The Date with Cynder

Sam whispered goodbye and made his silent retreat, leaving us alone except for the musicians.

Cynder was dressed in an exceptionally smart suit which fitted him much better than the one he’d borrowed from Leo the week before. He saw my hesitation and walked over to me, taking my hand.

“I hope this is ok for you.”

The way he was looking at me, I could see that he really wanted me to be happy with the surprise. In any other situation, I would have been blown away. It was so romantic, but I was still seething inside. How could he do something so amazing for one woman when he was married to another?

“Did you do this for your wife too?”

I folded my arms and glared. No amount of flowers and music would make up for the biggest lie he’d been hiding from me.

He took on an expression of confusion which surprised me. Surely he wasn’t going to deny it.

“What are you talking about? I don’t have a wife.”

“Please, Cynder. I know about her.” I pulled out the photo Leo had given me from a small clutch bag and handed it to him. He took it and began to laugh. It was not the reaction I expected.

“Why is this funny?” I demanded. The musicians began to falter as they watched the scene unfold in front of them.

“I don’t know where you got your information, but I’m not married, and I’m certainly not married to Drusilla and Deirdre. They are my sisters.”

“You never mentioned sisters,” I replied unconvinced, pulling the photo back from him. They looked nothing like him. Like each other, sure, but they had nothing of the beauty Cynder possessed. There was no family resemblance at all.

“When my parents died, I told you, I ended up with a number of families. One of them was a countess called Anastasia Bloom. She asked that I call her stepmother. These two were my stepsisters although, they weren’t really. They were her two daughters. They treated me like garbage, making me do all the work while they spent their time gossiping about princes and spending all their money on ridiculous fashions.”

I didn’t stay long, but the short time I did, I was forced to take on their surname.

“Cynder Bloom?”

“Don’t remind me! I changed it back to York as soon as I left. Is that why you thought I was married to them? I’m only about fourteen in this picture.”

“Not both of them,” I said, feeling a mixture of relief and stupidity. I should have figured it out. I took the photo back and studied it. He did look young in it.

I needed to speak to Leo and tell him to stop snooping on Cynder. I could actually do with introducing them all properly. Cynder had met my family, but apart from the odd mealtime, he’d not spent much time in the palace.

“Is that why you’ve been ignoring me all week? I thought I’d done something wrong.” He took my hand, and the ice in my heart melted. “Do you like all this? I wasn’t sure what to do for you.”

I looked around. The musicians picked their instruments back up now that the drama was over and began to play again.

“Ok? It’s the most wonderful thing I’ve ever seen. You went to so much trouble.”

“Most of it is magic,” he admitted, before guiding me to one of the seats.

He took the seat opposite and almost immediately, out of thin air, a waiter came and placed a plate in front of me. He served Cynder next, who thanked him. When I looked around, he’d completely gone again.

“Was he magic too?” I whispered, not wanting to cause offense.

“He’s a dog. The musicians are rats, and if Daniel brought you here, you already know that the horses were mice.”

I gazed at the musicians. The four of them played beautifully and looked so smart in their finery. If it weren’t for all of them having whiskers, I’d never have known, they weren’t always human.

I stifled a giggle at the thought of it.

“Don’t laugh, it’s complicated magic!” but Cynder grinned too. “It’s taken me ages to train Fido to bring the food up rather than eat it.”

I burst out laughing, unable to control myself.

It diffused what I’d feared would be a difficult situation.

“It is really good!” I replied, taking a bite out of the starter. It was some kind of fish dish, quite unlike anything I’d ever tasted before. “You made this yourself, didn’t you?”

“It’s the Queen of Thalia’s favorite. She lets me make it for her,” admitted Cynder.

With everything that had been going on, I’d not thought much about Luca’s parents. They’d lost a member of their staff because of me, and now I was out on a date with him instead of their son. I made a note to write to them the next day apologizing. They would have seen that it was Luca’s idea to bring Cynder here, but that didn’t stop me from feeling guilty about it.

When the first course was finished, we waited for Fido. The silence between us was palpable. Neither of us had said a word to each other throughout the whole course. As I was eating, I could pass this off as enjoying my meal too much to talk, but now that we had finished, the quietness stretched on too long. It had been so easy when I could hate him for lying to me about having a wife. Sure, I’d been upset, but it meant I could marry Luca without anything getting in my way. The fact that Cynder hadn’t kept this hidden from me made things messy again. Messy, because I still wasn’t sure that Luca was the man I wanted to marry. It wasn’t helping that Cynder had organized the most romantic night I’d ever had in my life. I fished around in my brain for something to say.

“Why did you come back Cynder?” I asked. “You know I’m marrying Luca and you know that this whole charade is only for the media. Why put yourself through it?”

“I came back because I needed to. I knew I could help here a lot more than making food in the kitchens of Thalia. I’ve been waiting a long time for the chance to turn things around. Thank you.”

“What for?” I asked.

“For giving me the opportunity.”

I nodded, grateful that he could not see what I was thinking. I’d wanted him to give me an answer like that. It made everything less awkward, but now that he had, my heart ached. The truth was, I’d wanted just a small part of him to come back to see me. No matter how complicated it made everything. I shouldn’t have wanted it, but right then, I knew I did.

‘It’s better this way!’ I thought to myself as Fido took away our plates and replaced them with clean ones. A huge silver bowl was brought and laid between us, smelling delicious. Fido ladled the stew or whatever it was into my bowl. It was a spicy concoction with a creamy texture and quite unlike anything I’d tasted before.

