Page 3 of Moonmarked

The queen paused, looked at him. Slowly raised her hand to touch his soft fur, and the lynx closed his eyes.

Something about the touch of the Ice Queen. Something about the strength and the gentleness of her hand.

“I do, my pet,” she whispered. “Have faith, for I am not going anywhere. Not until I’ve made sure my people have the court that they deserve.”

“You can marry. You can give birth to the next queen—or king. You can—” Vair said,triedfor one last time, but the queen stopped him.

“Hush now, pet. Go check on my food.”

It was an order he couldn’t disobey.

Vair didas he was told, went to the kitchen where the staff had prepared the queen’s dinner, sniffed and analyzed every bread loaf, every grain of rice, and every ounce of liquid, until he made sure it was safe for the queen.

But by the time he returned to her chambers, the queen was already changed—and there was no undoing what she had done.

one

Murderer.

Out of all the names I’d been called in my life, I genuinely never believed thatmurdererwould be one of them, yet that man with his bloodshot eyes and his index finger shaking as he pointed at me was screaming it still. Third time now—wait,fourth.

“Murderer! She killed the prince! Attack!”

The golden railing was behind me. More guards were coming from down the hallway on the other side of the balcony in front of Prince Lyall’s bedroom doors, now closed. There was no way out, no wayanywhere,and I was doomed.

I was doomed—not only because I was surrounded by all those guards and that fae man screaming at the top of his lungs, calling me the least favorite name I’d ever been called, so much worse thancuckoo.

I was doomed because the prince was dead.

Prince Lyall of the Seelie Court of Verenthia was dead, and I’d seen it with my own eyes, had seen his body on the floor with a knife sticking out of his chest, his once whiteshirt red with blood. I’d seen it, and this fae was telling everyone thatI’ddone it—and yes, I had a history of disregarding my own self when enough people insisted that something was true or wasn’t, butthisI knew for certain.

I hadn’t killed the prince. I couldn’t have if I’d tried. I’d had no weapons on me, no means, and most importantly—no fuckingmotiveto kill someone I almost died a hundred times to come heal.

“Step forward at once,” one of the guards closest to me said, his golden sword glistening under the light of the lanterns mounted on the wall that were full of golden Seelie magic.

“Do not attempt to attack, mortal. Step forward slowly,” said the same guard again, and would it be too much to fucking laugh in his face right now?

Do not attempt to attack,he said, as if he couldn’t see that I was shaking from head to toe, that my hands wouldn’t even know how to hold a weapon to attack with, that my heart was thundering in my chest and?—

Wait.

White noise went off in my ears for a second, chasing away the chaos in my mind.

My heart was beating in my chest. I was breathing, though heavily. I was breathing, even if it felt like the world had suddenly run low on air—I wasbreathing.

I was alive.

So how would the prince, whose life was supposed to beboundto mine, be dead?

The guards came closer—two steps, three.

I gripped the golden railing behind me until my hands hurt, and I wanted to speak, to tell them that the prince wasn’t dead, that hecouldn’t bedead because I was still alive, but the words wouldn’t come. My jaws were locked tightly. My eyes on them—and, no, it wasn’t Delias, the faewho’d opened the gates of the court for us. It wasn’t Rune’s friend. It was another guard, and so many more were behind him, at least twenty, as if theyreallybelieved that I could do anything at all against them.

The fae continued to shout.

The guards continued to approach.

It was over for me. Everything was truly over now.

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