Chapter Twenty
1571 Words
In one of the prince’s hands was the obsidian shoe Ella had left behind when she fled the ball. She watched as he turned it over and over in his hands before she inched back, determined to reach the safety of the trees she had just left. Her right foot slid on a mossy rock, and she collapsed onto the ground with a stifled yelp.
Grey’s head swung up as he glanced around the garden. It didn’t take long before he spotted her, sprawled in the mud. His gray eyes met hers, but instead of shying back, he dropped the shoe at his feet and scrambled up.
Ella immediately stuck her hands into the muck at her feet and began smearing it across her face in the vain hope she could disguise herself before Grey reached her.
“Are you injured?” The prince’s voice was gentle as he walked slowly toward her.
Ella sat frozen, hands in her lap, not daring to speak. If he heard her voice…if he realized she was human…
He knelt in front of her, his gloved hand cupping her chin and tilting it up. “Why are you covering your face with grime?” He frowned. “The shape of it strikes me as familiar. Have I seen you before?” His thumb caressed her cheek, wiping a clear spot on her otherwise muddied skin.
She shook her head once, lowering her eyes to the ground.
His voice dipped low. “I think I have.” His thumb continued to wipe her cheek until all the mud was gone. “However,” Grey leaned toward her. “I do not understand why you feel the need to disguise yourself so.”
Ella struggled to find her voice. “I—I’m an abomination,” she whispered. “Just look at me.”
“I would not call you an abomination,” Grey replied. His hand wiped the rest of the mud from her face. “Not when you were disguised as undead, and not now, when you are so very alive.”
“How can you believe that?” Ella’s eyes welled with tears. “How can any of you believe that?”
Grey leaned toward her. “Would an abomination plant vegetables in an abandoned garden? Would an abomination allow a stranger to share the fruits of her labor?” His other hand rose until it, too, cupped a cheek. “Cinder,” he whispered. “I believe I have fallen in love with you.”
Ella leaned backward. “That’s impossible.”
“Impossible or not, it is the truth. You have proven to be a source of the unexpected in my life.” He paused. “We both know the slipper I rescued from the steps of my castle belongs to you. Would you be willing to put it on and become my bride?”
“I wasn’t permitted to attend the ball.”
“Even so,” Grey replied. “Will you try on the slipper?”
“I really can’t,” Ella protested weakly. “It wouldn’t fit me, anyway.”
“We both know that slipper will fit you perfectly, Cinder.” The prince’s right eyebrow quirked upward. “The only question I have is…why do you keep pretending it is not yours?”
“I can’t discuss it. Please don’t ask me to.”
He frowned. “It is because of your step-mother, then.”
Her resolve crumbled. “I wasn’t supposed to be there,” she whispered.
“Everyone was invited,” he retorted. “Did you not receive an invitation?
“You don’t understand. You can’t understand.” Tears began to slip down her cheeks, and she pulled away from him.
“Then explain it to me, Cinder.”
“That’s not my name,” she said. “My Papa named me Ella. Ella Rose Adler.” The name felt odd on her tongue, like the French her father used to speak to her when she was very young.
“Well then, Ella Rose Adler, will you do me the kindness of trying on the slipper I found on the steps of my castle?” He bent almost to the ground in an awkward semblance of a bow. “Your prince, Timothy Grey Lothair, would deem it a great kindness.”
She couldn’t help herself; the laughter bubbled out. “Very well, I’ll try on your slipper.”
He rose, walked the twenty paces back to where the slipper sat in the mud, and picked it up. “It is an interesting piece of footwear, actually. I would love to know where you had such a thing made.”
“They…they were a gift,” Ella stammered. “A friend of my Papa’s gave them to me.”
He grinned. “Then it should fit you perfectly.”
And just like that, she realized he had tricked the answer out of her. “You…you’re an imp!”
He walked back to where she sat. “You have said that before. In this very garden, as a matter of fact.” Kneeling down, he held out the glass slipper. “Cinder…Ella…will you try on this slipper, and become my bride?”
Ella extended her right foot. Grey removed the tattered and worn slipper she wore, replaced it with the obsidian slipper, and pulled her up into his arms.
“I have wanted to do this since I first met you,” he whispered.
Ella’s heart began to race. His princely status meant nothing; his undead status meant even less. He was going to kiss her, and it would be her first kiss. She tilted her head upward, and her eyes slid shut.
When his lips touched hers, gentle and kind and warm, her breath caught in her throat. Ella pulled back and stared at Grey in wide-eyed wonder. “You…you’re alive,” she gasped.
“How can you possibly be alive?” Ella demanded. “I believed I was the only one…”
“Much the same way as you, I would imagine,” Grey replied.
“But the king and queen are undead. Aren’t they?” Ella hands rose almost of their own accord and began touching Grey’s face, wondering at the warmth under her fingertips.
“I am an anomaly, much as you are.” Grey stripped his gloves off and held up his hands. “See?”
“And they…they still love you, even though you’re human?”
He paused before answering. “They love me, but they do not understand why I am human.”
“At least you had that,” Ella murmured.
Grey frowned. “I know your step-family did not treat you well.”
She leaned against his chest, relishing the sound of his heartbeat. “Everything was fine at first. When Papa was here, we were a family.”
“Where is your father now?”
Ella snuggled closer. “My step-mother told me he left, and I was young enough to believe her.”
“But you no longer believe that?” Grey’s hands tightened around her when she shook her head.
“I think they ate him,” she confessed. “But there is nothing except suspicious circumstance. There is no proof of any wrongdoing.” She sighed. “There’s nothing I can do.”
He kissed the top of her head. “Ella, you are my chosen bride. You might not have the power to see justice done yet, but do you really believe I will not do everything to ensure your father’s murder is avenged? This is my kingdom, undead though it may be.”
Ella’s brow crinkled. “What are you going to do?”
“First of all, I am going to take you back to your step-mother’s house.”
“What?” Ella yanked herself free of Grey’s embrace. “But why? Why would you do such a thing?”
“In order for me to act, I have to have some evidence of wrongdoing, Ella. I promise you,” he stepped toward her and cupped her cheeks in his palms. “I promise you, I will not leave you alone in there.”
“They won’t do anything if you’re there. You’re their prince.”
He grinned mischievously. “I will not be there as their prince, but as the boy you met in the garden.”
“You’re out of your mind,” Ella stated. “They’ll never let you through the front door.”
“Then I will have my answer, for it is not their place to deny you friends. Trust me, Ella. This will work.”
Ella took the hand he held out. “Very well, then take me home.” Her stomach growled. “After you help me dig up some radishes, that is.”
- Writer
