Cress

Chapter 29

Stepping back from the Rampion's hulking side, Cinder

  shaded her eyes with one arm and peered up at their

 slipshod work.

 Jacin was still up one of the squeaky metal ladders the

  townspeople had brought them, painting over all the

remained of the ship's signature decoration—the

 lounging naked lady, the mascot that Thorne had

 painted himself before Cinder had ever met him. 

 Cinder had hated the painting from the moment she

 laid eyes on it, but now she was sad to see it covered up.

 Like she was erasing a part of Thorne, part of his memory.

But word had gotten out through the media that the

 wanted ship had this very specific marking, and that

 was unacceptable.

Swiping a bead of sweat from her brow, Cinder surveyed 

 the rest of their work.

 They didn't have enough paint to cover the entire ship,

 so they'd opted to focus on the main ramp's enormous 

 side panel, so that it would at least look like that exterior 

piece had been fully replaced, which wasn't uncommon,

 rather than looking like they had tried to cover something

 up, which would defeat the purpose.

Unfortunately, it seemed that as much black paint had

 ended up on the dusty ground and the townspeople,

 who had come out in droves to help them, than

had actually ended up on the ship. 

Cinder herself had paint died on her collarbone, her

 temple, clumped in her hair, and stuck in the joints of

 her metal hand, but she was relatively unscathed

  compared with some of their assistants.

 The children in particular, eager to be helpful at first, 

had soon made a game of seeing who could paint up 

their bodies to look the most cyborg.

It was a strange of honor.

 Since Cinder had arrived, she'd been seeing this

mimicry more and more. 

The backs of T-shirts illustrated with bionic spines.

Shoes decorated with bits of assorted metal. 

 Necklaces hung with washers and vintage lug 

nuts.

One girl had even been proud to show Cinder 

 her new real tattoo—wires and robotic joints

 overtaking the  skin of her left foot.

Cinder had smiled awkwardly and resisted

 the urge to tell her that the tattoo wasn't