Cress (The Lunar Chronicles, #3)

by Marissa Meyer

She dreamed of deep soul connections and passionate kisses and daring escapades. She was certain that he simply had to meet her, just once, and he would feel the same way. It would be like those epic love affairs that exploded into existence and burned white hot for all eternity. The type of love that time and distance and even death couldn’t separate.

Yes, there was something dark inside him, but the monster she’d seen before was not the same as the man seated before her now.

“I am an explorer,” she whispered, “setting courageously off into the wild unknown.” It was not a daydream she’d ever had before, but she felt the familiar comfort of her imagination wrapping around her.

Her imagination circled through her favorite fantasies, anything to keep herself distracted. She was a shipwrecked pirate from the second era. She was an athlete training for a cross-country journey. She was an android, who had no sense of exhaustion, who could march on and on and on.… But the dreams became more and more fleeting, reality pushing them aside with pain and discomfort and thirst.

All of a sudden I went from being nobody to being long-lost royalty, and you expected me to jump up and accept this destiny that you’d worked out in your head, but did you ever consider that maybe that’s not the destiny I want? I wasn’t raised to be a princess or a leader. I just needed some time to figure out who I was … am.

Her attention caught on their entwined fingers like a beacon. Every twitch, every heartbeat, every step was broadcast through her entire body. It wasn’t long before her imagination had them lying together in the warm sand, his fingers stroking through her hair, his lips working their way along her jaw.

Never had she thought that such kind words could sting, but she couldn’t help feeling that his compliment didn’t mean what she wanted it to mean.

Cyborgs were too smart, people had complained. They were cheating the average man out of his wages. Cyborgs were too skilled. They were taking jobs away from hardworking, average citizens. Cyborgs were too strong. They shouldn’t be allowed to compete in sporting events with regular people. It gave them an unfair advantage.

Interesting to think how familiar these words resonate with current events.

Our country was built on a foundation of equality and togetherness, not prejudice and hatred.”

All she knew was that they looked ridiculous. Clothing that twinkled and floated and glowed. Faces painted to look like solar systems and rainbow prisms and wild animals. Brightly colored hair that curled and wisped, defying gravity in order to create massive, elaborate structures. Some of the wigs even housed caged songbirds, though they were being remarkably quiet.

Sounds like residents of The Capitol in the Hunger Games universe.

Maybe there isn’t such a thing as fate. Maybe it’s just the opportunities we’re given, and what we do with them.

“But I asked the stars to send a sign that he was all right, and they sent me a shooting star across the sky.