With a tilt of her head, she asked, “Why?” Wondering to herself if this was because he liked her sister. It was the only reason that made sense to her, why else would he be nice to her after all this time?
“Is it that hard to imagine I might be nice without a hidden agenda?”
“Yes, actually. It is,” she said, a smile tugging at the corners of her lips.
His gaze landed on them. “There it is.”
Luna didn’t know how to respond.
Prince Kieran turned and gave the servant the hat with instructions to bring the gift to Luna’s home.
Then the prince held out his arm, which Luna cautiously accepted, wrapping her hand around it as he escorted her back to the banquet. As soon as they returned, the prince was immediately greeted by one of the other ladies who insisted he needed to dance with them.
Without a second thought for Luna, he disappeared into the crowd, leaving her alone again. She was about to head back to the table to relax and enjoy the music when she noticed Emily marching towards her.
Luna raised an eyebrow in question, but Emily said nothing until she had wrapped her arms around her. To anyone else watching, the embrace would have looked like a beautiful moment of sisterly love. Unfortunately, it wasn’t that kind of moment.
Luna’s heart sank as Emily whispered in her ear, “I hope you know the only reason he wants you, whyanyonewants you, is because you’re exotic. Not because they actually like you.”
Shocked, Luna pushed Emily away. “I’m not exotic.I’m sick.”
“Same thing,” Emily spat back.
Balling her hands into fists, Luna resisted the urge to slap Emily. How dare her sister make a comment like that! She knew better than anyone the obstacles Luna faced to remain safe. “If he likes me—which, I assure you, he doesn’t—but if he did, it’s because I don’t follow him around like a lost puppy begging for attention.”
“I’m not talking about the prince,” Emily scoffed, “but thanks for that.” She clicked her tongue to the roof of her mouth. “You’re so naïve. Everything I do is for a reason, and I thought by now you would have figured it out.” Pivoting on her heel, Emily stormed off, leaving Luna to fume on her own.
A small hand touched Luna’s shoulder and she looked over to see Venita standing beside her with two glasses of wine. “What was that about? It looked . . .” Venita’s voice trailed off as she passed Luna a glass.
“It was nothing. We’ll be fine.” Luna took a deep drink, letting its smooth and rich flavour consume her. “So, I saw you dancing with Rory earlier! Spill the details. How was it?”
Venita’s eyes lit up with excitement. “Amazing! He is a perfect gentleman,” she confessed with a joyful giggle. “Is it terrible that I already miss his touch? Before he left, he asked me to go to the protection ceremony with him.”
Luna couldn’t help but smile, her face beaming with approval. “How romantic!”
Venita leaned in closer, lowering her voice. “Speaking of romantic interests, here comes the prince.”
“He’s not my . . .” Luna said as she turned. Sure enough, he was stalking towards them. Quickly, Luna told Venita, “Tell him I’m not feeling well and went home.”
It wasn’t necessarily a lie, she was no longer in the mood to enjoy music and watch everyone else have a good time. Luna asked the nearest guard to escort her home. The guard obliged after calling another to join them. She had forgotten the new rule of needing two guards to escort her places instead of one. Thankfully, she escaped before the prince had another chance to speak with her.
The house was eerily quiet when she arrived with the rest of her family still at the banquet, so she headed straight to her room. “Unbelievable,” Luna muttered, Emily’s words echoing in her mind as she stripped off her gown, leaving it bunched in the corner.
The massive black hat had already been delivered and sat on her bed. Luna grabbed it and placed the enormous thing above her wardrobe. Carefully, she took off her jewellery and grabbed a white robe, tying it closed around her waist. As she pulled open the drawer of her vanity to put her necklace away, she noticed the unsigned note from yesterday. Aftertonight’s conversation, it was clear the note wasn’t from Clyde, which meant the shadow unicorn must have left it for her. But why? And what did the numbers at the bottom of the page mean? Standing in the middle of her room, she looked around for clues.
Could it be from a passage from a book?53-4.Perhaps the number fifty-three could be the page number and the four could be the paragraph. If the numbers did point towards a specific passage, she reasoned the book would probably be in her house since that’s where she found the note. She decided to start with her room.
She didn’t have many books, only a few romance novels and texts on Latin grammar from their tutor. Luna grabbed her favourite first—a book about mermaids using their voices to find their soulmates. Once they had received true love’s kiss they’d transform into a human. She went to page fifty-three and scanned the page until she got to the fourth paragraph. The paragraph was small and spoke about a huge storm about to hit where the mermaid’s soulmate was living. It didn’t sound like anything useful; nothing was highlighted or underlined in code. She closed the book, returning it to her shelf.
She grabbed another novel about a knight rescuing a princess from a tall tower guarded by wolves. Again, she flipped to page fifty-three and down to paragraph four. This paragraph was about the knight fighting off a wolf and getting injured, but there was nothing to indicate a secret message in this book.
Flipping through the Latin text didn’t prove helpful either. She scoured the rest of the house, opening every book she could find. Nothing spoke about freedom, captivity, or a shadow unicorn. Stumped, she returned to her room and climbed into bed. Maybe the shadow unicorn had witnessed her following the king’s rules and came to the inaccurate conclusion that she was a captive? She sighed. The note would forever be an unsolved mystery.
At some point later in the night, Luna heard the rest of her family come home and settle into their rooms. She hadn’t managed to fall asleep, so she pulled off the covers and went over to her vanity to read the note one more time:Pretending you aren’t a captive doesn’t make you free.
An idea occurred to Luna, and even though it was late, she decided she was going to pay her sister a little visit. The house was dead silent as she knocked softly on Emily’s door twice, followed by a pause, and then once more.
A moment passed, there was the distinct sound of feet shuffling on the floor before the door creaked open. Emily peered out, her eyes barely open. “What’s going on?” she asked, sleep hanging in her voice. They hadn’t used their secret childhood knock in years; they had created it when they were young so that even when they were fighting, they’d always open the door for each other. Emily yawned, stretching her hands out wide. “If you can’t sleep because of what I said earlier, just forget about it.”
