Cinders [Completed]

Chapter 32: Polished

"I'll be back to see you soon," Orion promises.

As he walks back the way he came, I feel something lift me up from the soles of my feet. This is real. This is actually happening.

I am happy.

"Hi Orion." I hear Lucy say from just around the bend in the hall. Without meaning to, my ears kind of perk up.

"Hello Lucy," Orion replies.

Lucy's voice is conspiratorial.

"Carol told me Lee got a haircut. Did you tell her it looks good?"

My eyes widen. Goddess, Lucy, I swear.

"I wasn't looking at her hair," Orion murmurs defensively.

Lucy scoffs.

"I know you're a prince, Orion, but sometimes I swear you're a boy!"

"Lucy!" I call. "Lucy, is that you?"

"Coming, Lee!" Lucy sings from down the hall. I hear Orion's footsteps fade away.

Lucy comes into view. She's holding a shoe box in her hands, balancing it carefully as she hobbles forward.

I give her a dead pan expression. "Are you - are you trying to get Orion to flirt with me?"

Lucy beams and pushes past me, her crutches muffled by the thick carpet.

"So, on Saturday, everyone will know?" Lucy asks eagerly. Orion must have told her. She's got her claws deep.

Sighing, I sit beside her on my bed.

"I guess so," I say.

"What are you gonna wear?"

"I don't know, Luce," I laugh.

"You should wear pink. I think you look nice in pink. It's your color."

She trails off, looking down at the shoebox in her hands.

"What's that?" I ask, expecting to see a pair of sparkly shoes or some other item she's adored for years

"Here," she says tentatively. "I didn't - I wasn't - I know you've already said I should keep it, but Orion said that the announcement's on Saturday, and now you want to stay, uhm, and it will be official, and I think that changes things."

She opens the box and pulls out my mother's mating blade.

The last time I had seen it, it was hardly distinguishable. But now, it's perfect. The rust has been cleaned away, the blade restored. The carvings on the blade are so intricate that for a moment, I just examine them in the light. The handle is a dark leather, matching the scabbard.

"Who did this?" I ask, taking the blade from her without thinking about it.

"Orion asked if he could get it polished," Lucy says. Her eyes jump from me to the knife. "I tried to show it to Mom, but, uh, she didn't like it very much."

"You've been to see Mom?" I ask. Other than the trial, I hadn't seen her in a week. I know where her room is; but I think I'm correct in assuming she doesn't want to see me.

"Just the once, to show her the blade. I think - I think things would've been different, if she had held onto it. I think it would've been better."

"She wouldn't have used it on Dad," I tell Lucy apologetically. I think of the look in Mom's eyes, leaving the courthouse, her mate just condemned. I couldn't see her standing against him, not on her life.

"She might have. I would've," Lucy says, asurety in every syllable.

Lucy's blue eyes burn with conviction. I believe her.