The Luna Choosing Game

The next morning. when I woke up, I headed straight for the window to look at the sky. Fortunately, there

was no cloud in sight. Today, it seemed, I would escape my punishment.

One of these days, however, my luck would run out and I would be forced to kneel in the storm and hope

my body was strong enough to take it.

Elva and I dressed for the day, and hand in hand, we exited our room to head down to breakfast. Just

outside of the room, we were greeted by Mark.

“Piper, Elva.” He turned toward the two guards standing behind him. “From now on, these two will be

personally assigned to you.”

Their uniforms were more or less similar to other guards I’d seen, except these ones had green trim

around their cuffs.

“They are a part of Prince Nicholas’s personal guard,” Mark explained. “You will also find that others on

this floor have been replaced, though these two will be outside your door at all times if you need them.”

The two gave me soft nods. They seemed nice enough, much nicer than my previous guards. And if they

Nicholas, then I had little

past, Nicholas seemed fond of Elva. I believed him when he said he would

safe. Really, that was

one knee to

sorry for the things that happened to you, Elva. But I can vow

now on, you

looked at him

scared, and your mom or

me, okay? Do you know

up at me. At my nod, she gave him her

He rose to his feet. “Are you both headed down

cort your

sick, wouldn’t it,

down a lot since the day before, she still seemed nervous,

guards, Mark included.

subtler differences in their outfits were lost on her. She saw them all

and pushed her out of a

to trust them

breakfast, the girls were loudly

banned from the gardens before I had gone out there. The Queen, it seemed,

of her punishing in

of Elva’s endangerment made it onto television, thank goodness. However,

catch it, did not mean the other girls had not heard