Page 154 of Moonmarked

I don’t know what it was about her, but Ifeltthat look she gave me to my very bones.

And then we climbed down the platform.

Just like I suspected, the magic didn’t extend to the rest of the room. My God, I could breathe freely again—until I turned to look at where I’d come from and saw only a white wall covered in ivy and flowers.

“Illusion,” Rune whispered, squeezing my hand over his forearm. “It’s just an illusion. Come.”

I don’t know how he knew where we were sitting, but he led the way and I didn’t argue. Whatever kind of anillusionthey’d made on that platform, it was as if it didn’t exist at all. As if that wall and those flowers were real, when I knew they weren’t. I’djust beenthere—they weren’t real.

It made me wonder how much else of what I’d seen had been fake, too. How much Ihadn’tseen at all.

It no longer matters,I reminded myself. This was my last night in this place, and then I’d be gone.

The music that was coming from the band on the other side of the room was sharp and soft at the same time. Theband was made up of five fae, three blonde, but two with auburn hair, which made me think they were Unseelie. Their faces were nearly identical, though. They all had their hair back, pointy ears visible, and they played with such grace—slender fingers gliding over the golden threads of a harp, flutes made of crystal, and drums that pulsed like heartbeats. They moved like they’d rehearsed this very melody for centuries, and the thought that that was an actual possibility made the hair on the back of my neck stand at attention.

The golden lights floating in the air seemed to follow their rhythm as they moved. The air smelled strangely of oranges and flowers, but not too heavy. Exactly right.

Then there were the guests.

Most wore white and gold, and most looked pulled out of a fantasy rather than real. Golden eyes gleamed under the lights, white teeth flashed every few seconds, laughter and whispers and compliments everywhere.

But the more I looked, the more I thought they laughed too loud. Smiled too sharp. Whispered too harshly. Maybe it was just the tension I’d put on myself, but by the time Rune told me to sit at one of the smaller tables near the left of the currently invisible platform, the more this entire place seemed to be a deadly beast coming to swallow me whole.

“Hey, look at me,” Rune said when he sat down by my side, my hand in his on his lap. “It’s as good as over now.”

As good as over.

I focused on those words, on his eyes, on the feel of his hand holding mine tightly.

When I smiled at him, it wasn’t hard at all. “I’m okay,” I said again—more for my benefit thanhis.

“Good. And ignore the stares,” Rune said with a small grin.

“The stares? What s?—”

I stopped speaking when I turned around and finally noticed that almost every person in that hall had their eyes turned toward us.

All those sets of golden eyes, some darker, some light. Some filled with malice, some with curiosity. They were all so damn focused on us, and they whispered in one another’s ears openly even when I was looking right at them. They laughed and giggled and cursed without trying to hide.

“Fuck,” I breathed, turning to the table again.

“It’s just because of me, Wildcat. Try to remember that.”

And that made me fucking angry. “They always look at you like this?”

“I’m a Midnight fae, and a banished bastard. They don’t much like me here.” As he said this, Rune seemed to be in the greatest mood ever. Even his eyes sparkled with mischief.

Impossible not to smile. “You don’t mind at all.”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” he said, leaning a bit closer. “Their approval would be a much worse punishment than being banished.”

Laughter burst out of me, and I brought a hand to my mouth to stop it a second too late. “I love it when you’re in a good mood,” I said, and his smile turned a bit sad.

“I know, Wildcat.”

“There is no magic on Earth, by the way. Just FYI. You never have to worry about someone attacking us or giving us curses or spelled food or something,” I said because I knew how much he worried when we were around thesepeople. I knew because I’d seen how he’d looked when we were at Raja’s. I wanted him to be that relaxed the whole time.

“That actually sounds perfect,” Rune said.

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