Page 120 of Moonmarked

It was the bird.

It wasmybird—my friend that Rune always made me to give me light. To keep mecompany.

It was my friend, and it looked exactly like the nightingales from the forest back home.

It was my bird.

In the blink of an eye, I was on my feet in front of those bars, fingers wrapped tightly around the metal as the bird lost more and more of its light, faded away by the second.

I didn’t scream. I didn’t cry. I didn’t shake anymore, and even my heart beat almost normally.

The bird faded all the way while I watched, unblinking—but it was okay. It had been there, and that was all the proof I would ever need. It had been there. I’d seen it with these same eyes that were dry now, and I knew exactly what it meant.

Rune was alive.

The thought echoed in my mind, chasing away with such ease every bad thing I’d tried so hard to fight against just moments ago.

Then I heard the footsteps behind me.

thirty-nine

I turnedaround with my breath held, thinking it would be a guard, a soldier coming to check on me or something—but it wasn’t.

Instead, it was a man dressed in dark blue velvets underneath his cloak threaded with the same gold color as his hair, and I had never seen him before, but he was looking at me like he knew exactly whoIwas.

We both froze in place, and for a moment, neither breathed nor blinked. Our eyes locked, his wide and golden,surprised,yet at the same time he looked like a man who knew exactly what the hell he was doing.

The words were at the tip of my tongue—who are you?I wanted to ask, but I couldn’t. Because the man moved, and when he did, the light of a torch that must have been mounted near the bars of this cell fell on his side and I saw him better—perfect face, flawless skin, and the edge of a golden mask just peeking out of the large pocket of his coat.

I saw the golden silk ties, and I was picked up and thrust back in time, somewhere in a tunnel underground,looking at two men who had come to stop me from going to save the prince.

Those men had worn that same mask, too. Those men who’d attacked us, and Rune had killed one, had let the other go.

Well, by the looks of it, he was here now, and his hand was glowing with golden light as he touched the lock of the barred door.

In his other hand was a knife. A small knife with a curved blade, one I’d seen before. One I’d hidden underneath the pillow of the bed I slept in.

My heart stopped beating for a moment, but my mind was calm.

I wasnotafraid, which surprised me at first, but…

My instincts knew better. They always did. Theyfeltthis man and his energy, and they remembered the woman in the Gallery of Time who’d come for me with her knife. Who’d put that knife in my hand and ran away.

The lock clicked. The light of the man’s hand faded. He stepped aside, never looking away from me, and he pulled the door open.

Smiled.

I can’t say that I was surprised, but I wasn’t sure why. My instincts were calm, and I had this feeling that he was going to say something, talk to me,explain. His mouth opened, and I waited, my whole attention hanging on the words that were going to leave his lips.

“You—”

That’s all the man said before he began to choke on thin air.

I had no idea what the hell was happening, but part of me thought he might bekidding—that’s how absurd the entire moment was. My feet were glued to the floor,and a heartbeat later, the bright light came from somewhere beyond the wall of the cell, stretching like ribbons of gold, wrapping around the man’s shoulders, his neck.

A blink, and they were gone.

Another, and Lyall stepped into the light of the torches, hand raised, eyes on the back of the man’s head as he fell to his knees first, then hit the floor on his side.

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