Watching Cynder as he dipped a chunk of bread into the stew, I followed suit. It made me smile. There was no way he’d have gotten away with it at the palace. Jenny would have admonished him for not using the right cutlery. For some reason, it made the meal even more delicious.

After we’d finished, Cynder rose and took my hand.

“Let’s dance.”

“I can’t. I’m sorry.” It was clear that dancing was the reason he’d brought me up here in the first place. The whole of the rooftop was covered in petals, and I’d never seen a more romantic dance floor in my life, but that was the problem. If I danced with him, if we even spoke too much, or about the wrong things, I knew my heart wouldn’t be able to take it. I had to be strong. It wasn’t fair to Luca otherwise.

“Why not?”

“Because I’m scared. I’m scared that I’ll forget who I am or you will. I’m scared that I’ll do something to hurt Luca. I’m scared that if we start, I won’t ever want to stop.”

Cynder smiled down at me. “I’m not going to hurt you, Charm.”

“Just being here with you hurts. Don’t you know that? Why do you think I’ve avoided you this week? Because I fell in love with you a long time ago, and I don’t know how to turn that off. I didn’t want you to come back because I needed to get over you. When I thought you were married, it made things easier, but now...” I paused, unsure how to carry on. “How am I supposed to get over you when we have to go on dates like this? You have made this date the most perfect date I’ve ever been on. I may be a queen and used to such wonderful things, but you’ve still managed to make it more special than anything I could have imagined. I was just going to take you to the bowling alley in the palace. I never in my wildest dreams expected you’d do this for me. I love it, and I hate it all at the same time because as much as I want this date to be real, it can’t be. You and I can never be together. You know that, and yet you still went to all this trouble for me. The dress, the food, the carriage. My plan was to make this the least romantic, most boring date ever.”

I was babbling, and I knew it. Everything I’d tried to keep inside, spewed up to the surface. Cynder held up a finger to my lips.

“Shhh.” Just that small touch was enough to have my blood burning through my veins.

“I’m an idiot, and I’m sorry. This is too much.”

“You aren’t an idiot...” I began.

“Yes, I am. I should have known how this would affect you. I’ve thought of nothing all week but planning this so I could win you back. I didn’t come back for the Magi, I came back because I wanted to. Being apart from you has been hell. I was so happy when I found out that there was to be another competition. A chance to get you away from Luca. I’ve wanted nothing more than for you to come to me and tell me that it’s over between you and him.”

Tears began to spill over, and I made no attempt to stop them.

“I can’t end things with Luca. I’m the queen. Can you imagine how it will look if the public finds out I’m with you? Yeah, they all think they want that. It makes great television. They love watching us go through these dates as if we are lab rats under scrutiny, but the truth of the matter is, if I really do break my engagement with Luca, they’ll never trust me. Even the Magi. Yeah, they want you as their king, but if I dump Luca for you, they’ll never want me for their queen.”

“I know all that.” He wiped a tear from my cheek with his thumb. We were only inches apart, and yet, it might as well have been hundreds of miles. “That’s not the reason you can’t be with me, though, is it?”

“No,” I admitted. “I can’t do that to Luca. He’s stood by me through the worst time of my life. You weren’t there...” I saw the look on his face and immediately felt bad. “Not that you could have been. I know you were hiding from the law. I’m not blaming you, it’s just this is the way things are. I’ve promised my life to Luca. I can’t go back on that promise.”

Cynder nodded. “You are a true asset to your kingdom, my lucky Charm. Luca is a very lucky man. I wish you both well.”

He stepped back, dropping his hand. I could still feel the warmth on my face.

“Please don’t be like that. I don’t want to hurt you either. I don’t want anyone to hurt.”

He turned and pointed his wand right at me. At first, I thought I’d hurt him so much that he was going to attack me. As I stepped back away from him, I felt something happening around my body. My dress began to move and became lower. What was going on?

When the strange movement finally stopped, I looked down at myself. The beautiful dress and the high heels were gone. Instead was a shabby pair of trousers and a dull brown tunic. Over the top, my beautiful cloak had turned a shoddy brown color and it had holes all over it. On my feet were a pair of brown boots.

When I looked up, I saw that the beautiful suit Cynder had been wearing now matched my own attire. We looked like a couple of street urchins.

“What are you doing?” I asked in shock.

“I’ve been selfish. This date was a date for a queen. Luca can give you that next week.” He took my hand and led me to the stairwell. “Let’s get out of here.”

As we ran down the stairs into the night, I looked behind me. Four rats emerged from four suits and ran off into the darkness, their instruments hitting the ground.

As we got to the bottom floor, I pulled my earrings out. They really didn’t go with my new outfit at all. Slipping them into my tunic pocket, I pulled the cloak hood up, to conceal my face.

“No one will recognize you,” Cynder said, pulling the hood back down. He showed me my reflection in the restaurant window. My hair hung loosely over my shoulders, and my face was now free of make-up and filthy. I barely recognized myself. If Xavi saw me now, she would pitch a fit. I, on the other hand, felt strangely free.

“Come on,” he said, pulling me with him.

“Where are we going?” I laughed as he took me down a street I’d never been down before.

“I’m taking you on the least romantic, most boring date you’ll ever have. You are going to love it!”