Page 1 of Cinder
CHAPTER 1
Ella
The explosion rocksme from my sleep, shaking me in my bed and ripping me from my dreams.
At first, I think it’s an earthquake, but the acrid odor of smoke and burning metal hits me, and I rush to the window where a shiver of fear races down my back.
Outside my window, in the darkness, my father’s car is a blackened shell of twisted metal and broken glass scattered across the driveway of our estate.
I’m foggy from a deep sleep, and for a moment my brain struggles to understand what I am seeing.
But the realization hits quickly.
Car bomb.
And it was my father’s car.
“Father, no!” I scream, running from my room.
I tear down the staircase and across the front foyer of our home. My heart pounding, I fling open the front door and fly down the front steps.
I need to get to my father.
I have to know he is okay or help him if he isn’t.
But Santo, my father’s right-hand man is running toward me, his eyes wide with terror.
And suddenly it’s like everything happens in slow motion.
He grabs me by the arms to stop me from running toward the wreckage. I struggle, but he holds me back.
“He’s gone,” he cries, pulling me into his arms and holding me tight. “They killed him, bambina. They fucking killed him.”
Four days later,Santo sits next to me at my father’s funeral and squeezes my hand. I’ve known Santo my whole life. He used to bring me chocolate bunnies at Easter and sugar cookies at Christmas when I was little. Now he is a stoic figure beside me. Back straight. Chin high. Jaw tight. Eyes cast down. His face shows every one of his sixty years.
On the other side of me is my younger sister, Lucretia. At sixteen, she’s already suffered through loss, and I’m worried how she’ll cope now our father is dead. She hasn’t been thesame since she watched the murder of our mother in front of her eighteen months ago. Now she lives in a world of her own where books are her life and the outside world is not welcome.
We are sisters, but no one would ever guess by looking at us. She’s our mother’s daughter, with auburn hair, hazel eyes, and the same soft glow our mother had. I take after our father with dark brown hair, bright blue eyes, and strong Moretti resilience.
Next to her, our older brother, Luca, looks bored and put out for having to be here. He’s from our father’s first marriage and is ten years older than me. He’s got similar features to our father, but there is something sinister and cold in his bottomless, black eyes. He’s only been living with us for a year, but if I had my way he wouldn’t darken the hallways of the house my father built for my mother.
Beside him, Luca’s mother dramatically dabs her eyes with her handkerchief as if she’s suffered some great loss. But I know there was no love lost between her and my father. He told me once the world would be a safer place without Carolina De La Cintos in it. I didn’t know what he meant at the time because he didn’t like to talk about her. But when I met her yesterday, and I looked into the same black eyes as her son, a shiver crawled down my spine, and the hairs stood on the back of my neck.
There is something cold and cruel about Carolina.
To make matters worse, Luca has moved her into our house.
“We are at war now, Ella. I need to keep mother safe.”
Letting out a rough exhale, I decide not to think about them. Instead, I focus on getting through this funeral. I’m trying to be strong for my father. I’m trying to keep the tears from streaming down my cheeks, but it is no use. My father was my world and now he is gone, and I can’t hold the sobs at bay or stop my heart from shattering into a billion pieces.
Beside me, Santo keeps his eyes ahead, but his hand gives me a gentle squeeze. It says,I will take care of you, and I feel a sense of calm that gets me through the rest of the funeral.
I couldn’t know that in less than a week, Santo would be dead too.
CHAPTER 2
Ella
