She wondered how long it would take before it felt real.
Iko had chosen her dress, a simple gown taken from Winter’s wardrobe, and done her hair in some fancy updo. Cinder was afraid to move her head for fear it would all come tumbling down. She knew she was supposed to feel regal and powerful, but instead she felt like a feeble girl playing dress-up.
She drew strength from Kai’s presence on one side and Iko on the other, even though Iko wouldn’t stop reaching up and mucking with her hair. Cinder batted her away again.
At least Iko’s arm was working again. Dr. Nandez had managed to return most of her body’s functionality, but there was still a lot of damage to be repaired.
As they turned a corner, she spotted her new personal guard, Liam Kinney, along with Kai’s adviser, Konn Torin. Beside them were Adri and Pearl.
Cinder hesitated, her pulse speeding up.
“Cinder.”
She met Kai’s gaze, his encouraging smile, and felt her heart tumbling for another reason entirely.
“I know this is weird,” he said, “but I’m here if you need me. You won’t need me, though. You’re going to be great.”
“Thanks,” she murmured, fighting the urge to embrace him, to crawl into his arms and hide from the rest of the galaxy. Maybe forever.
“Also”—his voice lowered—“you look beautiful.”
It was Iko who responded, “Thank you for noticing.”
Kai laughed, while Cinder, her thoughts fluttering in all different directions, ducked her head.
Cinder limped along, making a point not to look at her stepfamily. When she was close enough, Konn Torin bowed to her. Diplomatic respect, Cinder thought, remembering all the many glares she’d received from this man since she’d first seen him at the annual ball. But when he raised his head, he was smiling. In fact, he seemed downright friendly.
“Your Majesty,” he said. “On behalf of the people of the Eastern Commonwealth, I want to thank you for all you’ve done, and all you will do.”
“Oh, um. Yeah. Anytime.” With a difficult swallow, she dared to look at Adri.
Her stepmother’s face had a gauntness about it. Her number of gray hairs had tripled these past weeks.
There was a moment in which Cinder thought of a thousand things she could say to this woman, but none of them seemed important anymore.
Adri’s gaze dropped to the floor. She and Pearl both lowered into uncomfortable curtsies.
“Your Majesty,” said Adri, sounding like she was chewing on a bitter lemon. Beside her, Pearl also mumbled, almost unintelligibly, “Your Majesty.”
Iko snorted—a derisive sound that Cinder hadn’t even thought escorts were capable of making.
Staring at the tops of Pearl’s and Adri’s heads, she attempted to come up with a gracious response—something Kai would have said. Things a good queen would have done to ease the tension. To offer forgiveness.
Instead, she turned away.
Kinney fisted a hand against his chest and Cinder gave him what she hoped was a regal nod, before Kai led her through a pair of double doors. She had asked him to find a neutral place to host this meeting—not the throne room that had seen so much blood, or the queen’s solar, or wherever Levana would have conducted such a thing. She entered into a conference room with an enormous marble table and two holograph nodes, turned off.
The room was already full. She gulped, the uncanny silence nearly pushing her back into the hallway. She recognized most of them, but her brain interface wasted no time in pulling up their profiles from the net database anyway.
President Vargas of the American Republic.
Prime Minister Kamin of the African Union.
Queen Camilla of the United Kingdom.
Governor-General Williams of Australia.
Prime Minister Bromstad of the European Federation.
Dr. Nandez—the acclaimed cybernetic surgeon, and Nainsi, the android that Cinder had fixed for Kai a long time ago. She had been brought to Luna to record this occasion for Earth’s official records.
Adri and Pearl were escorted around the table.
Which left only Iko, Kai, Konn Torin, and Cinder herself—or, Her Royal Majesty, Queen Selene Channary Jannali Blackburn of Luna. She wondered if it was all right for her to ask that everyone just call her Cinder.
Before she could speak, the world’s leaders rose to their feet and started to applaud. Cinder recoiled.
One by one, they went around the room, bowing and curtsying in turn.
Suddenly panicked, Cinder looked at Kai. He gave her a one-shouldered shrug, suggesting that, yeah, it’s weird, but you get used to it.
When the circle came around to him, he too pressed one hand to his chest and inclined his head, the best bow he could give while still supporting her with one arm.
“Th-thank you,” she stammered, wondering if she should curtsy, but she couldn’t perform a graceful curtsy on her best of days, and it would be disastrous with all her injuries. Instead she held her cyborg hand out to them. “Um, please, be seated?”