Page 4 of Moonmarked

My God, I should have trusted those instincts, that voice in my head that told me to run while I still had the chance before I even made it to the palace. I should have trusted myself for once in my fucking life—and now I was never going to see my sister and my father and my best friend again.

I was never going to see Rune’s smile again.

“Put your hands in front of you, mortal,” the guard insisted, and I’d have done as he said, only I couldn’t move if I tried. I couldn’t cry, I couldn’t speak, I couldn’t scream—I could just stare and hold on and…

Jump.

The voice popped in my head, and this one wasn’t mine.

It was Rune’s.

My heart stood still for a beat and I no longer even saw what was in front of me, not the guards or the man screaming that awful word as he pointed at me still. I focused only on my mind, on the shadows that fell over me, and I could have sworn that they were alive now. I could have sworn that they breathed, too.

Jump, Wildcat.

There—that voice again, clear as day.

I’ll guide you. Jump.

I turned my head to the side just to glance behind me, beyond the railing, to the Seelie Court that stretched far and wide below, vast, golden, a place pulled out of a dream.

And the river that wrapped around the queen’s palace was there, with golden lanterns placed on its bed as if to say,see? There’s nothing to worry about, nothing to fear.As if those lights were speaking to me the same way as that voice.

Rune.

I searched for him with my eyes among the guards. I searched for him like he was the air that would keep me alive, but he wasn’t there. And I was certain that his voice in my head wasn’t really his. Just my imagination, my last attempt to survive my end.

But then the guards were so close, barely five feet away, and their golden swords looked so sophisticated, so sharp, sofinal,and I realized that I did want to jump. I realized that even if I didn’t survive the fall—which I probably wouldn’t—I would rather die in that river, than be stabbed by that gold and bleed my life away on this polished floor.

The guards moved, spoke.

I moved, too, though I didn’t make a single sound.

I turned so fast everything around me became a blur, and I climbed on the railing. It was easy to do with the leather boots on my feet, and the dress I wore allowed me to move freely.

The guards shouted, ran. The man called memurdererone last time—that I heard.

With my eyes wide open, I jumped.

Regret exploded in my chest at the same second. My mouth was open, but I couldn’t scream. My voice was stuck in my throat, andyou’re a goddamn fool, Nilah!,and death had never been so close to me no matter what I’d gone through in the fae realm. It had never greeted me as warmly as it did now when my eyes refused to blink, and my hands tried to hold onto thin air, and the sight of theriver that had been possibly a hundred feet below reflected my end.

No more thoughts in my head, no more voices. I fell so incredibly fast, and soslowat the same time. My hands moved in front of my face and all that was left inside me was the regret. Because if I’d stayed, maybe I could have convinced the guards to let me see the queen and Helid. If I’d stayed, maybe they’d have put me on trial and they’d see that I wasn’t guilty.

If I’d stayed, I would have survived.

But now, I was going to die.

I fell in the water and my earsabsorbedthe sound of it, isolated it so that it felt like my skull was full, too. Like my thoughts were swimming in this same water, and my entire body had become it.

My limbs moved—somehow, I was still alive. I wasn’t sure if I was hurt, and I didn’t much care, to be honest. But the shock of still being alive was chased away by the shock of seeing those shadowstearthemselves from the bottom of the river, which was much deeper than I’d thought, and reach for me at an incredible speed.

At this point nothing about what had happened felt real. As I looked at those shadows reaching out to me like hands, I realized there was a good chance I could already be dead. Because there was no way I had survived that fall—too high.There was no way I would ever make it to the surface of the river and breathe again, and there was no way that those shadows weren’t going to suffocate what little air was left in my lungs.

Still, I tried.

I couldn’t tell you why—possibly just my survival instincts taking over. But I moved my limbs and I tried to swim for the surface, both for air and to get away fromthose shadows I was convinced were coming to kill me for whatever reason. Like I forgot who commanded them.

Like I forgot Rune.

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