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.

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

Maybe he hated me.

The girl in

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

him. He led me to an adjoining room, separated by a

“Your Royal Highness, please remember

at the man, who nervously backed

an exception,”

sir.” The man bowed twice as

A servant stepped forward and closed the door behind us, leaving Nicholas, Elva, and I

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

no idea what even to say. What would he think of me, to see me as I was? To see me here, as part of the selection? And with

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

stepped forward toward Nicholas, and at once, his perfect façade cracked.

on Elva,

you hide my child

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

Eloquently, I said, “Huh?”

sleeping in his arms. She was three years old. That lined up with

We’d been so young then, too

I couldn’t remember where he was when

the certainty that fueled it seemed to slide into

hoping to

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

her name.

a moment, before the

seemed to struggle to get

between me and Elva. “She looks

Nicholas. Elva was mine in every way that mattered. I would not have

unspoken question for him, and

What could cause that

and he immediately cut off

one of

Mommy,” came Elva’s