I can’t say it wasn’t satisfying. Watching everything my stepmother ever wanted get ripped from her greedy, power-hungry hands. But I’ve had enough of the ugly side of Midnight.
However, I find myself escorted to my chambers by Kaison and the King himself.
“I am so very sorry for your misfortune this evening, Cinder,” the King says, though the wheels of his brain seem to be spinning too fast to be that sincere. “But I am now seeing the benefits of your presence. I believe the best course of action is to move up the date of the wedding.”
“I—I don’t think I can.” I feel numb and cold all over.
Kai shoots me a strange look. Is it hurt?
I’m too in my own emotions to parse his out.
“Nonsense,” the King says, walking to my closet. “You simply have cold feet, but I know what will help with that.” He pulls out my glass slippers and I practically choke.
Kaison goes deadly still.
Before either of us can react, the King sets them on the ground and stomps down, smashing them to bits. They are nothing but powder by the time he is done with them.
Shock and panic war for dominance within me. I can't catch my breath. I have no way home. No escape. The guards aren’t going to let me waltz out of here and cross the border. I am truly a prisoner of King Charming. A scream builds but gets trapped in my throat, rubbing it raw with unexpressed anguish.
I want to lash out, to claw at the King's smug face, but I can't move. I'm frozen, paralyzed by the enormity of what's just happened.
“Get out,” Kai says in a low tone.
The King regards his son with new appreciation. “Perhaps you aren’t the disappointment I always thought you to be.”
“Get the fuck out,” Kai repeats, his gloved hands clenched tight.
The King merely chuckles. “You can keep your pet after all, my boy. Turns out there are many doors she can open I hadn’t considered.” With that he sweeps by and out of the room, the door shutting behind him.
Kai and I meet eyes. The intensity in his gaze sends a shiver down my spine. There's anger there, yes, but also something else. Something that makes my breath catch in my throat.
He swallows hard. “Cinder, I?—”
“You can thrall.” I state it as a fact. A terrible truth. You'd think I’d get used to facing them by now, but it still turns my stomach and prickles like needles at the nape of my neck.
“Yes, I can, but I almost never use it. Cinder, you can trust me. I promise I would never do anything to hurt you.” He rambles, his words tripping over each other to assure me.
“Kai, I know.”
“You. . . what?”
“I know you won’t hurt me.” The words come out almost defeated. Because despite everything, despite all logic and self-preservation, I do know. I feel it in my bones.
“You know,” he says slowly, disbelief coloring his tone.
He sounds like a parrot, and I’d normally rib him for it, but I’m not in the mood.
“I know you won’t hurt me because you love me.”
It hangs in the air between us, heavy with implication. I see pain flash across his face, quickly masked but unmistakable. My heart constricts, aching for him, for us, for this impossible situation we've found ourselves in.
“And Kai?”
“Yeah?”
“I love you too.”
The vulnerability of the confession terrifies me. But I can't hold it back any longer. Not when everything else has been stripped away.
