Cinder wakes encased in warmth. She feels fuzzy from her head to her toes. The warmth is pleasant but it isn't the good kind of fuzzy.
Her head feels like it's been stuffed, none too gently, with cotton. Or like someone's been smothering her in her sleep.
Arms encircle her torso. She is cocooned in softness and comfort. If only her head wasn't pounding so badly.
Her ribs are on fire. It's a dull kind of burn that throbs with every pulse of her heart.
"Nnhh." She grits her teeth as the groan crawls from her throat.
"Are you okay?" The voice by her ear asks.
Cinder yelps, her human fist connecting with the squishy side of someone's cheek.
"—!" Thorne yells. And a few other choice words.
Her ribs blaze as she squirms out of his arms and shoves herself up against the wall.
He's swearing and holding his chin where the soft flesh meets cheek. "What the hell! Why'd you punch me!"
"Who hit who?" Iko squeaks.
"What is going on?" Jacin barks. And then he adds, "You've never been hit before by a woman? That I find very hard to believe."
Thone rolls his eyes without good humor.
Cress's voice is absent but Cinder catches a glimpse of cropped golden curls out of the side of her eye.
Cinder doesn't answer. She bends double with the pain, clutching with her good arm at her bruised chest. She's too busy cursing to respond. Her cyborg arm hangs loosely at her side and she can't move it. There is no feeling at the end of her elbow where the circuits begin.
A cool hand settles over her shoulder and she freezes.
"Hey, Cinder, it's okay." Iko rubs a soothing palm into her back. "You're safe."
"Why was he holding me?" She points an accusing finger at Thorne.
He still cradles his face. "You started snuggling me first." He muffles at her.
She frowns fiercely. That's something she'd remember. Her head still feels like a stuffed bag of barbed wire and wool. But she knows that is something she would remember without a doubt.
Thorne shrugs. "You can hit me again if we get to sleep like that every night."
Cinder groans and, with her one working hand, yanks the blanket from Throne's lap to bury her face in.
A/N:
the deleted scene/companion the deleted scene/companion piece to drowing