Page 136 of Kingdom of the Two Moons

We spin again and he suddenly stops. “You still do not understand,” he says, almost frustrated.

I shake my head, my heart beating a little too fast. No, I don’t understand a lot of things. The way my skin feels more alive when he touches me, the way I feel differently. Bold, maybe, but in an entirely new way.

“They envy you because you are much more beautiful than they will ever be,” he says.

I still cannot follow him. His eyes warm as he takes in my features. I look away. “They, you…”

“We are perfect, yes. All of us, blessed by eternal perfection. But perfection dulls the eye over time. It is our flaws that make us special. Our broken parts that make us unique.” He traces the memories of scars on my face before he leans in again. “You are very beautiful, but you are also wild, and alive, and feeling. More alive and feeling than many of them will ever be.” He says it with a touch of sadness. With a touch of melancholy. With a kind of longing.

And for a second, I don’t care whether this is a game. I don’t care what I am or who I am. Or was. A part of me just wants.

I let my gaze stray, afraid he can sense exactly what effect he has on me. Afraid of myself and what I want to do.

Black eyes catch mine. Under one of the willows lies Caryan, his head cushioned on a silken pillow.

The last angel. The face of dreams and nightmares.

He’s wearing a long, loose, black hunting shirt that reveals a lotof his white chest. Two stunning women sit on either side of him, one undoing his pants while the other kisses his lips, which are ripe with the color of wine.

His eyes are barely open, but I can feel him watching me, his eyes glittering black as fresh tar through his thick lashes while he keeps kissing the woman.A woman with skin as light as mine and hair equally dark and long.

I try to shake the thought off…

But can’t.

All the things he whispered to me suddenly run too fresh in my blood. Make my ribs cave in on my lungs. And just like that, it’s as if I feel that collar again, cool and eternal against my delicate throat.

Horrified I tear my gaze away from Caryan, back to Riven. It takes everything I’ve got not to touch my neck to see if it’s really gone. But I feel raw, my heartbeat stuttering, uneven, my breathing fast. Before I know what I’m doing, I’ve slinked past Riven and am running toward the hedges. Deeper into the maze, into its shade and dark niches.

Riven follows me. I hear him behind me. Only there do I look up to him. “Is Caryan… is he going to keep me forever?”

“Forever is a strong word, Melody,” Riven starts, but I cut him off, still breathless.

“Do not… do not evade the truth to spare me. I deserve to know.”

“I think so,” Riven says gravely, his eyes losing their shine.

I can still feel the lingering touch of that collar that was never there. And yet the skin on my throat keeps burning with its otherworldly cold. “And if I don’t obey whatever he wants me to do?” When Riven doesn’t answer immediately, I take a step back from him. “I can never leave?”

“Melody,” he says, reaching out to me, but I only step back further.

The blaring of a horn cuts through whatever he was about to say. His face looks tormented as he peers back over my head towardsthe center of the maze. “The chase. We cannot stay here,” he says then, his eyes gliding back to me.

“The chase?”

“It’s a midnight game. People will chase each other through the labyrinth,” he explains somberly, then offers me his hand. A silent truce. Like in the woods. Like back in front of Lyrian’s house, when he said he would protect me.

I take it.

“Who will chase whom?” I ask.

As if on cue, a tiny pink paper bracelet appears around my hand, a blue one around Riven’s.

When we step back into the clearing, everyone has gathered, each one with a subtly differently colored bracelet around their wrist. “Your bracelet has a twin. But you don’t find out until the person with the matching bracelet finds you, or vice versa,” he explains when the horn sounds again. “But we won’t participate. Just stay close to me and we’ll get out.”

His voice is serious, and he almost pulls me along, as if something about the game is dangerous.

The horn sounds a third time and at that, the crowd begins to run toward us like a herd of game chased by lions. We step back against a hedge to let them pass.

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