Page 136 of Moonmarked

I shook my head, smiled. “No, you don’t. I’m burning far from the eye.”

More laughter, bitter, ice-cold. “I’ve been praying for you to become selfish for years, Rune.Nowyou decide. Now, and for what?! For a mortal?”

I looked up at her. Our eyes locked. “She’s not just a mortal and you know it.” She’d told me herself to keep an eye on Nilah the last time she sent me a shadow message. And Nilah had told me about what Raja told her, too, before the guards found her.

“What is sheto youthen?” Raja demanded.

“Everything.” The simplest truth I’d ever spoken.

She turned her back to me, eyes squeezed shut, hands fisted in front of her chest, like that was exactly what she’d feared I’d say.

I thought it would take more convincing. I thought I’d have to make my case before she agreed, but Raja turned to me again with an exasperated sigh, her expression a storm barely held together.

“Fine. I’ll break the seal,” she said, voice tight. “And I’m not going to waste breath to tell you that you would bestupidto go after her now. That you have the chance of a lifetime to disappear, start over new. Everyone thinks you’re dead, and with your magic intact you can keep it that way?—”

“Raja,” I warned but she continued.

“I won’t waste breath—fine.You’ve bled enough for people who never deserved you.”

If I could only laugh, I would. “This isn’t about politics or the Seelie court—it’s about Nilah.” She flinched when I spoke her name. “I’m not going anywhere—I couldn’t. I could never live with that. Not ever.” I’d choose death every single time.

“Youwon’t liveat all if you go back!” she snapped, squatting down in front of me. “You’re already half-dead sitting here.” She looked down at me, shook her head in disappointment. “You think breaking the seal will magically make you one of them again? It’ll take everything you have just to survive the ritual. And then what?” she demanded. “You’ll crawl back into that pit with nothing left but a death wish? Is that it?”

Yes,I thought. If that was all I had, then yes. That’s the only thing I’d take with me.

But I looked at Raja and I said, “If it were you in there, I’d do the same thing.”

She knew this. She was my family. I considered her my blood even if we didn’t share it. If it were her trapped with the likes of Lyall and the Seelie queen in that court, I’d march over there with nothing but a death wish, too.

For a long, heavy moment, Raja just stood there, her breathing uneven, her fists clenched so tightly her knuckles went white.

And then, with a slow bitter exhale, she shook her head—not in refusal, but in helpless understanding.

“You’re just like her,” she whispered, almost to herself. “Too damned brave. Too damned stubborn, even if the whole world might bleed for it.”

“I am not brave.” Had I been, the Seelie Court would have been burning by now.

Raja pretended I hadn’t spoken at all. “We’ll do it, Rune. We’ll take off that seal. But don’t ask me to stand there and watch them put you in the ground. I survived losing your mother. I’m not about to lose you, too.”

I closed my eyes like I’d expected nothing less. I didn’t dare say thank you, and she knew it.

She turned away. “You’ve got until noon to rest. When the sun is highest in the sky, we begin. And after that…whatever happens is on your head.”

Raja walked out of the hole in the wall and left me alone.

The fire had burned low,nothing left but embers and the faint scent of smoke curling through the air. Raja sat across from me, her back against the ruined stone, arms crossed as if holding herself together with sheer will.

I still had an hour left to regain my strength, I thought. The sun wasn’t high up in the sky yet.

And even though physically I felt much better, my mind didn’t. It felt…sickwith unanswered questions.

“She saw a portrait,” I said quietly, my voice raw still, though the pain had dulled to a throbbing on my side now.

Raja raised her head. “What?”

“Nilah saw a portrait at a Whispering Ball, hidden behind a wall. Half-destroyed.” I rubbed a hand over my face, feeling the weight of what I was about to admit settle like a stone on my chest. “She saw the portrait of the Ice Queen of the Frozen Court.”

Raja waited a heartbeat. “And?”

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