Corey tittered behind Luna, while Marion gave Damien a knowing look, that said,See? She’s impossible.Damien ignored them, stepping closer to Luna and pressing a hand against her lower back. “Go on. Ask what you need.”
“Erm . . . This seems private. We’re gonna leave,” Corey said as she wrapped an arm around Marion’s waist. Marion nodded, and the two of them turned back down the hallway.
Nina paid them no mind as they vanished, glowering at Damien a heartbeat longer before swinging her attention back to Luna, ears tipping forward.
Luna’s heart hammered against her ribs.This was really happening.“Is it true?” Her muscles tightened, bracing for the rejection that was bound to come. “That you’re my mother?”
Silence stretched tautly between them, until Nina sighed, her shoulders sagging. “I gave birth to you. Yes.” She nodded, pausing momentarily, before adding, “But I’m not really your mother . . . Not truly.” Bitterness seemed to coat the notes in her voice.
Luna couldn’t help but think of Angie and her soft smile, all the lessons she’d tried to teach, now painfully irrelevant. Something fragile cracked within her. If her mother could see her now, would she be proud or furious? “I don’t—I don’t understand . . .” Questions scraped her throat like glass. Dryly, she swallowed, forcing herself to vocalize the words she had wondered all her life. “Did you lov—” Luna shook her head, embarrassed by her vulnerability. “Why didn’t you come for me?”
“I did . . . Once.” The tight lines around Nina’s eyes softened slightly. “When you were small, I managed to find you and I tried to take you away from that place . . . from those people, but you were so scared.”
A memory flashed through Luna’s mind. Terror of being carried through the dark on a unicorn’s back, certain the creature was taking her to her lair to eat her. She remembered begging to go home. Praying she would wake up any second from the nightmare. Her gaze lifted, meeting Nina’s through the bars. “I thought it was a dream.”
“You cried for your mother, and that’s when I realized I’d never be that to you.”
She remembered that white unicorn’s sad eyes when she had returned her to the window outside her room. They had haunted her for years. “I’m sorry.” Her lips trembled, thoughts of how different things would have been for them had she just been brave spiraled through her mind.
Nina’s voice broke. “Oh, my child . . . I just want to reach through these bars and hold you.”
“No,” Damien interrupted, his hands moving in front of Luna as if to block an attack. His voice was flat but unyielding. “You stay right there.”
Nina pressed a hand to her heart as if his words had physically harmed her. “So unnecessarily cruel,” she whispered, shaking her head. “Do not tell me you fear me so greatly that you would deny a mother what is likely to be her one and only embrace of her child?” Her gaze flicked to Luna’s. “Or do you not know where he is sending me?”
“She knows.”
Exasperated, Luna shot Damien a pointed look. “Why is she even chained? She’s not an animal.” They were in a demonic temple, and she was locked in a cell. Surely there wasn’t anything Nina could do to them at this point? “Undo them.”
“Precaution,” Damien said, in that same flat voice. “Even though unicorn magic doesn’t work in demonic temples, I’m certain she would be the one to find a way. The dampening cuffs provide additional security.”
“If I wanted to curse you”—Nina lifted her hands, clicking the cuffs together—“these would not stop me.” Her lips curved upwards, devilishly. “But I’d never dream of harming the man who brought my daughter to me.”
Luna doubted that. She had a feeling that if Nina could, shewoulddo just that.
“You’re staying chained,” Damien said to Nina, then he turned to Luna. “And you are staying right here.”
Realizing this wasn’t a fight she was going to win, Nina retreated back in her cell. Seeing this as a dismissal attempt, Luna almost turned to leave when Nina spoke again, stopping her in her tracks. “I’ve always worried if I made the wrong choice . . .”
Immediately, Luna knew what she meant. She tried her best to give her a reassuring smile. “The family they gave me . . . They were kind. Took me in as one of their own.” She thought of Angie and Darius—of every lie wrapped up as safety. “I think they truly loved me. Probably still do, but . . .” Luna licked her lips, summoning her courage to ask, “I wanted to know why you gave me up? Why you decided to do it.”
Nina’s shoulders stiffened. “I was a refugee when I found Grythorn. The King sheltered me, on the condition that I’d keep his kingdom safe. When they found out I was pregnant, he thought raising a child would distract me from those duties . . . That a child would weaken my resolve, so we made a deal. A family in his court would raise you like theirs. I was never to speak to you. You were to be raised like a human so you’d be accepted among them.” Nina’s voice broke. She turned her face away, staring at the wall.
It warmed Luna’s heart, though, that the decision to give her up was not made out of indifference but rather necessity.
“I named you Luna, the day you were born,” Nina continued. “I had hoped naming you after the moon would give you its strength . . . I remember your tiny hands. How they reached for me as they took you away.” She looked back at Luna, eyes shining. “I can’t believe how much you’ve grown. You’re so beautiful.”
Warmth spread through Luna at the compliment. It wasn’t like when Felix had said it, it didn’t feel pitiful. No. Nina truly thought Luna was beautiful, and Luna felt no need to hide her disfigurement from her; it healed something jagged inside of her.
Nina’s gaze flicked to Damien briefly, her voice dropping to a whisper. “Did they hurt you?”
“No,” Luna quickly answered. “He saved me.”
Nina’s laugh was as sharp as a blade. “Of course he did. Or that’s what he wants you to think. Tell me—if you think about it, were you ever in danger before he arrived? Or did he arrange it all to become a hero in your eyes.”
Luna’s mouth opened, then closed. “What do you mean?”
“I saw him—them—at the ceremony,” Nina hissed. “His very presence planted a seed of doubt in those humans’ minds. They didn’t know where your loyalty lay. Then the humans overreacted—as humans always do—and Damien swept in to play the role of hero for you.”
