So This is Love (Disney Twisted Tales) - Elizabeth Lim Page 0,2
the trees, the scraps of curtain peeking out from the windows. Even the clouds.” Cinderella clasped her hands to her chest and turned toward Valors, watching the city sparkling below. “And if we look this way, what a view.”
“I’d never appreciated it much.”
“I see the palace every day from my window, but seeing it from this angle is another story entirely,” Cinderella said. She leaned against the railing, admiring the glittering white palace and the garden skimming beneath it. “I don’t know the next time I’ll be back.”
Then she sat on one of the steps, moving the folds of her gown to hug her knees close. “I used to dream about coming here. Strange to think I don’t have to do that anymore.”
He knelt beside her, taking the lower step. “What other dreams do you have?”
Cinderella paused. Before coming to the ball, she’d had so many dreams. But they’d been simply that—dreams. Wishes, really, if she wanted to be honest about it; wishes about living a different life. She hadn’t even dared leave home, not until tonight.
But she couldn’t tell him that.
“I’d like to see more of the world,” she said slowly, “and I want to help people—”
She stopped. She hadn’t given it much more thought than that. She didn’t even know what it meant to help people—besides, how could she, when she was trapped in her stepmother’s house?
“Anything else?”
Cinderella pursed her lips. After the ball, she might never get a chance to discuss such things with someone again. She’d go back to working for Lady Tremaine and her stepsisters, to being forgotten.
“I’d like to remember what it’s like to be loved,” she finally confessed, staring at her hands. As soon as she said it, she wished she could take it back. It sounded miserable, even to her ears. But she couldn’t remember the last time anyone had said anything kind to her, let alone held her hand and spent time getting to know her.
To have to go back to mistreatment and neglect—it was last thing Cinderella wanted to think about. She wished this night could last forever.
“You must think I’m hopeless,” she said quickly, before her companion could respond.
“No. Not at all.”
She didn’t dare look up at him, but he shifted closer to her so their fingertips nearly touched.
“I can understand. Sometimes, I wish that for myself, too.” He drew a deep breath. “My mother used to tell me that there are many kinds of love. Unconditional love, self-love, love for your family, love for your friends . . . romantic love.” He paused, seeming to search for the right words. “That all are important in fulfilling the heart. You say you haven’t been around people in a long time. For me, it’s the opposite. I’m surrounded by people, but few see past my . . . my . . .”
“Your heart?” Cinderella asked.
His mouth bent into an unreadable smile. “Yes, my heart,” he said softly. Then he kissed her.
She’d never been kissed before, never been in love. Yet when his lips touched hers, something inside her bloomed, coming alive for the first time in years. In that moment, all her worries and troubles grew wings, leaving her with a rush of joy she hadn’t felt in a long time.
Out of nowhere, a clock chimed, and her fairy godmother’s warning came rushing into her memory:
At the stroke of twelve, the spell will be broken—and everything will be as it was before.
Cinderella jolted, ending the kiss. “Oh my goodness!”
“What’s the matter?”
“It’s midnight.”
“Yes, so it is.” When she started to rise, he caught her hand. “But why—”
Cinderella faltered. A hundred explanations spun in her head, but the only thing she could say was: “Goodbye.”
“No, no, wait. You can’t go now, it’s only—”
“Oh, I must.” Cinderella disentangled herself from his arms. “Please. Please, I must.”
“But why?”
The clock chimed again, overpowering her sense. What could she say? “Well, I . . . oh, the prince! I haven’t met the prince.”
“The prince?” His brows drew together.
“Goodbye.”
She ran as fast as she could through the gardens and the ballroom, stopping only briefly to wave goodbye to the guards waiting in the halls. Everyone seemed to want her to stay longer, but Cinderella ignored their cries. Even when she left her glass slipper on the staircase, she thought better of retrieving it.
There was no time.
Once she was in the carriage, it sped out of the palace, spiraling down the hill into Valors. It was the longest minute of her life. Little by little, her sparkling ball