Droids And Bots

Chapter 46

Nora followed the movement.

A security camera was on them—on her. Seeing everything.

The last remnants of strength fled from Nora, leaving her exhausted and weak.

Tim crept down the stairs as if sneaking up on a wounded animal. Stooping, he picked up the rusted bot foot that had fallen out of the velvet boot. His jaw flexed as he studied it, perhaps recognizing it from the day they’d met at the market. He would not look at her.

kumal’s lip curled. “Disgusting,” she said from the doorway, safely hidden from the camera’s view. Her words were loud and unnaturally forced compared to her usual lilting voice. “Death would be merciful. ”

“She wasn’t a shell after all,” said crimson Mira. “How did she hide it?”

kumal sneered. “It matters not. She’ll be dead soon enough. Jacin?”

The blond guard descended a single step toward Nora. He was holding his g*n again, the one Nora had dropped.

“Wait. ” Tim stole down the remaining stairs until he stood on the pathway before her. It seemed he had to force himself to meet her gaze, and he flinched at first. Nora could not read him, the ever-changing mix of disbelief and confusion and regret. His chest was heaving. He tried to speak twice before words would come, quiet words that would never leave Nora’s head.

“Was it all an illusion?” he asked.

Pain lanced through her chest, squeezing the air out of her. “Tim?”

“Was it all in my head? A Unar trick?”

Her stomach twisted. “No. ” She shook her head, fervently. How to explain that she hadn’t had the gift before? That she couldn’t have used it against him? “I would never lie—”

The words faded. She had lied. Everything he knew about her had been a lie.

“I’m so sorry,” she finished, the words falling lamely in the open air.

Tim peeled his eyes away, finding some place of resignation off in the glistening garden. “You’re even more painful to look at than she is. ”

Nora’s heart shriveled inside her until she was sure it would stop beating altogether. She reached her hand to her cheek, feeling the damp silk against her skin.

Setting his jaw, Tim turned back to the queen. Nora stared up at the back of his crimson shirt with the peaceful turtledoves embroidered along the collar. One hand still clutched her bot foot.

“She will be taken into custody,” he said, with little strength behind his words. “She will be imprisoned until we can decide what to do with her. But if you kill her tonight, I swear I will never agree to any alliance with Luna. ”

The queen’s glare darkened. Even if she agreed, Nora would eventually be given back to the moon. And as soon as kumal had her in her power, a noose would be put around her neck.

Tim was buying her time. But probably not much.

What she couldn’t fathom was why.

Nora watched the queen fight with her temper, knowing she could kill both her and Tim in a blink.

“She will be my prisoner,” kumal finally conceded. “She wi

ll be returned to Luna and tried under our judicial system. ”

Translation: She would die.

“I understand,” said Tim. “In return, you will agree not to wage war against my country or planet. ”

kumal tilted her head up, looking down her nose at him. “Agreed. I will not wage war against Earth for this infraction. But I would tread lightly, young emperor. You have tried my patience greatly this night. ”

Tim took in a single breath, dipped his head at her, and then stepped aside as the Unar guards trudged down the steps. They lifted Nora’s broken body off the gravel path. She tried her best to stand, peering at Tim, wishing she could have just one moment to tell him how sorry she was. One breath to explain.

But he didn’t look at her as she was dragged past him. His eyes were locked on the dirty steel foot clasped in both hands, his fingertips white from gripping it too hard.

. .-Seven

SHE LAY ON HER BACK, LISTENING TO THE STEADY TAPPING OF her metal fingers against the white resin floor of her white resin prison cell. Of all the thoughts that should have been taking up her mind, a single moment seemed captured in her thoughts, stuck on endless repeat.

Market day, the humid air, the smell of Chang Sacha’s sweet rolls permeating the city square. Before any of this had happened—before Peony had gotten sick, before kumal had come to Earth, before Tim had asked her to the ball. She was just a Technician, and he was the Princewill 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.

Nora sighed and changed the tempo of her tapping fingers.

The net was rife with vids from the ball. She had watched exactly 4. 2 seconds of the footage via her netlink—her in her dirty ball gown tumbling down the steps—before shutting it off. The footage made her look like a madwoman. Surely, every human on Earth would bid her good riddance when Queen kumal claimed her and took her back to Luna. For her “trial. ”

She heard the guard’s footsteps, muffled, on the other side of the cell door. Everything around her was white, including the brilliantly bleached cotton jumpsuit they’d put her in when she’d been forced to discard Peony’s destroyed gown and the bits of silk glove that hadn’t already been melted or ripped away. They hadn’t yet bothered to turn out the eye-straining lights either, leaving her restless and exhausted. She was beginning to wonder if it would be a relief when the queen came for her, if maybe she would at least be allowed a moment’s sleep.

