I start to reply, but he stampedes right over me: “You can’t just take off in the middle of the day with zero explanation! You have a job to do. You have actualresponsibilities!” His eyes catch on Finn with that last word.
Shame and fury duel within me. I’m in the wrong, and Cygnus knows it.Iknow it. But something about his condescension pushes me over the edge, taking any semblance of remorse with it. I fire back with venomous sarcasm, “I’m sorry, were there more chamber pots that needed cleaning?”
Cygnus recoils. “I can’tbelievehow entitled you are. You’ve been here fora month.A month!Some of the nurses have been here for decades. Youdon’tget to turn up your nose at their duties, and you’re certainly not entitled to take off for a whole day becauseyou felt like it! You are a spoiled, petulant child!”
I take a step closer, shouting, “At least I’m not a bully!”
Cygnus closes the gap.“At least I didn’t sleep my way here!”
“That’senough!” Finn roars. Like a blur, he rushes forward and shoves Cygnus,hard.
The Head Healer stumbles, barely catching himself before he whirls to unleash his fury on the prince. “Thisis why no one respects you! Soldiers died onyourorders, and you don’t give arat’s ass!”
Somehow, Cygnus does not anticipate the punch.
I feel it coming: the windup, the flare in Finn’s scent, the sudden heat in the air. That doesn’t diminish my shock as his fist connects with Cygnus’s face.
We all hear the unmistakablecrackof bone.His nose or his jaw?I can’t tell.
Cygnus staggers back, covering his face with his hands. Blood seeps through his fingers in seconds.
“I—” Finn makes a garbled noise, and he staggers toward Cygnus, palms raised like he’s trying to help, or surrender.
But Cygnus just straightens slowly as his shoulders slump. With crimson flowing down his arms, he asks, “Is there any other way I can serve you,Your Highness?”
He doesn’t wait for an answer. We watch together as Cygnus walks away.
spend hours composing my apology.
The main points are:
1. I am sorry.
2. I was stupid for sneaking off with Finn.
3. He should never have resorted to violence.
4. I am sorry.
It’s a good speech, but I don’t get the chance to share it. Because Cygnus never shows up.
“He’s on bed rest,” Anna says matter-of-factly when I ask after him. “Got into a brawl and had his face bashed in.Stupidpastime,fighting, if you ask me.”
I nod mutely, swallowing my distress. Cygnus seemed fine after the altercation.Furious?Yes. But unyielding, as always. Frankly, he took the hit with more stoicism than I would have expected from the erudite Healer. After all the time I’ve spent cursing and hating and fearing him, it’s hard to fathom that such a larger-than-life figure can be leveled by a single punch.
In Cygnus’s absence, there’s no one to assign me stupid housekeeping chores, and my work in the storehouse proceeds at double time. Before I know it, I’ve completed the distillation process and can start adding the powdered ingredients. I meet with the queen again, and she commends my progress. But as the days stretch into a week, and Cygnus still doesn’t reemerge, I begin to fear something is terribly wrong.
He’s not my only source of anxiety.
On my way to the queen’s chambers one evening, I run into Odessa with one of her ladies. She smirks at my approach. When I’ve stepped past but am still well within earshot, she practically purrs, “I heard someone trashed that poor girl’s room. Such a shame.”
Her companion giggles, “You’dthinkshe could take the hint.”
It takes everything in me to keep walking.
Well, that solves one mystery.
The worst part about Odessa’s ire (other than the time it took to clean up the mess) is how quickly it has become groundless. Finn vanished after the incident with Cygnus. I expected him to seek me out to apologize, or at least explain what I witnessed. Instead, I got a cold shoulder so sudden and thorough that I’ve begun to rethink my entire perception of our relationship. In the garden, I thought that we were perfectly aligned, that he felt the same imperative pull that I did. I even dared to imagine we were dreaming of the same future. But days pass with no word,days Iknowhe’s spending in the castle, thanks to Daisy and the scullery rumor mill.
