a street fighter who may have information about her missing grandmother, join forces with Cinder as they try to stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen Levana in this story inspired by Little Red Riding Hood.

ISBN 978-0-312-64296-9 (hardcover)

ISBN 978-1-250-03763-3 (e-book)

[1.  Science fiction.   2.  Cyborgs—Fiction.   3.  Missing persons—Fiction.   4.  Extraterrestrial beings—Fiction.]   I.  Title.

PZ7.M571737Sc 2013

[Fic]—dc23

20120340609

Feiwel and Friends logo designed by Filomena Tuosto

First Hardcover Edition: 2013

eBook Edition: 2013

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