Page 79 of Moonmarked

Oh, he had me there,and that mischievous grin showed me that he knew it.

“It will be fun, I promise you. We’re almost there,” he added.

Meanwhile, I wasn’t sure whether to be impressed or pissed off, what to expect, or how this day was going to even end.

We didn’t speak at all the rest of the way, though, and I felt Rune’s eyes on me every now and again, but any time I looked at him, he’d be staring straight ahead.

It was very frustrating, and I soon realized I’d have actually appreciated someone holding up a sun shield for me after all.Oh well.

Luckily, the playground wasn’t far, and when we stopped in front of the doors, I forgot all about the heat.

Dark wood reinforced with metal painted golden. The doors were possibly fifty feet tall, and a wall made of hedges the same height extended from them on either side. To the left, the large colorful trees hid how far it went, and to the right, the hedges curved just ten feet away, so I had no idea what I was walking into.

Lyall dismounted his horse, and by the time he helped me off mine, too, Rune was by the doors, waiting. Hands in his pockets. Head down. Jaws clenching.

“Are you ready, Nilah?” Lyall asked, and he hadn’t stopped smiling for a second.

“I hope so,” I said when he put his hands on the doors and they flashed golden the next heartbeat. The wood moved on its own, swung backward like the doors were being pushed by some large and invisible hand.

I sucked in a breath when I saw the inside.

Grass so green and glossy it looked made up, not real. It was darker in there, the colors more vivid, less highlights, more shadows, and the air thatblewout the doors as if it was happy to finally be free from that place was colder, heavier, and it tasted different on my tongue, too.

The guards who’d walked behind us had already tied the horses to tree trunks and branches nearby, and they didn’t look like they were coming through with us.

“Welcome to the playground of the Illusion Game,” Lyall said.

With a smile and a nod my way, he stepped to the other side without hesitation, leaving us to follow.

twenty-six

The large doorsslowly swung closed behind us, and I was right, the soldiers remained outside. Not really sure whether that was a good thing or bad, though.

Grass beneath our feet, and towering hedge walls to our sides, but there were more of them here. Big and square and all over the ground, like fucking buildings made of plants, with these small openings in the front.

It was strange, to say the least, and the air became warmer and heavier with magic the farther ahead we went.

Rune remained behind me, and Lyall led the way, his every step sure, his shoulders back. I kept my eyes on him, but my entire body was painfully aware of Rune, of his proximity, of the heat of his body on mine, of those soft lips on the side of my neck. The memories of the night before flooded my mind for a moment, just when they felt my focus slip, and I was in his bed again, and on his table, in his arms.

“There.”

I blinked and the playground came into view again. Lyall had stopped walking and was pointing ahead at whatI was surewasn’tthere a moment ago. A field with these large square hedges—that’s all we saw, but now…

“The game answered.” Lyall looked back at us, his smile as bright as the sun in the sky. “We’re officially its players.”

I had no idea what the hell kind of call he’d made to a game, and what kind of a game actuallyanswered,but Rune had told me once that the way to keep my power was to always remind myself that everything was normal here. Everything I saw, everything I heard, everything I came across had been here for thousands of years before me and would be here for thousands of years after I was gone.

Thiswhole thing was normal, nothing out of the ordinary. And I would soon find out exactly what I was supposed to do to make it out.

“It’s beautiful,” I admitted when Rune and I stopped on Lyall’s sides. It went without saying that he remained in the middle, and I wasn’t even sure if it was intentional, or if Rune and I were keeping distance between us as to not raise suspicion.

“It’s quite something,” Lyall admitted with a nod, and we all took a moment to appreciate the view.

Towering trees lined either side, their trunks narrow and pale as bones, their canopies arching overhead to form a ceiling of those gorgeous colorful leaves. It felt like walking into a cathedral or something, except this was built by nature—and a shitload of magic, judging by the weight of the air here.

Even the light hit differently when we stepped under the canopy. It was softer, filtered through the leaves in scattered beams, falling like shimmer on the moss-covered ground. The scents in the air—rain-soaked earth and peaches and flowers—somehow merged together without being overpowering, but it was the magic. I tasted it on mytongue. Everything here was laced with it, and itbalancedevery detail perfectly. The lights and the shadows, the scents and the silence. No birdsong, no wind reached here, just the sound of our slow footsteps.

Between the lines of trees were these strange formations—stone arches half-sunken into moss, glass orbs hanging from some of the branches like fruit, violets nestled near trunks with their tips glowing purple. A single mirror placed into the trunk of a tree that didn’t cast a shadow at all like the rest at its side.

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