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.

that he would never be

wanted him to be. We’d both moved on since then. It wasn’t my business who he

standing there in the entryway to the dining room, holding Lilliana’s hand with only the barest touch, he didn’t seem happy. That,

like a shell of the man I once knew. It hurt me to see. I couldn’t stand

from the spectacle and headed into

over the western tree line. The sky was painted in a palette

I simply enjoyed the view. I wondered if Elva was looking out the window to see it. We had never gotten much time to

hoped she was looking

you lost, miss?” a male voice said, suddenly

startled, and turned to face the

a hair out of place or a speck of dirt on

and fringe than the

was the

I had noticed him when some of the other girls

pointed him out.

with a severe expression. I

he said, voice gruff. “Are you lost?