If they could make it there undetected, Cinder knew they had a chance.
The clomp of feet startled her. It was too loud—like someone was on the same level as they were, not down below in the cargo bay. She traded frowns with her companions. A distant door was slammed shut and she heard someone yelling orders. More scuffling followed.
“Is it just me,” whispered Thorne, “or does it sound like someone is searching the ship?”
His words mirrored her thoughts exactly. Comprehension turned fast into horror. “She knows we’re here. They’re looking for us.”
She looked around at her companions, their expressions ranging from terrified to eager and all of them, she realized with a start, looking back at her. Awaiting instruction.
Outside their confined closet, the voices grew louder. Something crashed against the floor.
Cinder tightened her gloved fists. “Wolf, Thorne, the second a thaumaturge sees either of you they’ll try to control you.” She licked her lips. “Do I have permission to take control of you first? Just your bodies, not your minds.”
“I’ve been waiting for you to admit you wanted my body,” said Thorne. He laid a hand on the gun at his waist. “Be my guest.”
Wolf looked less enthusiastic, but he gave her a sharp nod.
Cinder slipped her will into Thorne as easily as slicing through a block of tofu. Wolf’s energy was more chaotic, but she’d spent so much time training with him aboard the Rampion that his energy, too, offered little resistance. Cinder felt their limbs as if they were an extension of her own. Though she knew she was doing it for their own protection, keeping them from being turned into weapons for the enemy, she couldn’t help feeling like manipulating them was a betrayal of their trust. It was an unfair balance of power—their safety was now her responsibility.
She thought of Levana, forcing her guard to take a bullet for her at the royal ball, and wondered if she would ever make that same decision with one of her friends.
She hoped she would never have to.
A voice echoed in the nearby corridor: “Nothing in the engine room. You—split up. Search these corridors and report back.”
They were close, and if there was a thaumaturge, she knew it wouldn’t be long before he or she was near enough to detect the bioelectricity coming from this storage closet. She pictured the ship’s layout and tried to formulate a plan, but there was little hope now of slipping away without announcing their presence.
They would have to fight their way out of the ship. They would have to fight all the way to the maglev shuttles.
“Cinder,” Thorne whispered. His body was statue still, waiting for Cinder’s command. “Send me out there.”
Cress’s head snapped up, but he didn’t return the look.
Cinder frowned. “What?”
“Send me as a decoy, out the main ramp and away from the maglev doors. I’ll draw them off long enough for you to get out through the cargo bay.”
“Thorne…”
“Do it.” His eyes flashed. He still wouldn’t look at Cress. “We made it to Luna. You don’t need a pilot here, or a captain.”
Her pulse thundered. “You don’t have to—”
Outside someone called, “Press room is clear!”
“Stop wasting time,” Thorne said through his teeth. “I’ll lead them away and circle back to you.”
She knew he was being overconfident, but Cinder found herself nodding at the same time Cress started shaking her head.
“My control of you will be intermittent inside the ship, but if I can find you, I’ll reclaim you as soon as we’re all outside.” If they don’t claim you first, she thought, unwilling to speak it out loud. Controlling an Earthen like Thorne was easy, but wresting control away from a thaumaturge was significantly more difficult.
“Got it.” Thorne’s jaw tensed.
“Be careful,” Cress said, more a squeak than a whisper, and Thorne’s attention alighted on her for the briefest of moments …
Before Cinder kicked open the door and sent Thorne bolting into the corridor. He collided with the wall, but pushed himself off and careened to the left. His arms and legs pumped as he raced toward the main deck. It wasn’t long before he was out of her reach. Too much steel divided them. Cinder lost control, and Thorne was on his own.
Seconds after her grasp on him had snapped, they heard a crash. Thorne had broken something.
Cinder hoped it wasn’t some priceless Commonwealth artifact.
In the next chamber, a stampede of feet raced after him. When Cinder reached out with her thoughts, she couldn’t feel any bioelectricity other than Wolf’s. This side of the ship had been cleared.