Page 31 of Cinder
“And?”
Cin scoffed a laugh. “What more is there to say? They are thorns in my side whether I like them or not.”
One of the prince’s hands unwrapped from Cin’s waist and he could feel it drift between them, clutched near to Prince Lorenz’s heart as he whispered, “I suppose I knew how that felt.” And he sounded pained, certainly. Pained, but something else as well.
Empty, Cin thought. Would his heart break that same way if he lost Manfred and Floy? If he lostEmma?
Cin recalled the way she’d told him that she’d been excluded from the castle’s inner circle, pouting one moment and sighing wistfully of the city the next, as though being dismissed by the prince merely meant that the rest of the world had opened up to her. Then, she’d daydreamed herself off the bottom step of the stairs that Cin had been trying to urge her up and nearly sprained her ankle.
Idiot child.
“Family is family,” Cin said.
The prince grimaced. “Family is family, and then that family makes you choose someone new to join them as a permanent thorn in your side, and they give you six weeks to do it in.”
“Any front-runners, yet?” It was the same complaint Prince Lorenz brought up every night, and yet so far he hadn’t seemed willing to offer over any ideas as to who he might choose. With the pot dwindling and Floy still in the running, Cin was more and more anxious to know his thoughts. But he also didn’t think he could force them out of the prince.
Prince Lorenz gave a dramatic groan and buried his face back into Cin’s neck. “I’d rather be stabbed through the heart.”
“Just be sure to wait until I’m far gone, so I’m not implicated in it.” Some masochistic part of Cin’s mind imagined for a terrible, fleeting moment what it would be like to press a set of feathers into Prince Lorenz’s bleeding heart, but the horror of it made him so nauseous that he blocked the vision out.
“God damn; I was hoping you would help,” the prince grumbled, a teasing edge to his voice.
“I could not bear the thought! I’ll defend myself against villains if need be, but while you’re clearly a scoundrel, I don’t think you have a malevolent bone in your body.” As Cin said it, he realized just how very true it felt. Even if he couldn’t see beneath the layers of darkness in the prince’s soul, he knew at the bottom was a good man. A slightly arrogant, possibly lazy, definitely lustful man, but a kind one, nonetheless.
Prince Lorenz chuckled. “You think too highly of me. If I am not even a little bit malevolent, it is for lack of skill, not effort.”
Cin elbowed him in the ribs in response. Before he could recover, Cin turned their steed into the town square. “Welcome to Darmburg.”
They dismounted, and Cin escorted Prince Lorenz through a jovial tour of the dark, empty space, even less populated than on a normal night, with most of the townsfolk having gone into the city for the festivities. Cin pointed out the shops he most often frequented and places where memorable town events had taken place, like the spontaneous and scandalous marriage of a local lady to her maidservant, or the time five men had failed to catch a pig for nearly three hours. As he did, he ignored the direction of Dorthe’s home and the time four years before that he’d stalked a man through the square before sliding a blade into his back three streets down the following week, though they felt so much a part of him in that moment that he swore Prince Lorenz would see the truth of him even without the words.
“And this is where your statue should stand,” Cin concluded, dramatically motioning to the center of the square, where currently a simple flowerbed sat. “Then, my pigeons can gather upon it whenever I visit, and grace your bare chest with their droppings.”
As though to demonstrate, Lacey and Rags both swooped low, spinning around each other before shooting off into the night again.
Prince Lorenz nodded, holding his chin as though deep in thought. “I agree, that will greatly improve the scene.”
Cin shoved him in the shoulder. He shoved Cin back with a laugh.
His attention wandered, and he meandered away from Cin. It took Cin a moment to realize where he was heading: the announcements board. In the darkness, all but the largest words were too small to properly make out, but Cin’s gaze still caught on the flyer of the Plumed Menace. Perhaps he should have felt uneasy standing beside the man whose very parents had put that price on Cin’s head, but between the prince’s utter lack ofsuspicion and the unfortunate fact that Cin would only be seeing him for a few more weeks, it seemed pointless to worry.
The prince didn’t even glance at the flyer, immediately singling out his own ball’s announcement.
Snorting, he tugged the paper down. “I think enough of Hallin knows I’m to be married, don’t you?”
“Perhaps yourone true lovewill wander forth from the forest next week, read the announcement, and rush to the ball?”
“Love?” the prince scoffed, so softly Cin might have heard him wrong. He stared at the paper in his hands, stared as though seeing right through it. “There’s only one love of my life who I’d like to wander in from the forest, and he’s the ass who left me in this predicament.” With a bitter sniffle, he crumbled the paper, letting it fall from his fingers after. “Butheis never coming back.”
Cin hesitated to respond, uncertain whether the banter and lust of their friendship allowed for this level of comfort. But he wanted to be that support for Prince Lorenz—even if it was only for the night. And that was enough.
He slipped his arm through the prince’s, embracing him gently. The prince leaned into the touch, breathing out a trembling sigh. Neither of them spoke, but it seemed slowly, cautiously better.
They kept wandering, arm in arm in the quiet of the night. As they approached the highest point in the square, Cin slowed their pace. He let his head fall against the prince’s shoulder and stared out toward the shining of the capital, where the castle’s towers were a clear glimmer against the stars.
“When she was alive, my birth mother used to boost me onto her shoulders and make me look for the castle towers.” He didn’t know he was going to say it until he did, but the words came so easy in the dark, with Prince Lorenz. Everything was easy like this. “She said it was lucky to see them.”
Cin could feel the prince’s lips in his hair, pressing little kisses to his head. “Well, now you’re here with me. Is that not luck?”
