I heard the other words she couldn’t bring herself to repeat.Be the Caspian I love.
The Mark moved under my sleeve.
It felt like a door I had been leaning against for years had opened from the other side, and I had to decide whether I had been holding it shut or waiting to be freed.
I reached into the box.
Cosima’s eyes widened slightly.
Hope did that to her before she could stop it.
So did fear.
I took out the cuffs.
They were cold.
They were always cold at first. Then they warmed to the body and pretended they belonged there.
I held them for one breath.
Two.
Then I set them back in the velvet.
“I will not wear them.”
Cosima’s throat bobbed once and she exhaled like her breath had been ruined by the relief.
“Your father will ask why.”
“No,” I said. “He will know why.”
“That is worse.”
“It’s the same in the end.”
I closed the lid.
The sound was small.
It felt enormous.
My school cuffs were still at my wrists, plain and buttoned and suddenly suffocating me.
I unfastened them.
One.
Then the other.
Cosima watched without speaking.
The air touched the Mark on my wrist.
Visible enough.
“Caspian,” Cosima said again.
