Page 47 of Moonmarked

Iscaredher.

Moving back, I didn’t stop until my back hit the wall and I hid my hands behind me.

“Look, Raja, I don’t know why any of this is happening. I came to you because I had nowhere else to go, and no way to tell Rune where I am. Thank you for taking me in, for calling for him. I am not your problem, okay? I will be on my way.”

A moment of silence that stretched to eternity.

Finally, Raja stepped back, folded her hands in front of her, raised her chin. “And where do you think you can go to get your answers, mortal?”

This time, her voice didn’t have as much bite as usual.

“I…I don’t know. I’ll talk to Rune about it.”

“Rune is the bastard son of a king, banished,unimportantto those imps at the Seelie Court. Forcinghimto look for answers will only put him in danger.”

“And then you’ll be coming for me—yes, I remember. Except I won’t force anyone to do anything. Rune will have a choice.” I stepped forward, confident that my hands weren’t glowing anymore. I went to the bed and grabbed my clothes, praying that my body held me.

“Stay,” Raja said. “Don’t move.”

Just like that, she turned around and walked out of the room.

What the hell just happened?

I had no clue, but I was going to put those clothes on and get the fuck away from here as fast as I could, go to the lake—or anywhere at all where Rune could find me. Where I could be safe until he came.

Will he, though?A voice in my head whispered, and shivers broke down my entire body. Would Rune come for me?

“He will.” I said it out loud to the room, the empty walls—myself. Rune would come. Regardless of the cloud of doubt that snuck in my mind, I believed that with all my heart.

Except before I could get my body to move fast enough, to take off that nightgown and put on the suit, I heard the footsteps again.

I stopped, waited, and Raja came back with a plate in her hands. Cucumber. Cheese. Bread. Two grilled fish.

Every instinct in my bodyscreamedat me at the same time.

“Eat. Bathe. Then you can leave.” She put the plate on the other edge of the bed, gave me a look that was pure, raw hatred, if I wasn’t mistaken, then turned on her heel and walked away, leaving the door wide open.

I couldn’t even tell you how I sat down on the floor, put the plate in front of me and ate. I stuffed my mouth with so much food it could have been funny, and I didn’t taste anything at all, but my body adored it. My stomach got to work, and my eyes were open and my body was no longer shaking even before I’d finished the entire plate.

My God, I had been starving worse than ever before. The difference shocked me just like every other time. Ilicked the plate clean, and the fish bones as well, and if I had another full plate like that, I’d have eaten that, too.

As it was, I put it away and stood up, and everything had more color. The room looked bigger and the darkening sky outside more alive. I breathed in through my nose and I could smell the wood and the sheets, even the dust in the air for a second. Definitely strange—but what in my life wasn’t?

Grabbing the clothes from the bed, I made my way to the bathroom feeling brand new.

fifteen

The bath was heaven.Ifeltthe water so much better than I ever had before.

There was something about me, something that had changed. I didn’t want to think about it at all, didn’t want to even acknowledge it, but it was there when I was clean and smelled good and looked in the mirror over the basin. It was there in my eyes that had become more…vibrant. In the softness of my skin. A subtle change that most wouldn’t even notice, but I did because I hadn’t seen my own eyes since the last time I was in this very bathroom. In front of this very mirror.

I looked the same, almost identical, and at the same time like a completely different person from the Nilah I had been when I first went through the Aetherway.

“I’m still me,” I told the mirror, and maybe it was silly, but I needed to hear it out loud because it wasn’t powerful enough as only a thought in my head. I needed to reassure myself that I wasn’t lost. I was still here.

And I was still going to do my best to get home as soon as possible.

Even so, I was relieved when I turned my back to the mirror and put the clothes on, too big still just like when I stole them, which felt like years ago to me now. They were clean, though, and I bet Raja hated me extra hard for having to wash them. I planned to thank her again—for the food and the clothes, and for the message she sent to Rune. I was thinking of the words I’d say when I took the empty plate and walked down the hallway that led to the front to the house. She was probably outside, waiting for me to leave, and I didn’t even blame her.

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