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.

be a great embarrassment to him, showing up here, years

Maybe he hated me.

the outsider.” The girl in

look into this,” Nicholas said, and even his voice was monotone. Another moment

followed him. He led me to an

Royal Highness, please remember that

to look at the man,

an

sir. Of course, sir.” The man bowed twice as he

went inside after them. A servant stepped forward and closed the door behind us, leaving Nicholas, Elva, and I alone in a

I had never imagined I’d meet

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

seemed at ease against his chest. She must have cried herself

perfect façade cracked. He frowned. His golden eyes filled

on Elva, his

my

a stop. I blinked once, twice, but, no, I couldn’t make sense of what he

Eloquently, I said, “Huh?”

his arms. She was three years old. That lined up with our breakup three

recall the memory. We’d been so young then, too eager and

when he’d climaxed. But, hadn’t he

retained its anger, but the certainty that fueled it seemed to slide into

mistaken,” I said, hoping

a child from him would have been a cruelty. He would likely have struggled forever over the guilt for

name. But

eyes widened a moment, before

he seemed to struggle to get it out. He

me and Elva.

But I wouldn’t tell that to Nicholas. Elva

answer some unspoken question for him,

startled. What could cause that

he immediately cut off the deep

one of the plush couches

at Mommy,” came