Page 112 of Moonmarked

Then my eyes locked on Lyall’s.

My heart stood perfectly still. He was right there by Rune’s side, and he was looking at me, a corner of his lips curled up, his golden eyes wide and…full.

“Your Highness, if I may.”

Thank God.

A soldier had spoken—another soldier who’d come from the other side of the box, and I hadn’teven noticed. But now everyone was looking at him, and Lyall was no longer smiling at me but waving for him to approach.

The soldier did. He bowed to the queen, then went to Lyall and whispered something in his ear while the giant roared. Thankfully I couldn’t see him from the chair. I could only see Rune, who looked at me for only a second, and then he smiled.

I could have sworn that he smiled at me—just a ghost of a smile, but I felt it all the way to my soul.

The soldier moved back, and Lyall had his eyes closed and his head down for a moment.

“What is it, son?” the queen asked, her voice light as a breeze, and Lyall waved a hand.

“Some trouble with the Hollow downstairs. Nothing to worry about, Mother.” He turned to Rune. “I need you down there to make sure everything’s in order.”

Rune paused for only a split second. My heart almost jumped out of my ribcage.Please, don’t go…

“Of course,” Rune said with a nod.

“Come back soon. I don’t want to watch the game without you,” Lyall said and stepped back to let him through.

“You won’t notice me gone,” Rune said, bowing his head at the queen as he passed to get to the other side, and the soldier who’d whispered in Lyall’s ear followed close behind.

There went every bit of calm I had managed to gather in the last few minutes, disappeared down whatever door there was in the floor beyond that table, together with Rune.

“Nilah, come closer. Come see,” Lyall said, and he came for me with his hand raised.

On the inside, I screamed at him to get away from me,reminded him how utterlycruelhe and every person in this arena was for even allowing such a thing to happen, let alone to label it asport.

Instead, I put my hand on his and I stood up, went closer to the edge right where Rune had been standing because I needed to see him, needed to know when he’d be back.

“Comfortable?” Lyall asked.

“Very,” I said through gritted teeth, but if he noticed he didn’t comment.

Folding his hands in front of him, he looked ahead at the arena, at the giant and the six men and women who were in there with him, waving at the crowd, screaming and cheering like they had no clue what the hell was going to happen next.

Lyall sighed loudly. “I have a feeling this is going to be the best match we’ve seen in a long time,” he said, and he definitely believed it.

thirty-seven

There wasan opening just below the seating tiers before the thick stone that outlined the arena began, possibly over fifty feet tall. There, I could just make out the woman who was speaking—at first, I thought into a microphone, but then I realized she was just speaking into the palm of her hand.

She was encouraging people to make their bets because the match was about to begin any second, but they’d run into some technical difficulties.

Lyall was talking to the queen standing on his other side, and the other fae who had comments to make about every other“player”in the arena, and I kept turning to look at the other side of the box, waiting for Rune to show up.

He didn’t, though.

Instead, I saw him in that opening, walking just past the commentator, who stopped whatever the hell she was saying when he passed, and turned and said something to him, something nobody could hear. My heart stood perfectly still. It was very easy to tell that it was Runebecause he was the only one here with dark hair and black clothes, so he was pretty noticeable even from a distance.

My fingernails tried to dig into the stone as I watched him talking to that woman, and then she turned back to the arena, and Rune went farther ahead, disappearing from my view.

“What’s going on down there, Lyall?” I asked—impossible to help myself.

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