Page 87 of Moonmarked

Halls with so many paintings in them that every inch of the walls was covered; open rooms without a ceiling in the middle of the palace with flowers of all kinds but no scent at all hanging in the air, and the flowers only opened their petals when the two women tending to them spoke to one another from a distance. Like the flowers recognized the voices of their caretakers.

The guards never answered me when I asked them what any of it was.

They never answered when I asked them where the queen was, either.

I never saw her anywhere—and Helid must not have been back yet from wherever he had gone because I was sure he’d have come to talk to me by now. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I actually hoped that he would. He was a familiar face at least.

We did pass by the queen’s throne room on the fourth floor, and the doors were open while six fae men swept the floor. I didn’t even ask to go in—I didn’t care to. The memories of the last time I’d been brought in front of that dais was still very vivid in my mind. I would rather not make myself remember.

By the middle of the second day, I was actually losing my mind with boredom. There were only so many stories I could read. Rune had been right—Verenthians did tell some really freaky tales about monsters latching onto your back and making you carry and feed them with your life essence your whole life, while their venom basically made you carefor them like they were your own, and you would kill anyone who would try to harm or separate you from them. There were poisonous bees and men who looked exactly like men but were demons of this kind or that, come from another world to conquer the continent or steal Reme, the future star of creation.

So many twisted things, and most stories were short, but they were very intense.

The second night I spent outside in the gazebo, not bothering to even go downstairs to see if I could find someone to talk to, if I could see Rune, or even Lyall so he could explain to me exactly what that ball was going to be like. The chambermaids refused to say anything, only that the prince would give me all information in due time.

I dragged a reading chair all the way outside, and I sat there near the railing and looked out at the dark sky, at the Eternal Water, and thought of Rune. Thought of my family back home. Thought of my life the way it had been and how much it had changed in just a few weeks. Thought of why that mist would show me Rune when I was almost a hundred percent sure that my greatest desire right now was to get out of Verenthia, go back to my family, be safe again like I used to be.

God, I’d always taken my safety back home for granted. It had been so…nicenot to have to worry all the damn time, and I never even knew it. So nice to lock the doors and go to sleep without being terrified of what you might find over your head the next morning.

Yet the mist had showed me Rune. Only Rune by himself, worry-free, happy,smittenby me. That’s all the game had found in me, though I was terrified to even thinkhowit had guessed. How it had created such an accurate image.

Of course, the guilt weighed heavily on my shoulders. I felt like abad personfor wanting Rune more than I wanted to go back home to my family, and I didn’t have the slightest clue how to deal with it just yet. I didn’t even have the Internet here, a way to connect to others, to ask questions, to find people who’d gone through the same—which then made me wonder how my parents and their parents andtheirparents had even dealt with their issues before.Ifthey were even aware of them.

It was a whole mess in my mind, and that’s why I stayed out in the gazebo until dawn, wrapped up in a fluffy blanket, looking out at the sky.

And that’s why I slept all the way to noon the next day.

Then the chambermaids woke me up, made me eat, and planned a two-hour bath for me even before I’d opened my eyes properly because…

“Tonight is the night, Miss Nilah. The Whispering Ball awaits!”

Just like that, I was wide awake.

twenty-nine

A dream.It must have been a dream.

Food was shoved in my mouth because I apparently needed to eat before they started to get me ready, and I couldn’t eat all by myself because someone had put a dress made of moonlight on my bed when they were scrubbing my skin raw in the bathroom hall.

And, no, I was not exaggerating when I saidmade of moonlight—it was. It also had a mask to match that covered most of my face and left only my lips and my chin open. It was made of crystals so beautiful they reflected every little light they caught and threw it back on the walls and the pillars of the bed.

When I’d eaten to the chambermaids’ liking, they tied my hair in a perfect bun at the top of my head, put enough shimmer on my eyelids to blind anyone near me when I blinked—and then they put the dress and the mask on me.

I couldn’t tell you what I was thinking because I wasn’t. Even when they put me in front of the mirror and showed me my reflection.

I waswearinglight.

How they’d pulled off catching light and putting it into fabric—I didn’t even care. I was wearing it. I felt like a disco ball when I moved—a prettydisco ball. The prettiest.

No way is this me,I kept thinking, and also,how in the hell am I going to properly describe this to Betty without pictures?!She was never going to believe me about this, damn it.

Minutes later, I was walking with Pera on my right and Pippa on my left, while Poppy came behind me and held up the tail of the dress in her hands.

I walked and walked, unsure whether I’d wake up, if I wanted to pinch myself to test the theory that this was a dream, but I decided against it. Because I really wanted to keep that dress on. It was weightless, like I was naked, like thin air covered me, not whatever fabric this was.

And Ireallywanted Rune to see me in it.

Lyall saw me first, though. The guards and the chambermaids took me three floors down the main stairway, while workers stopped and stared without bothering to hide it, mouths open, their eyes on my dress. It really was a piece of art that words couldn’t do justice to.

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