The Luna Choosing Game

I’ll leave you two to chat, Julian said, tapping Nicholas on the shoulder.

Side by side Julian and Nicholas were of comparable height, with Nicholas an inch or two taller. They

looked similar too, though Julian’s features were somewhat softer than the hard angles of Nicholas’s

face.

Nicholas wasn’t saying anything. His expressionless gaze shifted from me to Julian and back again.

Julian laughed on his way out the door and well down the hallway. I could hear echoes of it long after he

was gone

I thought Nicholas might leave too. Had he only come to look for Julian? Despite Julian’s teasing, it seemed impossible that he would have been searching for me.

Yet when Julian left, Nicholas stayed in my doorway, fixed and unmoving like a statue.

Under his unwavering stare, I began to get nervous. Did he overhear something that Julian and I had

talked about? No, we’d been speaking softly. Even from the door, he wouldn’t have been able to hear.

So what did he want?

I waited out his silence for as long as I could manage before I finally broke.

you want to

not look

Did we?

were standing very close just

we were talking, but if I admitted that, Nicholas would want to know what we had been talking about. As far

gave

were close during

noticed? I thought he had totally avoided so much as glancing at me during the archery event.

two become

remembered me from the

like I was walking along a dagger’s

send me further into disfavor

hated me. Why did he care who I spent time with? Unless he was worried I had turned my machinations on Julian since he himself had rejected

you were doing just now?” Nicholas’s eyes narrowed, his focus

down my growing nerves. “No, I, um… Julianer, Prince Julian and I

matters to discuss.”

take my darkest secrets to the grave, but if he kept pushing, I was so nervous, I would surely give

one point, I would have

and to the

over the machines, the threads, and the

my