The Luna Choosing Game

As Nicholas asked out Lilliana, I stood in the back of the crowd of watching girls, my heart down on the

floor.

I had no right to be upset. I knew that. I had given up the right to be upset a long time ago.

Yet I couldn’t deny the feeling.

First, Nicholas had returned the handmade gift I made him, and now he was asking another girl on a solo

date.

According to the rules of the competition, solo dates were only supposed to be awarded after a girl performed well in one of the events.

Of course, from what I’d heard, the rules also stated that a prince could ask any girl out at any time, sol supposed such a thing wasn’t unheard of.

But for it to be Nicholas who asked for the first solo date felt like the hardest pill to swallow.

I understood that the candidates were invited here to the palace to date the princes. Soon, Nicholas would pick someone to marry.

it abundantly clear that

to be. We’d both moved on since then. It wasn’t my business who he dated, or

the dining room, holding Lilliana’s hand with only the barest touch,

his faceless expression, the more he seemed like a shell of the man I once knew.

an escape for a minute, I turned away from the spectacle and headed into

was just beginning to set over the western tree line. The sky was

was looking out the window to see it. We had never gotten much time

hoped she was looking

you lost, miss?” a male voice

turned to face

was immaculate, with not a hair out of place or a speck

had more stripes and fringe than the other guards I’d

because he was the

not someone I had met personally, but I had noticed him when some of

pointed him out.

expression. I felt much

more,” he said, voice gruff. “Are you