Page 52 of Moonmarked

My God, the queen looked perfectly calm. There were no tears in her eyes. She didn’t look panicked or sad or grieving. She looked…bored and irritated and a little angry instead.

“I…I healed him. I woke him up. You were there.” And then that bell had rung and…

“And what exactly did he sayto you, mortal?”

I licked my dry lips. “You were there,” I repeated—and I would do so another million times if that’s what it took. “You know what he said to me.”

“Yes, butwere you?”

My mind drew a blank. The queen sat back on her throne, and I could have sworn that the scent of magic became more intense. The tension in the air grew until it pressed against me on all sides.

“What?” I choked out because that made absolutely no sense to me.

“Were youthere,mortal? Because you run away from me and you disappear. One moment you’re there, the seer sees you, and the next…gone.” My mouth opened, but I had nothing to say. “So, answer my question—if you are who you say you are, and you healed my son, what did he tell you?”

Too many things went through my mind and I couldn’t even tell you what any of them were. So much fucking confusion I was going to collapse for real just from the weight of my mind.

But I was in front of the queen now, and no matter what the hell she was talking about, the fact that I wasn’t chained or being attacked yet said that there might be hope for me. If I didn’t piss her off, there might be a chance.

So, I said, “He said my name when he saw me.” My eyes closed and I pulled up the memory in front of my mind’s eye—the prince on his bed, his eyes open, the way he smiled and the way he spoke. “He said he didn’t do the life-bond on purpose, swore it, and said he had kept it a secret his whole life.”God, I hope I’m remembering right…

“I told him about Helid coming to get me, and then Rune bringing me safely to the palace, and he was surprised. He couldn’t be?—”

“Enough.”

Her voice was laced with so much power that I couldn’t have continued if I’d tried. She’d closed her eyes and she was tapping her thumbs to her middle fingers restlessly as the wheels turned in her head. Fucking hell, I had no clue what to make of the situation, no idea whether she would attack me or have her guards end me right there on her polished floor.

I had no idea if I was going to see the next minute, when…

“Come out.”

That’s what the queen said.Come out.

There was no time for me to wonder or to ask what she meant or if she was even talking to me—she wasn’t. On the left of the dais, a large painting of a bright star shining over fields of green in a rich dark sky moved. It slid open, and as I watched it, all my thoughts faded away into nothing.

Prince Lyall stepped into the throne room with his chin raised and a small smile curling the corners of his lips, his golden eyes wide open and alive, his hair perfectly combed behind his head.

He wore red and gold with a silky white shirt underneath, the fabrics melting on his shoulders like they were honored to be able to touch him. Even the boots on his feet made no sound as he slowly walked around the queen’s throne, then down the few stairs from the dais.

All the while his hands were to his sides, and his sword tied around his hips and his heart beating just like mine—with life.

The memory of his body on the floor with the knife sticking out of his chest was right there the few times I allowed myself to blink. I had seen it, had seen his face, his closed eyes, and it hadn’t been real.

Lyall had never died, just like I knew he hadn’t.

And now he was right there in front of me, barely a couple of feet away, smiling.

“Hello, Nilah,” he said, and his voicefellon me like an invisible veil.

Any doubt I’d had until now disappeared. The prince of the Seelie Court was very much alive.

seventeen

I struggled to find words.To form thoughts. To trust my eyes.

The prince was there, towering over me, just slightly shorter than Rune in height, though their build was nearly identical. His skin glowed like he’d spent days sunbathing, and his eyes sparkled, and he waslightwhere Rune wasdark.He was clarity where Rune was mystery.

The prince is alive.

---