Page 108 of Moonmarked

“Sport?By Emer, that’s no sport! The Crown’s Gauntlet used to be reserved for contenders for the royal guard positions—but now? It’s perverted into thismadnessand masked as tradition.Hmph.”

I was genuinely surprised because she hadn’texplodedlike that for anything I’d asked her before. She usually didn’t even bother to answer me at all.

And then I was to follow the guards to the Hollow, theplayground of this sport that was, apparently,notan actual sport, and soon I found out exactly why the chambermaids hadn’t let me eat this morning.

The guards didn’t tell me anything, of course. They just took me a floor underground in the palace, which, not going to lie, scared me shitless. The corridors we walked through were wide and there were more than enough fae lights floating about the ceiling so I saw everything, but there was a part of me that was convinced I was being sent somewhere to die. I was being tricked, lured to a secret place where nobody would hear me screaming, and nobody would ever find my body, either.

Good thing I was still bound to Lyall; otherwise, I’d have most definitely made an attempt to escape.

But when we finally made it to a set of stairs what felt like hours later, I wished I had at least tried. Not only did the stairs go on forever—and I meanforever—but they were spiral and narrow, and really, really steep—and they took me out into an arena.

I kid you not.

I was just as shocked when I finally pushed through the last of the steps and came out into thisbox,for lack of a better word, that was built at the very top of a large arena.

Breathless, I moved forward as the wind blew my hair to the side, and the magic in the air almost suffocated me as it coated my tongue. I made it to the thick stone railing, and I looked out, my mind completely blank still.

The Hollow stretched out beneath me in a massive oval, carved deep into golden stone on the side of a hill that I could barely make out in the distance. Staggered rows of seats wrapped around it in steep tiers, packed with fae dressed in jewel-toned silks and velvet. Laughter rippled through the crowd, and people shouted at one another. Theair thrummed with tension, too, and the sunlight revealed every little detail.

The box I was in stood like a crown atop the arena. The pale stone it was carved in was draped in sheer gold and red silks, and it offered the perfect view of the arena below.

Behind me, a single row of high-backed chairs, almost identical to the one where Rune had me the night before, took up most of the wide space. A large table to the far left was covered in a silk cloth, and full of all kinds of food and drink. We were framed by sculpted columns, and if the buzzing in the air was anything to go by, this entire box was under some heavy-duty magic.

I could imagine why—Lyall and the Queen and several other fae I had never seen before stood near the table with glasses in hand, talking,nothiding, like they knew for a fact that they couldn’t be seen.

Then Lyall came to me.

I stayed where I was, waiting, breath held, reminding myself that it was okay, that I didn’t need to scream. I could justtell himthat I wanted to go back to my room like a normal person. No need to panic.

“I wonder if there is a color out there that does not becomemorewhen you wear it,” Lyall said, bowing his head deeply when he stopped in front of me, then reached for my hand. At that point it had become a habit to put mine over it—a habit for him, too, to gently brush his lips over my knuckles innot-quitea kiss.

“So flattering,” I said, eyes behind him, on the queen and the four men and woman who stood with her, all of them watching me like fucking hawks.

“How could I not be? You look divine, Nilah,” Lyall said, golden eyes scrolling down the length of me, but I was too overwhelmed to feelmoreoverwhelmed by now.

“What…what is this, Lyall? We’rereallyhigh up, and this place is…open. So many people…” Yes, the seats were spacious and big, but there were still at least over a hundred fae around us.

“Oh, don’t worry about it—this box is covered in illusion magic. Nobody down there can see anything here. You’re perfectly safe so long as you stay here.”

“Notme—you! You’re the one pretending to be dead,” I said, and he smiled.

“I’m happy to know you worry about me, Nilah, but there is no need. Come,” he said and waved toward the table at the other end.

“Actually, I think this isn’t the right place for me, Lyall. I’m just going go back?—”

“Nonsense—this match will be incredibly entertaining, I assure you. I haven’t told youwhois playing today on purpose—it’s a surprise. You can’t leave yet,” he said.

Shivers rushed down my back in an instant because I knew that whatever he considered asurprise,I wasn’t going to like it one bit.

“Really, I don’t think this—”is something I’ll enjoy,I was going to say, andthe queen looks at me like she’s imagining strangling me this very moment.Seriously, she was holding her glass to the side of her neck while the others talked, and she was looking at me with a small smile on her face. So fucking strange to see, and I couldn’t even look at her for longer than a couple of seconds at a time. It wasn’t even the crown that looked too big for her in this lighting, about to fall right off her head. It was just the look in those ice-cold, golden eyes, and that smile that could make Mona Lisa confused.

Except before I could finish speaking, someone else came into the box from the other side, the left cornerbehind the queen and the other fae. Someone I knew the shape of, the energy of, even before I saw his face.

Rune.

My eyes were on him like he was a damn magnet, and he looked almost surprised to see me there, too, but he hid it quickly. Walked ahead, around the fae and bowed to the queen.

“Ah, everybody is here now. You can’t leave, Nilah. I won’t allow it. Stay,” Lyall said, and it was a damn order wrapped up in a sweet voice.

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