It was 2:41am, and though one couldn’t glimpse the stars from the glaring metropolis of New Beijing, their burning presence loomed over Thorne’s head like an anvil waiting to drop.
The stars had always been freedom, relief, adventure to Thorne, but now their unmoving hold—what they represented to him—felt more like a penance.
But none of that mattered. Not in this moment, without her.
Thorne had spent the past five hours flitting past space stations and towering skyscrapers in an attempt to collect his thoughts. He was grateful that he had honed in on his piloting skills during the past year. It meant he could fly without it engrossing him so much he couldn’t think.
Because that’s all he had been doing. Thinking. And if his autopilot had been on the entire time, he must have hardly noticed otherwise.
Part of Thorne wished he was back in the garden with his feet bare. That way he could curl his toes in the gravel and feel like he was secure in standing upright. But on the pristine marble floor of the palace, his toes had no room to move but in his clacking dress shoes.
Even in his socks they were cold, while the warm atmosphere and his own dread heated the rest of his body. The disparity was dizzying.
Cold feet. Ha.
Typically it was an analogy applied to weddings, but he seldom saw it in full action. Of course, it had been funny to see Jacin, the usual picture of self assurance, blanching on his wedding day only two months prior. Jacin would have never backed out, but he had required a few words of consolation from his groomsmen to return to his normal, brazen self. He then gave Thorne a look that indicated it was not to be brought up.Ever.
Thorne didn’t have that kind of cold feet though—neither the kind Kai had had, where his giddiness for marrying Cinder combined with his anxiety and painful reminders of his last wedding. All was remedied when he talked to Cinder through the doorway, Iko insisting they were not to meet in person.
If you have cold feet, put socks on! she’d shouted.
They snuck past her to meet up just before walking down the aisle anyway.
Maybe the difference was the outcome. For his two friends, they had known despite their nerves, they would end the day married to the love of their life. Thorne had no such certainty. He wasn’t even asking a similar question—just telling Cress all that had been weighing on him, with no way of foreseeing the end result.
Yes, Cinder does kick Thorne for his inappropriate jokes and rolls her eyes at his shameless flirting, but remember that she canonically laughs at a lot of his jokes and jokes along.
The comedian and exhausted friend trope are good but please don’t take away the pureness from their friendship. Cinder was so glad to have a friend and they both care about each so much.
Like when Cinder thinks he’s dead? And Thorne stabs her and starts sobbing? They both value their friendship and Thorne is one of Cinder’s biggest, constant supporters through the whole series.
There’s a reason Marissa Meyer had Thorne as Levana’s last bargaining chip, because Cinder and Thorne’s friendship is so integral to their character developments and the overall story.
something I really appreciate about the lunar chronicles is how well it portrays the relationship between best friends. cinder and thorne spend all their time bickering and pretending they don’t even like each other and the minute they’re separated cinder could not be grieving any more obviously and thorne is obviously filtering all his actions through a lens of “what would cinder do?”
I 100% guarantee that if Jacin Clay still did what he did (which was all noble btw, he only listened to Levana and betrayed the group to make sure he could keep an eye on Winter, whom he dearly loved since they were children) but he had Thorne’s cocky attitude, over half the people that hate him would love him
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