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.

want to talk?” I

move, nor did not look away. “You are Julian

Did we?

close just now,”

to know what we had been talking about. As far as I was concerned,

I gave a non–committal

close during archery

had totally avoided so much as glancing at me during the archery event. Even when I had been with his group, he hadn’t said one word to

did you two become so close?”

remembered me from

but it was uneasy. I felt like I was walking along a dagger’s edge,

send me further into

He already hated me. Why did he care who I spent time with?

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

nerves. “No, I, um… Julianer, Prince Julian and I had some

matters to discuss.”

darkest secrets to the grave, but if he kept pushing, I was

at denying Nicholas. At one point, I would

to the sewing machines I’d had the maids

He looked over the machines, the threads, and

my