Page 78 of Moonmarked

I looked at Rune again—a game?What kind of a game did these people play? Because I wasnotgoing to learn how to play chess. I’d tried once. It wasn’t for me.

But Rune was still looking at Lyall when he said, “I have work to do, as I’m sure you know.” It was a simple statement, and the prince didn’t even flinch.

“And I, as your prince, am giving you the day off.” He put his hand over Rune’s shoulder. “Nilah came all the way here to awaken me, and I thought she’d feel better in your company, since you already know each other. It’s the least we can do for her, don’t you think?”

Both fae turned to look at me. Two faces, like two sides of the perfection coin.

I didn’t breathe for a good moment.

“Of course,” Rune then said. “I’ll be happy to join.”

Lyall patted him on the shoulder, then turned to me. “Nilah, please allow me to show you my favorite game in all the courts.”

He turned around, waved his hand back toward where he’d come from, to show me the horses behind the three guards that had most definitely not been there before.

Fucking hell, all those creatures and I’d been so caught up on Rune and Lyall that I hadn’t even seen them approaching!

But a quick look at Rune’s dark eyes, and I forced a smile on my lips.

It was going to be a long day.

Ridinga horse brought back all kinds of memories, from awful to really nice ones—nicebeing that last time I slept in Rune’s arms. Nothing about it had changed, though. The saddle was still too big for me, and the horse as well, though I’d started to normalize it, it seemed, because I couldn’t for the life of me think exactly how much smaller the horses back home were.

Still, they kept a very steady pace as we went, and I held onto the reins tightly, and I pretended that Rune was right next to me, not on Lyall’s other side. I pretended his hand was on mine and he was guiding me.There is absolutely nothing to be afraid of, Wildcat.

“Is the sun falling in your eyes?” Lyall said.

“No, no, it’s?—”

He didn’t even let me finish. “Please excuse this poor treatment. I promise you, it’s not always like this in my court. Someone should have been holding up a sun shield for you, Nilah, but the number of people who know I am alive is very, very limited right now. That’s why I have all this magic wrapped around us as well—I hope you don’t mind.”

My court.

The words echoed in my head—mycourt, he said. Not my mother’s or evenours.

I looked at his profile as he rode ahead, our horsesmoving at the same pace. “This isn’t poor treatment, Lyall. It’s perfectly fine. I don’t need a sun shield.”

“But it is. I’ve had to relieve more than fifty percent of the palace staff. It’s why it’s so empty around here at this time of day.” He waved a hand around—and he was right. I couldn’t really see anyone coming or going in the gardens as we went through, beyond the hedges and the fountains, toward the trees in the distance.

I risked a glance at Rune, but his eyes remained ahead. He said nothing, didn’t even make any kind of movement that I could tell, only sat there on the saddle while his horse walked ahead.

He looked soregalwith his shoulders back and his chin up like that, his hair almost blue under the bright sunlight. I forgot that he was of a royal bloodline, too, even if his father was fucked up in the head. Rune was still a prince, banished or not—and you couldseeit when you stepped back a bit and looked at him from a distance. At least I did.

“What exactly are we going to play, Lyall? And where are we going?” I asked because if I tried to tell him again that having three chambermaids to even put my panties on was notpoortreatment, I knew my words would fall on deaf ears. Whatever these people considerednormal,I was sure it would be way too much for me.

“The Illusion Game,” he said, turning to flash me a grin that I was sure had made panties drop before. “It’s my favorite. The playground is close, and dense with magic. I won’t need to keep us shielded at all while we’re there.”

Right.“What’s the Illusion Game?”

“It’s sort of a Seelie tradition, where nobles hunt magical illusions in a landscape. We usually make a big fuss over it twice a summer, and we cast bets and have feasts—but today, it’s just the three of us, I’m afraid. No audience.”

“Oh,” I said, pretending it all made perfect sense to me. “So, how’s it played?”

“It’s a very difficult game with very simple rules: find the illusion, break its magic, and claim the token. Whoever claims the most tokens, wins, and the winner gets to ask for something from the other players. Anything they want.”

I raised a brow at him. “Anything at all? Like to agree to an unbinding, for example?”

“By Reme, no!” He let go of the reins and put a hand to his heart as he smiled. “You think me cruel, Nilah. I would never—but I do so appreciate that you think me the winner already.”

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