The Luna Choosing Game

I’ll leave you two to chat, Julian said, tapping Nicholas on the shoulder.

Side by side Julian and Nicholas were of comparable height, with Nicholas an inch or two taller. They

looked similar too, though Julian’s features were somewhat softer than the hard angles of Nicholas’s

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Nicholas wasn’t saying anything. His expressionless gaze shifted from me to Julian and back again.

Julian laughed on his way out the door and well down the hallway. I could hear echoes of it long after he

was gone

I thought Nicholas might leave too. Had he only come to look for Julian? Despite Julian’s teasing, it seemed impossible that he would have been searching for me.

Yet when Julian left, Nicholas stayed in my doorway, fixed and unmoving like a statue.

Under his unwavering stare, I began to get nervous. Did he overhear something that Julian and I had

talked about? No, we’d been speaking softly. Even from the door, he wouldn’t have been able to hear.

So what did he want?

I waited out his silence for as long as I could manage before I finally broke.

“Did you want to talk?” I asked.

He didn’t move, nor did not look away. “You are Julian seem… familiar.”

Did we?

“You were standing very close just now,” Nicholas said.

We had to, with how softly we were talking, but if I admitted that, Nicholas would want to know what we had been talking about. As far as I was concerned, Nicholas could never, ever know my secret.

So I gave a non–committal shrug.

“You were close during archery practice, as well.”

He had noticed? I thought he had totally avoided so much as glancing at me during the archery event. Even when I had been with his group, he hadn’t said one word to me.

“When did you two become so close?” Nicholas asked.

Oh, he remembered me from the Royal Academy.”

I forced a smile, but it was uneasy. I felt like I was walking along a dagger’s edge, and one wrong move

would send me further into disfavor with Nicholas.

Though the whole thing seemed ridiculous. He already hated me. Why did he care who I spent time with? Unless he was worried I had turned my machinations on Julian since he himself had rejected me.

“Is that what you were doing just now?” Nicholas’s eyes narrowed, his focus intensifying. “Reminiscing?”

I swallowed down my growing nerves. “No, I, um… Julianer, Prince Julian and I had some unfinished

matters to discuss.”

I really hoped he wouldn’t ask more. I would take my darkest secrets to the grave, but if he kept pushing, I was so nervous, I would surely give something away.

I’d never been very good at denying Nicholas. At one point, I would have found a way to give him the whole world.

Fortunately, Nicholas’s gaze slid away from me and to the sewing machines I’d had the maids set up in

room. He looked over the machines, the threads, and the swatches of fabric.

my

My h

heart leapt. The fabric remnants I had used for his wrist guard were still there. In fact, since Julian’s meddling, they now sat on top of the pile.

Maybe Nicholas wouldn’t notice. He was still in the doorway. He would have to have the eyes of a hawk to properly compare the fabric there to the one on his wrist..

He tapped his finger against the wrist guard. He was still wearing it.

I tried to keep a straight face, hiding my panic.

“I have to go.” Abruptly, he turned away and walked into the hallway.

I stared after him, confused by both his sudden arrival and his equally sudden departure.

Had he really only come to ask me about Julian?

No, there had to be another reason. But maybe more pressing matters had called him away before it could reveal itself

I was no less confused an hour later.

I hated how much it bothered me, not knowing the truth of why Nicholas had come. And the only way I

could find out was to ask Nicholas himself – something much easier said than done

Even if I found him, he likely wouldn’t tell me unless he wanted to.