Page 59 of Cinder
It was the kindest offer Cin had ever been given, and he wanted to cry all the more for it—for the beautiful gesture as much as his inability to ever accept. Because regardless of whether the prince knew what he was asking, for Cin to live with him, in the castle, surrounded by the crown’s watch, he’d have to give up the Plumed Menace, settle for a quiet, secluded life, watching the prince live out his with someone else.
Cin thought that would kill him just as surely as living under his family’s thumb was.
“Thank you,” he whispered, trying to keep the sadness out of his voice. “You know one of my siblings is still in the running for your hand? They’ll likely be here soon.”
“Which one are they?” Prince Lorenz all but demanded. “I’ll tell the guards to cross them out!”
The thought made Cin momentarily happy, but he did have to return home after this, still. He shook his head. “Don’t. It’ll be just as delicious to see their face when they watch you and I dance.”
“Then dance the whole night we shall.” The prince laughed, adding an extra flourish into his next move. “But please do tell me their name. If they are one of my parent’s favored...”
Cin wanted to sink into the floor as he said, “Floy Reinholz.”
Prince Lorenz breathed out a sigh so relieved that Cin’s anxiety instantly lifted. “They’ve not even been brought up,” the prince said. “I think they’ve only remained on the list this week to give the impression that we’ve included those from beyond the city so that it seems less inevitable when they select a candidate they’ve known for years. As valiant as their intentionswere in inviting the whole of the kingdom to my coerced marriage, they still fear the thought of a stranger within their home.”
That meant Cin had never been an option either. It hurt more than it should have—but exactly as much as he knew it would. More and more, the thought of someone else with his prince was sharply painful where it had been more an aching frustration before.
“Floy, though?” Prince Lorenz made a face. “My God, aren’t they nearly intolerable!”
Cin suspected that the prince was dramatizing things for Cin’s pleasure, but he smiled anyway. “Truly the worst. Though I imagine they put on a decent mask for you.”
“How much of a mask can you don if your only conversation starter is scientific classifications of flying animals?” Prince Lorenz shook his head in mock disgust, though after a moment he looked sheepish, the impenetrable depths of his gaze seeming to part for Cin to view the full breadth of his curious emotions. “It was actually an interesting topic, I can’t lie.” His lips quirked. “If only Floy talked more about pigeons, I might have been seduced.”
Cin slid his arms around the prince’s waist, his gaze landing pointedly on Prince Lorenz’s mouth. “Is that the only reason you’re here with me, then? It’s all down to the pigeons...”
“You do know a fair bit about one particular winged fowl,” the prince confirmed, leaning closer as he wrapped the arm on Cin’s hip firmly around his back. His lips brushed Cin’s, but instead of kissing, he spoke, ever so gently. “It’s one of the many, many aspects of you which fascinate me.”
Prince Lorenz pulled Cin’s upper lip between his, then Cin’s lower, breathing into them between his gentle sucking. Cin could manage nothing but to release that air in a sigh, cradling the prince’s lower back in one hand. There were people watching,he knew, people jealous of him, hating him for this, even, but somehow that made it all the more delicious.
For once, Cin was the one whose life everyone else wanted.
He lay his head onto the prince’s shoulder after, swaying absentmindedly to the music.
“Truly, though,” the prince said, solemn and soft, “if my parents lose their minds and select Floy as my partner, I swear on my cold and bound heart that I will throw myself off the dovecote tower before I submit to marrying them. I would never subject you to such a thing.”
Strangely, the thought of watching anyone marry the prince felt just as terrible in that moment, but Cin covered his flash of despair with a snort. “Don’t you dare subject me to your untimely demise either.” He kissed the prince gently on the cheek before snuggling back against him. “At least, not unless you’re taking me with you.”
Prince Lorenz hummed sadly. “How tragic that would be...”
The two of them together was already tragic, though, Cin knew—whether it had hit Lorenz or not, Cin was certain he’d not emerge from the highs of their free-falling relationship unscathed. And perhaps a part of him wanted no one in their vicinity to be untouched by that. He drew back, both hands finding Prince Lorenz’s, and held on tightly.
Through the entrance hall, Floy emerged, their stance tight and their expression already clouded by jealousy, yet somehow the sight of them couldn’t dampen Cin’s desires in the slightest. “Though we’ll still see each other, this may be our last night like… like this,” Cin told the prince. “I want to go out in a blaze of glory with you. Before you give your hand to another, I want them all to know it was me you chose first.”
“Well, isn’t that serendipitous?” The prince outright simpered. “Because I want the entire kingdom to know that you are the most magnificent creature to ever breathe.”
For what felt like hours, Cin was barely ever out of the prince’s reach, not from the delicacies they slipped each other, to the turns Prince Lorenz took Cin in across the dance floor. It was all things they had done during previous ball weeks, but it felt different this time. No longer a first, but something better. Something fuller. Where an unfathomable man had been six weeks before, there was now a friend and lover; sometimes still mysterious, but just as often Cin found he could spot the emotion beneath the prince’s mask of charm, and predict his responses in seamless rhythm. They flowed together, enthralled still, but now also in tune.
And the whole room noticed.
Where there had been rumors before, now there were facts: jealousy and defeat, some guests turning angry while others slipped out or faded into the corners. The woman Prince Lorenz had been with on the balcony the first ball night tried to steal him away for a dance, only to be graciously turned down. Her neck reddened from the strength of her blush and she stormed off into the garden. One of the twins left to console her.
All the while that Cin and the prince moved through the room, amusing themselves in every way they could think to, he kept an eye on his sibling. Floy was watchful as well, their gaze always turned toward Prince Lorenz. Toward Cin. He could only spot their resentment in the tiniest of twitches and the way they kept pushing forward to try to speak with the prince, only to be ignored as he wrapped his arm around Cin and laughed at somejoke he pretended Cin had whispered to him. Their growing frustration was enough to make Cin giddy, though.
It served Floy right to feel less desired, for once. Less esteemed, and exalted. Without their mother to hoist them onto a pedestal, perhaps they were realizing that they were just a person, like any other—no more or less above the drudgeries of life. Cin had as much right to a beautiful party and an attentive lover as they did.
And Floy was not the only one upset by that.
Who does this arrogant seducer think he is?the other guests whispered.Lower class, is he? But then it has to be magic that makes his outfit so fine… Would Prince Lorenz truly put his kingdom in this stranger’s hands? The prince is a rake, surely, but regardless of who he sleeps with, he’ll choose a competent marriage partner, right?Even Floy was saying it.
