Page 50 of Moonmarked

The carriage did.

The doors at the back of it opened, and two soldiers were there with their helmets off, their eyes golden, their skin pale.

The queen’s palace loomed in the distance behindthem, its towers piercing the bright blue sky, and more soldiers were stationed on the sides of the wide road we’d stopped in. They all had weapons and helmets and enough magic to kill me over and over again for days.

“We’re here,” the guy who had opened the back said.

The four others were already on their feet, one of them unlocking the small door of this cage they’d put me in. Our eyes met for a moment. He didn’t look angry or like he hated me. He was perfectly unbothered.

“Time to go, Nilah Dune. The queen awaits,” he said as he pulled the door open and began to drag me closer by the chain around my wrists.

Biting my tongue until I tasted blood, I dragged myself forward and did as I was told.

All my plans had already gone to hell. Now it was time to meet the queen.

sixteen

Raja betrayed me.

They took me through the back of a building that extended from the queen’s golden palace. No chains around my wrists, but I was surrounded by Seelie guards—three in the front, three in the back, and two to my sides. The people who saw me being escorted either didn’t have a clue who I was, or they just didn’t give a shit. Some glanced my way as we passed; some didn’t bother.

Nobody was going to help me escape, and if I tried,allof these people were going to stop me instead.

Because Raja betrayed me.

The thought echoed in my head over and over, even if it didn’t matter now. Even if I wasn’t as surprised as I thought I’d be, not really. That woman had made no secret of the fact that she hated me and thought I was bad for Rune, and I should have known better than to think I could count on her.

Fuck, I’d practically fallen in her damn lap, had given her the perfect opportunity to get rid of me for good.

The corridors they took me through were dark, withouta soul in sight, like they were hiding me for real. The guards never broke formation, and the sound of their footfalls all at the same time echoed in the back of my head constantly as I tried to think of a solution. A way out. A way to outsmart these men and get away while I still could.

My hands remained heated, the warmth and that strangecoldsensation that had come out of nowhere inside me battling for control. I thought they were stripping me of more energy than usual, but right now I couldn’t tell normal from chaos if I tried. Right now, my heart beat steadily while my mind was a tangled mess. My hands were so hot I thought my skin might melt off, and my chest was so cold it was a miracle my heart was still beating.

Then there was light and stairs and more fae. Marble floors and fancy chandeliers, lanterns and glass balls full of golden light, immaculate paintings framed with gold and fae who looked like they had just sprung out of a fantasy.

They hadn’t, though. I’d been here long enough to know that all of this was real, and I was in the queen’s palace.

No way out—but what if I could convince the queen to spare me? After all, Ireallyhadn’t killed her son, and she’d been in the room still when I walked out. She couldn’t argue with that…could she?

A voice in my head said she could.

A voice in my head said shewould,and she’d take great pleasure in it, too. I’d met the queen before. Raja was nothing in comparison, especially when we were talking about her son here.

The fae at the palace were definitely more interested in me than the others outside. They turned and looked at me and whispered in each other’s ears. This time, nobody smiled or waved at me like before. But nobody pointed atme and called me a murderer either, so I wasn’t complaining.

The guards took me up marble stairs, the brown and black and white swirling in perfect patterns underneath my feet, and I tried to keep my eyes on them as we went, but it was impossible. Even knowing I couldn’t win against all of these people, I still tried to find a way out.

Using the light was out of the question. The last thing I needed was for these fae to know what I could do.

But if not magic,howwas I to survive the Seelie queen?

Much too soon, the guards slowed down their steps. Golden gates ahead, beautifully embossed with flowers and vines, birds and moths and butterflies.

They swung open without a sound, like they weighed nothing when they were as thick as the width of my shoulders. And inside was a room that could have been torn straight from the pages of a fairytale, every surface shimmering under the soft glow of floating golden lights.

Ivory columns twisted high toward a domed ceiling painted with stars and gold-dusted constellations, their light catching on the silk drapes that hung like waterfalls from above. The floor beneath my feet was so polished it could have been a mirror veined with threads of gold. Windows made of stained glass spilled ribbons of warm color across the room.

Fuck me, I must be dreaming…

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