Page 45 of Cinder
A look passed between his parents, but the queen nodded to one of the watch members after. They bowed their heads and left. The crumbling wooden door creaked on their way out.
It had barely settled before the queen was back at it. “This man you’ve been spending so very muchtimewith is the one they call thePlumed Menace.”
“On what evidence do you suggest such a thing?” Prince Lorenz demanded, like he hadn’t seen Cin commit murder just a week prior. As he said it, he whirled toward Cin and dropped back to his knees, his arms around Cin’s waist. This time, his hands worked diligently at the bonds that held Cin to the cell bars.
Cin drew in a little sob, pressing the side of his face to the prince’s neck in thanks. He tried to hold his hope at arm’s reach—this was not safety. This was Prince Lorenz, yes, but even if he were to plead for Cin’s freedom, his parents still had to accept.
King Warner coughed in protest of his son’s actions, and the queen stormed right up to them both, her arms crossed and her expression twisting in the lantern light.
“He was at the scene of the crime,” she retorted, “identified by a witness just this hour.”
The bonds snapped free of Cin’s wrists entirely and Prince Lorenz turned to glare at his parents. “Did this witness identifymeas well?”
“You...” His mother’s eyes widened.
“Of course I was there!” The prince shot to his feet once more, one hand coming to rest against the back of Cin’s head, cradling. His voice welled with all the emotion of that night. “I stood there and watched as Von Achenbach lunged for us, and...”
Cin could feel every last one of Prince Lorenz’s aches deep in his own chest as he awaited the inevitable. Perhaps from the prince, at least, he would sound heroic, though Cin knew that to be a lie. There was the slightest of chances that he had saved a person that night, but undeniably he had killed one.
Queen Idonia stared at her son, her face pale in the flickering lantern light. “Then you saw what, my son?”
The prince cleared his throat, and while his horror and misery remained, his confidence returned to stabilize it. “I saw my friend in peril, and a knife at his belt, and I could not...” He shook his head, wiping aside a bit of moisture that clung beneath his eye. “I acted without a thought.”
The implication of his statement pieced together slowly, tenderly, each word leaving an ache deep inside Cin. It hurt in the best way, terrible yet lovely. Even after seeing what he had done, who hewas, the prince was protecting Cin. By taking that blame on himself. It was so much more than Cin had expected; more than he could have believed anyone would do for him, much less this man who’d been utterly distressed by the sight of the blood on Cin’s hands.
Prince Lorenz looked so mournful—soguilty—too, that Cin could only believe that the emotion came from a place of understanding. That between the murder and now, the prince had put himself in Cin’s shoes. “I’m sorry I did not have the heart to tell you,” he said. “I was panicked and I had remembered the feathers in Cinder-Ella’s cloak and I thought, if the Plumed Menace had killed such terrible people as Brando Von Achenbach in the past, what would be one more to their name? I did not imagine it would spark... all this.”
Cin felt himself tremble, flashes of cold and heat coursing through him. It seemed the wrong reaction to such commitment, so negative in light of the prince’s offer of salvation. But that was just it—the offer; the salvation. It wasn’t divine, but it was more than anyone had ever deemed Cin worth. Even if, by the expressions of Prince Lorenz’s parents, he would serve a far lighter sentence for Cin’s crimes than Cin would have.
The queen stared at her son with a sudden wave of compassion and calculation, as though already conceiving of a dozen ways to save him from this revelation.
The reaction from the prince’s father was more surprising, simply for the stoic distance he’d maintained thus far, now shattering as his eyes welled with tears. “Oh, son,” he whispered, one hand on his heart.
Queen Idonia’s gaze snapped between Cin and her son. “Perhaps he didn’t kill Von Achenbach, but are you certain he’s not still the Menace? His feathered cloak, and his regal attire with no title— No one had seen him before these balls—” she said in a staccato jumble, jumping from one reasoning to the next.
The prince responded with impeccable calm. “I’ve been to his home; I’ve seen his mother’s grave. He is just a humble son of a once-wealthy family who jumped at the chance to attend a royal ball. Was that not the reason we invited everyone? You wishedfor me to build relationships amongst all the classes—as you had with Father. Those wereyourwords, were they not?”
Queen Idonia glanced at her husband, her mouth tight and something oddly like a blush peppering the edges of her cheeks. Cin could almost see them both as younger people, a regal, bold princess turned soft and curious over a local carpenter’s son who sat by the castle wall to write poetry in his free time. Somehow, between then and now, they had become this: grief-stricken and harsh, trying to strong-arm their kingdom’s future at the expense of their son’s current happiness.
“The soldiers believe he has magic,” King Warner said. His voice was softer than Cin would have thought, delicate and musical, but the words themselves were like a stake in Cin’s chest.
The whole family looked at him, even Prince Lorenz. A flash of worry crossed his face, and his fingers lifted, tucking awkwardly against his heart. When he spoke, his voice was hoarse. “Magic?”
Cin gave a sharp little shake to his head. “There is magic I benefit from, but it is not mine. I traded for my shoes with a pair of free elves near the border, and my steed, while more agile and intelligent than a regular horse,”—he could not say they were secretly a flock of pigeons, not now—“is a docile creature. But I am certainly no wizard.”
He tried to balance his innocence with confidence, but the flurries of emotion that had already passed through him in the last few minutes still tore up pieces of his insides, and he was fairly certain he just came across as desperate. Desperate though, he could lean into.
“Your Royal Majesties,” Cin added, “if I had any strong magic to speak of, I hope I’d be halfway to Falchovari by now.”
Prince Lorenz had begun nodding slowly, releasing the grip he’d taken on his own chest, but the queen looked unconvinced.“You ran from our soldiers,” she snapped. “Can you explain that?”
“I believe having five armed soldiers rush you on horseback would frighten most people into running.” It was a risk to be so blatant, Cin knew, but he felt the conversation already tearing away from him, and he could not give it up without a final fight. “And I mean no disrespect, Your Royal Majesty, but would you have been more inclined to listen to me had I come quietly?”
“I’m certain I would have,” Queen Idonia insisted, but she looked less so by the second.
Still staring down his mother, Prince Lorenz took one of Cin’s hands in his and squeezed it. “I promise, Cinder-Ella is not the villain you’re searching for. I know him, and I trust him. He has a—a good heart.”
Agood heart. It seemed like a mistake. Like he’d stumbled, then picked the word he knew his parents would accept.
