Cress by Marissa Meyer Read Free Book Online

refrained from meeting his gaze again, she would manage. She would not fall apart.
    And yet the temptation to fix her eyes on him was still there, tugging at her.
    “Oh, thanks,” said Cinder. “I wasn’t sure … I mean, do you follow Earthen news? Do you know what’s been happening since—”
    “I know everything.”
    Cinder paused.
    Cress realized her words had come out all mushed together, and she reminded herself to enunciate when she was playing such a sophisticated role. She forced herself to sit up a bit straighter.
    “I follow all the newsfeeds,” she clarified. “I knew you were spotted in France, and I’ve been tracking your ship, so I knew it hadn’t been destroyed, but I still didn’t know whether you’d been injured, or what had happened, and I’ve been trying to establish the D-COMM link but you never responded.” She deflated a little, her fingers tying knots into her hair. “But I am glad to see that you’re all right.”
    “Yes, yes, she’s fine, we’re fine, everybody’s fine,” said Thorne, perching an elbow on Cinder’s shoulder and leaning toward the screen with furrowed brows. Meeting his eyes was unavoidable, and an involuntary squeak slipped past her lips—a sound she’d never heard herself make before. “Did you just say you’ve been tracking our ship?”
    She opened her mouth, but shut it a moment later when no sound followed. Finally, she managed a brittle nod.
    Thorne squinted at her as if trying to figure out if she were lying. Or merely an idiot.
    She longed to crawl back beneath the desk.
    “Really,” he drawled. “And who do you work for again?”
    You are an actress. An actress!
    “Mistress,” she said, forcing the word. “Mistress Sybil. She ordered me to find you, but I haven’t told her anything—and I won’t, you don’t have to worry about that. I—I’ve been jamming the radar signals, making sure surveillance satellites are faced the other way when you pass, that sort of thing. So no one else could find you.” She hesitated, realizing that four faces were gaping at her as if all her hair had just fallen out. “You must have noticed that you haven’t been caught yet?”
    Lifting an eyebrow, Cinder slid her gaze over to Thorne, who let out a sudden laugh.
    “All this time we thought Cinder was casting some witchy spell on the other ships and it’s been you ?”
    Cinder frowned, but Cress couldn’t tell who her annoyance was directed at. “I guess we owe you a huge thanks.”
    Cress’s shoulders jerked into an uncomfortable shrug. “It wasn’t that difficult. Finding you was the hardest part, but anyone could have figured it out. And sneaking ships around the galaxy is something Lunars have been doing for years.”
    “I have a price on my head large enough to buy the Province of Japan,” said Cinder. “If anyone could have figured it out, they would have by now. So, really, thank you.”
    A blush crept down her neck.
    Thorne jabbed Cinder in the arm. “Soften her up with flattery. Good strategy.”
    Cinder rolled her eyes. “Look. The reason we’re contacting you is because we need your help. Evidently more than I realized.”
    “ Yes, ” Cress said emphatically, unwrapping the hair from her wrists. “Yes. Whatever you need.”
    Thorne beamed. “See? Why can’t you all be this agreeable?”
    The second girl smacked him on the shoulder. “She doesn’t even know what we want her to do yet.” Cress really looked at her for the first time. She had curly red hair, a collection of freckles over her nose, and curves that were unfairly exaggerated next to Cinder, who was all angles in comparison. The man beside her dwarfed them both and had brown hair that stuck up in every direction, faded scars that hinted at more than his share of scuffles, and a recent bruise on his jaw.
    Cress tried her best to look confident. “What do you need help with?”
    “When I talked to you before, on the day of the ball, you told me that you’ve been