Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 84072 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84072 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
I was still confused. “The Matchmaker?”
“No, you idiot, Luna.” He crossed his bulky arms. “She touched the fire, and it accepted her, which means only one thing.”
“Get. There. Faster.” I took a menacing step toward him.
His smirk had me daydreaming about choking him to death. “You’re not the only one who wants to align the courts—and every single male, me included, now has a chance— the mist between the realms has lifted.”
“A chance?”
“To win the Winter Moon.” He shot me a cocky grin. “To seduce and marry Luna Damanta, to finally right the wrong and give the Damanta family our alliance.”
“No.” I shook my head. It was impossible. She was still cursed. “No. She’s mine!”
He barked out a laugh. “Not anymore.”
I charged him.
But he disappeared into the mist.
I narrowly missed a tree and then started punching it over and over again; bark flew all around me, and the tree cracked in half after my last punch.
Mine.
She was mine.
And I was going to claim her before anyone else could.
A small voice in the back of my head told me it was wrong—that it would kill her, but I would rather die than see her in my brother’s arms.
And just like that, I realized the curse was in full effect because tomorrow, I would kiss her.
I would touch her.
I would damn us both.
Just to keep her mine.
Chapter Thirteen
Luna
I yawned as I turned on my side and stared at the red digits on the clock. It was three a.m.? I vaguely remembered the fire, Benjamin walking me back, Hath carrying me, and then sleep.
Glorious sleep without any nightmares.
A smile teased my lips. No, the nightmares weren’t there, but the heat had been. The heat from Benjamin’s stare.
The heat from that library.
I let out a deep moan thinking about the way his hands touched me, and as if he was there, I reached my hands over my head, stretching like a satisfied cat after a hot meal.
Mine.
Where did that word come from?
Did it even matter?
It’s what he was?
My wrists burned as I twisted my hands over my head, then dropped them into my lap and looked at the clock again.
I had a few more hours to sleep.
But I should probably set my alarm, so I woke up on time for the bookstore; the minute my fingers touched the top of the clock, they stuck like glue.
And the same thing that had happened the night before happened again, but this time I paid more attention to the way the clock seemed to turn to a black mist as the room around me spun until I was lying on the forest ground staring up at the sky, my hands behind my head, a piece of grass in my mouth.
“Thought I’d find you here,” the deep voice said.
With a frown, I sat up. The man had his green hair pulled back into a low ponytail, the sides were shaved on his head, and he had amber eyes that seemed to glow more and more the bigger his perfect white smile got.
He reminded me of Benjamin.
“Do I know you?” I asked politely.
“You did. You do.” He shrugged and then pointed down beside me. “This seat taken?”
I patted the spot. “It is now.”
“I always did like you, Luna.”
“You have me at a disadvantage. You know my name, but I don’t know yours, nor do I remember you or this forest.”
“Memories are so fickle anyway.” He grinned. “It’s like wishing for rain when the sun beats down like hell—in the moment, all you can focus on is the pain, the need for water, later when you’re finally sated, the memory is always skewed; it’s never as bad as it really was. Our brain chooses to focus on whatever it wants; the point I’m making is, does it truly matter if you remember me or my name? Can’t we just exist right now, in this moment?”
I scooted closer to him. “It’s more curiosity since I woke up in clothes I didn’t recognize in a place I can barely remember with someone who seems to be familiar with me.”
He just laughed. “I used to pull your hair. Often.”
“Say what?” I frowned.
“You annoyed me,” he said slowly. “Like the little sister I never wanted but was somehow gifted with—but Benjamin, he never saw you as a sister, and now I see why.” His eyes raked over me in a way that said the last thing he saw was his sister; he was absolutely predatory. “One wish.”
“What?” He knew Benjamin? What the hell was going on?
“I’ll give you one wish if you grant me what I want, right here, in this forest.”
“No,” I said quickly as the hair on my arms stood up on end. “I think that’s a bad idea.”
And I couldn’t explain why, except something told me that he’d trick me or manipulate me, and the last thing I wanted was to get trapped in this weird dream forever.