Page 155 of Moonmarked

“It is. And we can stay until you can’t anymore, and then we’ll come back here for a while, too.”

He paused for a second. “I’ve been thinking about that, Wildcat.”

“Rune…”

“Hear me out. I just think that it’s not fair for you to have to leave your family a second time after everything you’ve gone through the first.”

I leaned in and touched his cheek. “I amneverleaving your side again. You’re stuck with me for the rest of your life.”

His smile turned bright again. “I don’t mind that one bit.”

Then the music stopped abruptly.

Suddenly, Rune straightened his shoulders and looked behind me—to where the wall covered in ivy and flowers was.

The wall that was slowly starting to shimmer, like a veil had been dropped in front of it.

A moment later, it began to fade.

“The illusion is coming undone,” Rune said, and everyone who’d been whispering and laughing and talking had stopped, too. All eyes were on that wall now, not on us.

I saw the woman first—Hessa with her golden bowl in her hands, her white dress impeccable as she stood at the very edge of the platform with a smile curling her lips.

Then, I saw the seer, sitting down in one of the chairs behind the long table in the middle of the platform, behind her two men dressed in green velvet.

The queen was there, too, dressed in gold, her crown shining bright even before the illusion of that wall faded all the way. She stood behind the table with her hands in front of her, chin up, eyes down. Her hair was combed back, her pointy ears peeking through, her soft red lips turned downward at the corners—and she lookedtired,which I didn’t expect.

She looked exhausted as she stared ahead at her people for whom she had no kind of positive emotion.

Then, there was Lyall.

The illusion faded all the way. Lyall stood with his hands at his sides smiling, right near the edge of the table. He wore red velvet and gold in all shades, his face carved out of the smoothest marble, his shoulders back and his chin raised.

His eyes locked on mine for only a split second, and the cold inside me raged. Without the warmth that had been there before the unbinding, it took control of me within a second, and I felt my heart freezing over, even though it still beat.

A distant voice in my ear whispered a warning I didn’t understand until it was far too late.

forty-eight

The hall had gone deathly still.

Lyall stepped forward to the very edge of the polished platform, grabbing a glass half filled with wine from the table as he did. There was no coronet or crown on his head, but he stood there like he already believed himself king. I didn’t know him well enough, but from the few times we’d hung out, hebehavedlike he thought himself king, too.

He spoke just as the gasping and the slow whispers among the guests began.

“My friends,” Lyall said, his voice smooth, strong. “My people. For too long, you have been made to grieve. To wonder. Todoubt.”

I could have sworn that the smile that stretched his lips turned down the temperature in the room instantly. I squeezed Rune’s hand with all my strength, but I couldn’t look away from Lyall for a single second.

“And I imagine most of you are in shock tonight, which is understandable. But I stand before you now, not a ghost, not a memory.” He spread his arms to the sides and raised his chin.

“I am alive. I am victorious. And I amdonehiding.”

A murmur rippled through the crowd—shock, awe, fear. I looked around then, just for a second, and it was genuine, which surprised me. I’d gotten so used to seeing Lyall that I hadn’t once thought about the people who believed him to be dead. LikeIhad when I first saw his body on his bedroom floor.

Lyall continued the next moment.

“I have survived betrayal,” he said, pacing slowly on the edge of the platform, his every step measured. “I have bled for this court. Fought for its future. While others plotted in the shadows, I endured.” He raised his glass higher. “And I did not endure in vain.”

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