Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles, #1)

by Marissa Meyer

They took away her beautiful clothes, dressed her in an old gray smock, and gave her wooden shoes.

She was met with startled copper-brown eyes and black hair that hung past his ears and lips that every girl in the country had admired a thousand times.

“They say you’re the best mechanic in New Beijing. I was expecting an old man.”

Lunars were a society that had evolved from an Earthen moon colony centuries ago, but they weren’t human anymore. People said Lunars could alter a person’s brain—make you see things you shouldn’t see, feel things you shouldn’t feel, do things you didn’t want to do. Their unnatural power had made them a greedy and violent race, and Queen Levana was the worst of all of them.

Some conspiracy theorists thought the princess had survived and was still alive somewhere, waiting for the right time to reclaim her crown and end Levana’s rule of tyranny, but Cinder knew it was only desperation that fueled these rumors. After all, they’d found traces of the child’s flesh in the ashes.

He could never marry a Lunar.

Why do I feel like you are a lunar?

“I’m not sure I would label it a ‘survivor,’” said Iko, her sensor darkening with disgust. “It looks more like a rotting pumpkin.”

She was 36.28 percent not human.

In the evening, when she was exhausted from working, they took away her bed, and she had to lie next to the hearth in the ashes.

“Lately, I’ve been doing a little research.” He paused, before proceeding. “On…on the Lunar heir.”

Will it be Cinder??

“I’m sure I’ll feel much more grateful when I find a guy who thinks complex wiring in a girl is a turn-on.”

And yet, the memory of his fingers against her skin refused to fade.

“Would you consider being my personal guest at the ball?”

“I assume you are going to the ball?” “I-I don’t know. I mean, no. No, I’m sorry, I’m not going to the ball.” Kai drew back, confused. “Oh. Well…but…maybe you would change your mind? Because I am, you know.” “The prince.” “Not bragging,” he said quickly. “Just a fact.”

“Then you must leave. Quickly. You can’t be here when she arrives.”

“Miss Linh, from your blood samples I have deduced that you are, in fact, Lunar.”

I knew it!!!!

He loved her. He needed her. He would do anything to please her.

Huh! she controls minds?

“I can’t let you come with us because you don’t have any clothes to wear and you don’t know how to dance. We’d only be ashamed of you!”

“Maybe her programming was overwhelmed by Prince Kai’s uncanny hotness.”

Queen Levana will stop at nothing to ensure her control, to terminate any resistance. That means killing those who could resist her—people like you. If she were to see you, she would kill you.

She was brainwashing them. She had brainwashed her.

Worse still, the Queen had seen her, and she had known.

“No,” said Kai, allowing a cold smile. “Eventually, I’ll have an empress for that.”

“No, indeed. I hope you noticed that I am capable of choosing my battles.” Her lips curved, her beauty returning full force. “If that’s what it takes to win the war.”

Finally she found what she was searching for. With a dry, grateful sob, she crumpled over her knees, squeezing Iko’s worthless personality chip against her chest.

He had all the stairs coated with pitch, and when Cinderella went running down the stairs, her left slipper got stuck there.

But if there was one thing she knew from years as a mechanic, it was that some stains never came out.

“I will do whatever needs to be done to ensure the well-being of my country. I will do whatever needs to be done to keep you all safe. That is my promise.”

“All personal guests of His Imperial Majesty are duly announced, as recognition of their import. Of course, they don’t usually arrive so…late.”

“But it is not the way that I will have the Commonwealth governed. We must have peace, but not at the expense of freedom. I cannot—I will not marry you.”

“You’re even more painful to look at than she is.”

Ouch

I am not worth starting a war over.” His eyes brightened behind the spectacles. He looked young for a moment, almost giddy. “Actually, you are.”

“And you have an aunt.” “An aunt?” Dr. Erland squeezed the hat in both hands. “Yes. It’s Queen Levana.” Cinder blinked at him. “My dear girl. You are Princess Selene.”

I knew it but still OMG!!!!

“I believe in you,” he said as he reached the doorway and rapped on the grate. “And whether or not he knows it right now, Kai believes in you too.”

Soon, the whole world would be searching for her—Linh Cinder. A deformed cyborg with a missing foot. A Lunar with a stolen identity. A mechanic with no one to run to, nowhere to go. But they would be looking for a ghost.

This can't be the end!