Page 54 of Moonmarked

My God, that actually made sense.One thingfinallymade sense for once! I’d seen him on the ground with a knife sticking out of him, and I always knew that he wasn’tdead. I justnever would have guessed thathedid it himself.

“They almost succeeded about a year ago. I ate something I shouldn’t have, and it would have killed me if it wasn’t for you.”

I stepped back, shook my head, considered bursting in tears—or laughter.

Luckily, I was able to control myself before I did either. “Not me—you,” I finally said. “You did the life-bond. You saved me first, Lyall.” And ultimatelythatwas the reason why any of this had even happened.

“Well, yes, but?—”

“PrinceLyall.”

The voice sent shivers down my back. I blinked and the throne room came into view again.

I’d been so focused on this man in front of me that I’dforgotten where we were, that we weren’t alone. That his mother, the queen of the Seelie Court was sitting right behind him on the dais.

“It’sPrinceLyall to you,” she said, those blonde brows arched as she looked down at me.

I didn’t even get to have any kind of a reaction toward her before Lyall raised a hand and turned his head to the side just slightly. “Not now, Mother,” he said, and he sounded irritated.

Fuck.

The tension in the room grew, and I was sure that the queen would lose it. She did not look like someone who’d take being shut up lightly.

Except their relationship must have been very different from what I thought because all the queen did was sit back and rest against her throne, continuing to watch me with those cold, calculating eyes.

“I’m really glad I bound us together all those years ago, Nilah. It saved me, that accident. And when I woke up, I had to act quickly. It was my only shot. If they think I’m dead, they will let their guard down and come out of the shadows. If they think I’m dead, I buy myself time to catch them before they try to kill me again.”

“Wait, wait, hold on a minute—theystillthink you’re dead?!”

“Yes, of course. I still haven’t caught all those who are plotting against me. I will need a bit of time to find them,” he said.

“Fuck, Lyall,” I whispered, turning to the side, suddenly unable to stand still. I needed to keep moving, stretch my legs, clear my head.

“But…but that man, he…” The memory of that morning when I healed Lyall came back to me eagerly. “He calledmea murderer. Told the guards that I had killed you.” I still heard his voice echoing in my head—MURDERER!

“It was all part of the plan. The guards would see my body on the floor—which was simply an illusion—and the word would spread thatyouhad done it. That you had come to heal me, but instead unbound yourself from me and killed me while I was still weak. It was the only believable story.”

“Except I’m amortal,Lyall. Nobody is going to believe that I could haveunboundmyself from you, and then killed you in a room full of fae!” It sounded as absurd to say it out loud as it had in my head.

“But the story we told was that you aren’t really mortal, that you’re actually fae. We even used that excuse to justify the fact that you survived on the way here without the royal guard escorting you.” Lyall stepped closer, reached out his hands for mine slowly, giving me all the time in the world to move away.

I was simply too shocked to, so his hands closed around mine, and he squeezed my fingers a little, his skin warm. Soft.

His eyes were wide and earnest when he said, “Please understand me, Nilah. I thought once the guards brought you inside my bedroom again, I could talk to you, tell you the truth, and all would have been well—but then you jumped.” He smiled, shook his head like he was in awe. “You are incredibly courageous. I did not see that coming at all.”

I wanted to believe that. I wanted to believe that, had I not jumped, those guards would have grabbed me and taken me back into the room, and Lyall would have come clean, except…

Rune told me to jump.

Rune’s voice had whispered in my ear, and he’d told me to jump, had made sure I survived the swim, had taken me to the irrigation canal with his shadows.

Rune wouldn’t have done that if he didn’t think I was in true danger.

I stepped back, pulled my hand away from his. “So, what now?” Lyall looked down at his own hand like he was surprised to find it empty. “What happens now? How will you find the people responsible for trying to kill you? And what does that mean for me?”

“I have my ways,” he said, putting both hands in his pockets slowly. “I will find them, rest assured. I will not be fooled a second time.” A sad smile stretched his lips, one that every instinct in my body believed.

He was honest, Lyall. Stripped bare in front of me, his eyes wide, the gold in them clear.

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