The Luna Choosing Game

Nicholas held Elva safe and secure in his arms as he stood to his full height. Elva buried her face into the corner of his neck and shoulder. He gently patted her back.

He glanced down at Elva, his gaze so tender that it made my heart clench.

“There, there,” he whispered. “You are safe now.”

“Oh my God,” said one of the other girls in the room, fanning herself. “Of course he’s good with children.”

“Someone pinch me,” said another. “I think I’m dreaming.”

Nicholas’s soft expression hardened as he glared out at the rest of the room. “Whose child is this? Why is she here?”

I started forward, but the girl in the pink dress spoke before I could reach him.

“An outsider sneaked in, unless she’s a maid.”

Some of the other girls snickered at my expense.

“She can’t be a participant,” another girl fake-whispered, loud enough for half-the room to hear. “I thought we had to be virgins, and she’s got a kid.”

I wanted to disappear into a corner. Whether virgin or not, I was nothing compared to the rest of these girls.

My clothes weren’t as nice as theirs, and my figure wasn’t like what it had been at the Academy. I’d lost much of my musculature. I was skinny from too many nights of skipped dinners.

Elva’s wellbeing had always come before my own.

Her sake was the only reason I continued forward rather than hide in embarrassment. I stopped only when I reached Nicholas.

He looked at me, and I looked at him.

I’d forgotten how gorgeous his eyes were, golden brown with flakes of green. When we’d dated, I had spent hours looking at them, trying to memorize that color, but it had seemed different each time.

Before, when I’d stared long enough, I could earn a bashful smile from him. Now, his face was totally devoid of emotion. He looked at me like I was a stranger.

Did he… not recognize me?

I had changed, sure, but not enough to become unrecognizable. Unless he truly had sealed me away in his past and moved on, never once looking back.

a great embarrassment to him, showing up here, years after leaving him, and

Maybe he hated me.

outsider.” The girl

voice was monotone. Another moment of staring at me blankly, then he turned

him. He led me to an adjoining room,

Highness, please remember that per the selection rules, you aren’t to be alone with

look at the man, who

an exception,”

course, sir.” The man bowed twice as

stepped forward and closed the door behind us, leaving

I thought I might be sick. I had never imagined I’d

of me, to see me as I was? To see me here, as part of the selection?

cried herself to

toward Nicholas, and at once, his perfect façade cracked. He frowned. His golden eyes filled with

stayed gentle on Elva, his

hide my child from me?” he

blinked once, twice, but, no,

Eloquently, I said, “Huh?”

his arms. She was three years old.

We’d been so

finished in clumsy haste. I couldn’t remember where he was when

certainty that fueled it seemed to slide into bewilderment.

I said, hoping to give

secret that Nicholas wanted children. He’d even said so on television. For me to hide a child from him would have

name. But she’s

widened a moment, before the anger

to say, he seemed to struggle to get it out. He

between me and Elva.

I wouldn’t tell that to Nicholas. Elva was mine

silence seemed to answer some unspoken question for

startled. What could cause that

he immediately cut off the deep rumbling

Elva down onto one of the

Mommy,” came Elva’s quiet