After I watched him leave, I pressed the bedside lamp switch on and off a few times before I exchanged the gown for his shirt. Inhaling his scent, I slid back down under the covers. “I’m in the castle, Mama, and I think I found my prince,” I whispered to the ceiling.
And just before I closed my eyes, I had one thought.
Through the pain came triumph. Redeeming, embracing, liberating.
Chapter 20 – Cinder
Three Weeks Later
A sudden noise brought me out of a deep sleep I didn’t think I’d ever had. I jolted awake, confused and disorientated. The thumping beat of my heart filled my ears, turning my breaths to erratic wheezes.
Where was I? What woke me?
Panicking, I touched my upper lip and brow. My fingertips came away wet with sweat.
Something flashed across the wall, and my heart skipped a beat, fear joining the sweat rolling down my spine. Slowly, I sat up, my imagination running wild, seeing faces in the shadows, hearing voices in the groans the house made.
Then I heard that noise again and angled my head to listen.“Hello, kitten.”
No! I shook my head, my body trembling.
I’m dreaming. Master’s not here. I hurt him. He doesn’t know where I am.
Trying to calm myself, it took deep, slow breaths to remember I was in Xavier’s home. I blinked a few times, trying to adjust my eyesight, not understanding the darkness around me. Was it all a dream? Was I back in the green room?
Xavier had left the bedside lamp on for me, hadn’t he?
Now, though, the only light came from a silver glow outside a window. My head swiveling from side to side, I checked all the darkened corners, scared Master had found his way to me. When I heard the soft tapping again, my gaze flew to the window. From where I slept, I couldn’t see anything.
“He said you were safe here, remember,” I whispered. My eyes stuck to the window, I pushed the covers aside and slid my legs out of bed. “Be brave, Cinder.”
Over the last three weeks, and only because Xavier told me how to tell the difference between morning, afternoon, evening, and night, I tried to ignore the sounds around me. It wasn’t easy. Unlike the green room, where everything was so quiet, I could hear myself breathe before I drifted off to sleep. This house was filled with many different noises, and getting used to them wasn’t easy.
My feet touched the soft carpet, and I stood.
Even with the silence in the green room, I was a light sleeper, mainly because I never knew when Master would come. Sometimes he never came for long periods, and others, he’d have more than one play time in a day. Since coming here, though, tonight was the first without any drugs, which meant there was no escaping the louder noises like the one that grew louder the closer I crept to the window.
