Stars Above: A Lunar Chronicles Collection (The Lunar Chronicles) Read Online Free PDF

methods before. She was grateful that Logan wanted to protect her in this small way. She recognized his sacrifice, even if she knew he would never admit that it was such.
    “All right,” she said, wiping her sweating palms down the sides of her jeans. “You’ve found this inventor, and the child will receive this device of his. Then what?”
    “Then she will go to live with him. He’s already agreed to care for her as his legal ward, and he has two children of his own. It will be a good fit.”
    She cocked her head. “Does he know who she is?”
    “Not yet.” Logan inhaled a sharp breath. “But I will have to tell him. He must know the full extent of the danger he’s putting himself and his family in if he’s to agree to this. And … and he must know how valuable she is. I’ll try to keep an eye on her for as long as I can, but I’m not sure I will still be lucid enough to tell her the truth once she’s ready. It’s possible that responsibility will fall to him.”
    It sounded so certain. So final. It dawned on Michelle how terrified Logan was of whatever was happening inside his own head.
    Logan had always prided himself on his thinking mind. How horrible it must be to know he was losing it now.
    His mouth quirked unexpectedly. “I will not take your pity now, Michelle. All my decisions have been my own, and I am still convinced that they were the right ones.”
    “Of course they were,” she said. “You have changed the course of history.”
    “Not yet. But someday, perhaps.” He rubbed his temple and glanced at the secret door that led down to Selene’s room. “How is she?”
    “Much the same. Getting taller. She’s grown like a tadpole this year.”
    He nodded. “I will need at least a week to complete the operations. We’ll have to conduct them in stages. Can you be ready in a month?”
    A month. After so many years of nothing, nothing, nothing, it was so sudden, like a maglev train screeching toward her.
    “I will have to send Scarlet away,” she whispered, mostly to herself. “Perhaps she can stay with her father for a while.”
    Logan peered at her. She peered back and waited for him to ask. Scarlet. Who is Scarlet? Who is her father? Who is…?
    He lowered his gaze first, and she couldn’t read him. She couldn’t tell if he guessed the truth or not. They were together for such a short time, and so long ago. There was no reason for him to suspect …
    But he’d always been good at interpreting her silences.
    He didn’t ask. Just nodded and said, “I will tell Garan to make his travel arrangements.”
    *   *   *
    It all seemed painfully familiar.
    Scarlet’s anger had cooled somewhat during the maglev ride from Paris back to Toulouse, but she still had a furious knot in her stomach. She never wanted to see her lousy father again. She’d told herself as much when she’d run away the first time, back when she was seven, but this time she meant it. That drunken, arrogant, condescending jerk was nonexistent to her.
    She couldn’t believe she’d agreed to stay with him for a whole month. Looking back, all of Grand-mère’s encouraging words about how it would be a good bonding opportunity and give her father a chance to see what a strong young woman she was becoming and blah blah blah— gag. Instead, all he’d done from the moment she’d arrived was pawn her off on his fawning “lady friends” while he left her for hours, only to come back stinking of cognac. And when he was around, he was criticizing her clothing choices, or blaming Grand-mère for filling her head with too many opinions, or accusing Scarlet of idolizing “the crazy old bat.”
    That comment had been the last straw. The last straw ever.
    After a ten-minute screaming fit, Scarlet had repacked her bag and stormed out of his apartment, slamming the door satisfyingly behind her. She’d headed straight to the train station. Her father hadn’t even tried to stop her, and she really didn’t care.
    She’d