Page 8 of Moonmarked

The moment I had this plan clear in my mind, I was calmer. The thoughts in my head calmed down, and I wasn’t so certain that I wasn’t going to make it. Yes, it was going to suck, I figured, but I’d survive. So long as there was a way to get to Rune, I would survive the fucking fae realm one more time.

The carriage stopped.With it, my heart.

I stopped breathing, stopped moving, kept my eyes closed tightly and focused only on my ears.

Voices, though I heard them faintly, and we were most definitely not moving. I thought perhaps we’d stopped for a little while like we had before, but no. Seconds turned to a minute—I counted—and then two, and the carriage stayed in the same place.

Call it instinct, call it common sense, but I knew that it was time to get out of my hiding place. As nice as it had been to sit there and hope against all odds that I would somehow magically end up outside the walls—and free—it was time to get out and see where I was.

Daylight outside.

I pushed the lid of the chest open all the way as slowly as I could as to not make any noise, and I made it out of it with shaking legs. Outside, there were people, probably fae, a lot of them. Inside, the silks I’d been lying on were wet, dirty, completely ruined.Fuck.My dress was still wet, and it was still the dress everyone at the palace had seen me in, and the jacket I’d stolen wasn’t going to hide me well enough. Thank God I’d taken the pants as well.

That’s how I ended up hiding behind the biggest box in the carriage and taking the dress off. The velvet pants were big, but manageable. The jacket was big, too, but when I buttoned it all the way, you couldn’t see a single part of my body, except my face and my hands. I went through the same chest I’d hidden in and found a small enough piece of silk in a rich, deep green color to put over my head. I tied it under my chin just like Rune had done with the red shawlhe’d gotten for me—and fuck, I missed him so much it hurt.

My ears were burning, so hot I didn’t dare touch them, and my heart was beating a mile a minute, but I was ready to get off this carriage and find my way to Blackwater.

Then I turned—and golden eyes locked on mine.

The scream caught in my throat. I froze in place, hands fisted tightly, and I waited for the young boy to call for someone.

Fucking hell, I blew it. I thought I was so quiet, that nobody was even close to me. I hadn’t heard a single thing, and now this boy who couldn’t be older than fifteen was looking at me with wide golden eyes, his ears pointy and his pink lips parted.

A second ticked by and he didn’t run, didn’t move at all.

My heart slowed down the beating a little. I licked my dry lips and took in a deep breath. “Please don’t scream.”

The boy’s blond brows shot up. His eyes scrolled down my body slowly. “Who are you?” he said, his voice hushed, and he looked just as confused as I was.

But there were people outside, and those people were going to eventually come closer and see me, and someone was going to figure out who I was, so…

“I’m…I’m Bethany.” Betty was going to either praise me for using her name or smack me in the head. Either way, I’d take it.

The boy’s brows narrowed now, and he leaned closer to the edge of the carriage to inspect me better. “You’re not from here.” It was a statement, and if I tried to argue with him about it, I wasn’t going to win.

At that point I knew that my only option was to lie through my fucking teeth. There really was nothing left for me to lose by lying—he either believed me or he didn’t.

“I’m actually from the queen’s palace,” I said, clearing my throat, raising my head. “I was sent to take something outside the court for the…the seer.”

My heart beat steadily despite the fact that I was making each word up as I went.

The boy’s eyes opened wide. “The seer?”

“Yes, the seer.”

God, if you help me get out of this place today, I promise I’ll donate all my savings to the dog shelter as soon as I get back home.

“You’ve seen the queen’s seer?” He leaned in, put his hands over the edge of the carriage’s bed and came closer, golden eyes wide as he looked up at me.

Slowly, I squatted down. “I have.”

A blink. “And? What does she look like?”

Oh, hell… “Wrinkly. Old. White hair, almost white eyes—you know.” That’s what that woman had looked like in the prince’s bedroom, right? I was almost a hundred percent sure of it—unless she hadn’t been the seer at all. In which case—fuck.

The boy thought about it for a second. “Why wereyousent to take something out of the court? Where’s the royal guard?”

“Because, erm…it’s…it’s a secret.”

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