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.

I could be a great embarrassment to him, showing up

Maybe he hated me.

outsider.” The girl in

into this,” Nicholas said, and even his voice was monotone. Another moment of staring at me blankly, then he turned and walked

He led me to

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

the man, who nervously backed

an exception,” Nicholas

sir. Of course, sir.” The man

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

I might be sick. I had never imagined I’d meet Nicholas again,

idea what even to say. What would he think of me, to see me as I was? To see

ease against his chest. She must have cried herself to sleep, eyes closed and drooling.

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

Elva, his arm looped more protectively around

hide my child from

stop. I blinked once, twice,

Eloquently, I said, “Huh?”

at Elva, softly sleeping in his arms. She was three years old. That lined up with

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

haste. I couldn’t remember where he was when he’d climaxed. But,

certainty that fueled it seemed to slide

mistaken,” I said, hoping

children. He’d even said so on television. For me to hide a child from him would have been a cruelty. He

name. But

moment, before the anger

wanted to say, he seemed to struggle to

and Elva.

But I wouldn’t tell that to Nicholas. Elva was mine in every way that mattered.

some unspoken question for him, and he

startled. What

immediately cut off the deep

one of the plush couches in

at Mommy,” came