Page 111 of Moonmarked

I pulled my hand down on my lap, and it took all of my willpower not to say something stupid involving Rune, and it wasn’t easy. It was hard as fuck to hold myself back, but I did it.

I even smiled, though I’m sure I looked insane with how I was feeling inside. “I’m not worried about my safety, Lyall. I made it all the way here with Rune, didn’t I? And I survived in Mysthaven all by myself. I’m not as helpless as you seem to think.” I batted my lashes at him and let that sink in for a second. “I’m just saying, it’s pretty reckless to bring a creature that size into your court. If things go south, the damage he could do, the lives he could take, would simply not be worth it for…whatexactly are we going to be looking at here?”

“A fight,” Lyall said, his voice just slightly rougher. “We’re going to be looking at a fight.”

Shivers ran down my spine. “And you don’t think things could escalate and the giant could somehow make it out of there and try to escape?” He’d said it himself—they’dcaught himin the Eternal Water.

But Lyall wasn’t worried in the least. “It’s the Hollow, Nilah. If only you were more patient, you’d see it for yourself. The Hollow, once it activates, doesn’t let anyone out of it. The magic is too strong even for a fully grown giant.”

That actually made me feel a bit of relief, not going to lie.

“No way out,” I whispered, almost like I was reassuring myself.

“No way out—except victory,” Lyall said with a nod. “Or death.”

There went my stomach again, twisting and turning, but before I could even think of something to say, Rune jumped off the chair on my other side and said, “Care to make a wager, friend? Come, let’s see the fighter.”

And without a glance my way, he went near the edge of the box and looked outside, his shoulders relaxed, his hands in his pockets.

Lyall didn’t even hesitate. “Please excuse me for a moment, Nilah.” And he went to join Rune.

The queen’s eyes were on the side of my face, and the weight of her attention was too heavy not to turn and look at her. See what her expression said this time, if she was still thinking up ways to take my life.

But this time, she looked different, I thought. Though I could very well be mistaken, she looked…curious. More in disbelief than anything else—which was absurd.

And the crowd cheered again the next moment when a loud roar filled our ears, so both of us turned to the giant.

Not enough air went down to my lungs—and it had nothing to do with the illusions that apparently kept this box shielded from the outside. It was just the sight of that creature with its heads raised to the sky, both of them roaring the same sound at the same time.

Two heads. Two fists. Chains still clinging to those wrists like ornaments—and the crowd cheered so hard my ears hurt.A fight.It was a fight to the death of whoever was going to be fighting that giant, and the people werecheering. They knew it was a fight, yet they cheered like they were about to witness a miracle instead.

“Normally, I’d give a speech right now to encourage the people to support each fighter individually,” Lyall said, turning his head toward me for a moment from where he stood with Rune.

Rune turned to me, too, just a quick glance.

“Oh,” I forced myself to say, and held back all the other thoughts buzzing in my head.

“But today, the circumstances are as they are, so we’ve hired a commentator to announce Borg’s opponents,” he continued, and he was still smiling.

I smiled, too, though I’m not sure how I looked when I said, “Nice.” What the hell else was I supposed to say?Sorry you’re pretending to be dead and you can’t comment on the upcomingslaughterthat’s going to happen right in front of our eyes?Because it would be slaughter. Pippa was right, this was not a sport, no matter who called it that.

“Look—there they are!”

Lyall turned to the arena. All the others who were sitting on the chairs with me, including the queen, stood up to get closer to the railing, to look at whoever was going to be fighting a fucking giant.

Meanwhile, I gripped the armrests with all my strength, allowed myself to close my eyes and focus on breathing until I got my heartbeat under control. I could still leave. The three guards who always watched me, and five others who were no doubt here with the queen and the prince stayed back, behind the chairs and the table, and they wouldn’t stop me. I’d just tell Lyall that I had a headache or something—I could just go. I didn’t need to see, damn it.

Iwasn’tgoing to see.

Then the voice echoed in the open air over the arena—the sharp voice of a woman, no doubt amplified by magic, because the sound of her was crystal clear, like it was coming from invisible speakers.

Focus on Rune,I told myself, and I kept my eyes on him no matter how hard I wanted to close them. It was Rune and he was right there, barely ten feet away from me. It was okay. We were both okay, and as soon as Lyall sat down again, I was going to tell him I didn’t feel well—which was the truth. All I had to do was focus on Rune and calm down until the roaring stopped and that woman stopped cheering with the crowd, stopped listing all those names of people who were about to die.

So far she’d said six, and if six people were in that arena with that giant, I wasn’t going to just feelnot well,I’d be sick for real.

It worked, if only halfway. I focused on Rune, the width of his shoulders, the way he moved so little, the way he rested his hands on the pale stone in front of him, the way his profile looked when he turned his head to the side. His hair was a mess, and I could almost feel how smooth and thick it was between my fingers, and slowly, the voices around me disappeared to leave way for the ones coming straight out of the memory of two nights ago.

The throne room and the chair he’d put me in, the way he’d fucked me, slow and rough at the same time.Desperate.

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