The Luna Choosing Game

“How long did you wait, Piper? A week? Two? It couldn’t have been long.”

He sounds like he’s jealous. Or was that an illusion? He doesn’t care about me and is just mad at me.

Maybe the latter is more logical.

His dark eyes burned into me, leaving my heart in scorched tatters. Never in a thousand years would i

have thought Nicholas would be so vicious to me.

“It wasn’t like that.” I said, to try to defend myself.

He crossed his hands over his chest. He wasn’t going to listen to me,

“Why even come here?” he asked me.

“My application was selected…”

“Why even apply? Were you trying to get to me?”

“No,” I said.

“Maybe you regret your child’s father. Maybe you want me back.” He laughed once, bitterly. “Like you

have a chance.”

The words sliced into me as surely as if he’d been holding a knife. He had changed since I’d known him.

Three w

years ago, he’d been kind and patient. I’d given him my heart and he’d gently cradled it. So many

nights, we’d laid under the stars, trading kisses and stories.

Once, when he’d spent all night looking at me, I had told him, “You’re missing the

starlight.”

He’d replied, “I can see it in your eyes.”

The man before me now was nothing like the one I had known. The man here was arrogant, indifferent. and imposing in how he carried himself.

Breaking up with him had never been something I wanted to do. It hurt me still, thinking upon it, so I had tried to push it to the back of my thoughts

and caring for Elva, that

become, brought all those feelings crashing back into Tome

+15 BONUS

help but wonder if I was misremembering the past. Maybe he’d never been kind. Maybe I had been too naïve

wasn’t that

to my own voice. The hurt made it

is a mistake, and I intend to correct

that a chill ran along my spine. “You are the only woman who ever dared to break up

me, then, walking out into the sitting room, and then out into the parlor. I thought

Elva continued resting, undisturbed.

wanted to hate him. So

insensitive bastard but he liked children. He’d been kind to Elva. He

to hate

beside the

Elva would have been our child. If we had stayed together, maybe he would have revealed his secret in time. Maybe the three of us could have been a

was a

reality. My reality was very far from these golden fixtures and expensive

staying here. I needed to go home and look for

I

beside Elva’s on the cushion. I was so drained, from the

quickly, my own eyes

me Excuse

blinked open my

nervous official hovered over me. I beg your pardon, miss, but the King Luna, and princes have arrived,

sleep from my eye. “Wait, there’s

looked up again, he was already disappearing out of the room. He left the door

watching me with curious

be

Luna are talking.”

“Okay”

pulled Elva into my arms

standing atop some type of stage The

Luna on one side. The three princes flanked his

King looked older than he did on the bills in my purse. He was pale with hollowed out cheeks, but

voice camed far, like he was accustomed to

crowd and

presence and look forward

and whispered something in the King’s