And she’d only been there for fourteen hours, .-three minutes, and sixteen seconds. Seventeen seconds. Eighteen.

The door clunked, startling her. She squinted at the tiny window that had opened up in the door, seeing the shadow of a man’s head on the iron gate. The back of his head. None of the guards would look at her.

You have a visitor. ”

She propped herself up on her elbows. “The emperor?”

The guard snorted. “Yeah, right. ” His shadow disappeared from the grate.

“Kindly open the door if you would,” said a familiar voice in a familiar accent. “I must speak with her in private. ”

Nora climbed to her one foot, leaning against the glass-smooth wall.

“She’s under top security,” said the guard. “I can’t let you go in. You must speak with her through the grate. ”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Do I look like a threat to security?”

Nora hopped to the window and bounced on her toes. It was Dr. Erland, holding a pale linen bag. He still wore his lab coat, with the tiny silver spectacles on his nose and wool hat on his head. Though he had to crane his head back to meet the guard’s eye, his stance was undaunted.

“I am the leading scientist of the royal letumosis research team,” said Dr. Erland, “and this girl is my prime test subject. I require blood samples from her before she leaves the planet. ” He whipped a syringe out of the bag. The guard staggered back in surprise before folding his arms over his chest.

“I have my orders, sir. You’ll have to obtain an official release from the emperor to be allowed entrance. ”

Dr. Erland let his shoulders slump and tucked the syringe back into the bag. “All right. If that’s protocol, I understand. ” But instead of turning away, he fiddled with the cuffs of his sleeves, his expression momentarily darkening, before he flashed another grin at the guard. “There, you see?” he said, his voice sending an odd ripple down Nora’s spine. The doctor continued, the cadence of his words as soothing as a song. “I have obtained the necessary release from the emperor. ” He swooped his hands toward the cell door. “You may open the door. ”

Nora blinked as if to clear cobwebs from her mind. It seemed Dr. Erland meant to get himself arrested as well, but then the guard turned toward her with a dazed expression and swiped his ID before the scanner. The door opened.

Nora stumbled back, catching herself on the wall.

“Thank you kindly,” said the doctor, entering the cell without turning his back on the guard. “I’ll ask that you give us a bit of privacy. I won’t be but a minute. ”

The guard shut the door without argument. His footsteps echoed off down the corridor.

Dr. Erland turned around and snatched a breath when his bright blue eyes fell on Nora. His lips parted momentarily before he turned his head away and squeezed his eyes shut. When he opened them again, the look of amazement had softened over his features. “If there were ever any doubt, it is gone now. It may do you good to practice controlling your glamour. ”

Nora pressed a hand against her cheek. “I’m not doing anything. ”

The doctor cleared his throat uncomfortably. “Don’t worry. You’ll get the hang of it. ” He cast his gaze around the cell. “Quite the predicament you’ve gotten yourself into, isn’t it?”

Nora lifted her finger toward the door. “You have to teach me that trick. ”

“It would be an honor, Miss Linh. It’s really quite simple. Focus your thoughts, twist your subject’s thoughts toward you, and clearly state your intent. Internally, of course. ”

Nora frowned. It didn’t sound simple at all.

The doctor waved away the look. “Don’t worry. You’ll find it comes quite naturally when you need it, but we haven’t time for lessons. I must be quick before anyone’s suspicions are raised. ”

“My suspicions are raised. ”

He ignored her, his gaze sweeping down Nora’s form—the white jumper, bulky and loose over her slender frame, the metal hand dinged and scratched from her fall, the multicolored wires that dangled from the cuffed pant leg.

“You’ve lost your foot. ”

“Yeah, I noticed. How’s Tim?”

“What? Aren’t you going to ask how I am?”

“You look fine,” she said. “Better than usual, actually. ” It was true—the fluorescent light of the cell took ten years off his features. Or more likely, she realized, it was the lingering effects from using his Unar gift on the guard. “But how is he?”

“Confused, I think. ” The doctor shrugged. “I do believe he was a bit smitten with you. To find out you were, well…it was a lot to take in, I’m sure. ”

Nora ran a frustrated hand through her hair, tangled from fourteen hours of nervously bunching it up in her fists. “kumal forced him to choose. Either marry her or hand me over. Otherwise she said she would declare war based on some law about harboring Unars. ”

“It seems he made the right decision. He will be a fine ruler. ”

“That’s not the point. kumal won’t be satisfied with his decision for long. ”

“Of course not. Nor would she have let you live for long had he chosen the marriage. She very much wants you dead, more than you realize. Which is why she must believe that Tim has done everything in his power to keep you confined and is willing to give you over to her as soon as she returns to the moon—which won’t be long now, I think. Otherwise there could be some horrible consequences for him…and the South lake. ”