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.

pretending, to save face. I could be a great embarrassment to him, showing up here, years

Maybe he hated me.

the outsider.” The girl in pink motioned

into this,” Nicholas said, and even his voice was monotone. Another moment of staring at

so I followed him. He led me to

in a suit hurried toward him. “Your Royal Highness, please remember that per

stopped to look at the man, who

an

The man bowed twice

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

I had never

to say. What would he think of me, to see me as I was? To see me here, as part

have cried herself to sleep, eyes closed and drooling.

and at once, his perfect

on Elva, his arm looped more protectively

my

once, twice, but, no, I couldn’t make sense of

Eloquently, I said, “Huh?”

arms. She was three years old. That lined up

tried to recall the memory. We’d been so

couldn’t remember where he was when he’d climaxed. But, hadn’t he been

anger, but the certainty that fueled it seemed to slide into bewilderment. His gaze shifted, like he

I said, hoping to give

so on television. For me to hide a child from him would have been

name.

eyes widened a moment, before the

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

me and Elva. “She looks

was my identical twin sister. But I wouldn’t tell that to Nicholas. Elva was mine in

silence seemed to answer some unspoken question for him, and he started

What

his arms, and he immediately

gently, he lowered Elva down onto one

at Mommy,” came Elva’s