The Luna Choosing Game

The wait for midnight was nearly unbearable, but when it finally arrived, I left Elva sleeping in the bed,

and sneaked out into the hallway.

Mark was standing there with two other guards. He typically wore a serious expression, but today he

seemed especially grim. He must have shared Nicholas’s frustration with the plan.

“Be careful tonight. If anything happened to you…” He let the words hang.

I was confused. Surely the safety of his prince was more important than me. But he didn’t say anything

more. Instead, he just stared at me expectantly.

“ll be careful,” I said.

He nodded.

Turning from him, I started down the hallway. Nicholas met me halfway. He didn’t say anything, just offered his arm. I slid my arms in his and together we walked down toward the kitchens and into the

cellar.

Brian was guarding the door to one of the rooms there, the one containing the passage. He stepped

we came

already discovered the trigger for the passageway, and an eerie dark opening loomed in the middle of a wall, hiding behind an empty bookcase that

large, industrial–style flashlight. He clicked it on.

end of the tunnel was impossible. The stretch of the

together,” Nicholas said. “Whatever happens, no one gets left behind.”

the rules,” Julian said.

and I looked at each other, and

on the stone floor echoed down the

by places, but this tunnel

the back of my neck stood on

Julian said.

light of the room we’d come from seemed

behind us.

We

in his voice. A warning that would come

and

caught in my throat.

Nicholas and Julian and touched Nicholas’s chest with one hand and Julian’s shoulder with the other. Nicholas caught my hand in his

and squeezed

a dark, creepy place in the dark, but

helped me

smacked the flashlight. The light flickered again, blinding,