When The Luna Broke Her Chains novel Chapter 99

[XENA]

I’m not going.

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Finished

Why should I? To watch a trial that’s already been decided? To sit there while Davina smiles her pretty, practised smile and pretends she earned something she was handed before any of this even began?

Exhaling a frustrated breath, I turn onto my side on the small bed, staring at the cracked plain wall in front of me. Through the narrow window, a breeze blows, sending a shiver through me. “No,” I murmur, wrapping my arms around myself. “I’m not going.”

I know exactly what will happen if I do: people will look and they’ll whisper. Speculate.

“She’s the one the Prince favors.”

“She must’ve done something. It’s not just because she saved his cursed creature!”

“He’s probably fucking her.”

Or worse: “She’s wolfless. She must be cursed. Why isn’t she shunned?”

I press my lips together. “I’ve heard it all before,” I whisper. “Nothing new.”

But that’s not the worst part. The worst part is I’ll look at Knox. I know I will. No matter how much I tell myself not to, I’ll search for him in that crowd, like an idiot.

And what if he’s looking at you, too?

The thought creates a knot in my chest that promises to stay awhile.

I turn onto my back, staring up at the ceiling. “That’s exactly why you’re not going,” I tell myself firmly, because I don’t want to know. I don’t want to see what’s in his eyes when he looks at me, and I don’t want to find out what that closeness between us earlier meant.

My stomach twists sharply, pulling me out of it, and I groan softly, rolling onto my side again and clutching it. “Great,” I mutter. “Now that too.”

I haven’t eaten properly. Not that I’m given much to eat anyway; Oriel makes sure of that. Lady Mara, too. There’s food–plenty of it—but not for me. Until it’s only what’s left behind, what they don’t want, what they think I deserve.

I squeeze my eyes shut as a wave of dizziness passes through me. “I’m fine,” I whisper into the thin sheet. “I don’t need it.” My body disagrees. I’ve started talking to myself out loud now. Maybe I really am going crazy.

Cassian still hasn’t come back. Last I heard, he’s with the palace healers, sick with something no one understands.

My breath leaves me in a shudder this time. “Good.” The word comes out before I can stop it.

I know now that it wasn’t the alcohol–it was me. I did something to him. And he’s still suffering. Good. “He deserved it,” I whisper. “He deserves worse.”

So does Davina.

14:00 Tue, Apr 28

Chapter 99 Nothing New

I turn my face into the mattress again, breathing slowly until the dizziness fades.

Was Knox going to kiss me?

48%

Finished

My eyes snap open. “No,” I whisper immediately. “Don’t But it’s already there. The way he stepped closer. The way I didn’t move. The way 1-

I press my lips together, heat rising to my face. “That would’ve been wrong,” I say under my breath. “Completely inappropriate.”

I’m married. He’s a Prince. A Lycan Prince.

“And you’re nothing,” I add quietly.

Still, for a moment, I wanted it. Recklessly. Shamelessly. And I don’t even know why. Was it because I wanted to be kissed? Or because it was him?

Breathing in slowly, I press a hand against my chest. That pull… I felt it again when the mark on his wrist began to glow. The wolf head–the one that appears in reflections and places where it shouldn’t exist.

And something inside me answered it. The pull had been so strong it hurt. And then my eyes caught Iver. He was standing there the entire time, watching awkwardly, desperately looking like he wanted to flee. Reality had snapped back so quickly it almost made me dizzy.

“What were you doing?” I whisper now, shaking my head.

A moment before, I’d been furious with him. And then he almost had me begging him to kiss me. A humorless laugh escapes my lips.

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