Of the Dark Moon by Melissa Kieran

Author:Melissa Kieran [Kieran, Melissa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-01-26T18:30:00+00:00

CHAPTER 6

RAANA

They hadn’t gone back to the estate before they’d been loaded into the car meant to drive to Callisto, but Raana didn’t care. She had nothing there. She felt like she had nothing anywhere. Maybe some small trinkets and her grimoire in her cottage, but nothing else. Whatever illusion she’d had of her life, of a life, had shattered the instant Cassius opened his mouth.

Or perhaps it had been shattered for years and years, but she’d been too foolish to notice.

She and Adrien hadn’t spoken once since they’d left Io’s borders. Whether he’d found out his father’s intentions for her, she didn’t know. And again, she couldn’t bring herself to care.

The prince was either angry with her or keen on giving her space. Either way, she didn’t protest. Silence, not having to speak, was welcomed. Every time she opened her mouth, even to take a breath, she felt like screaming or sobbing—and every time she berated herself to get her shit together, it only made her more volatile. It was a wonder she hadn’t encased the entire vehicle in shadows as they drove and damned them all. Just as Helene always predicted.

By the time they’d arrived at Callisto’s Pack Hall, with watercolors of dusk falling to inky darkness, Raana couldn’t even muster the energy to marvel at the building nestled into the lush, verdant landscape. The garden pathways and creeping vines over brick foundations.

She was numb, an empty shell, as they were greeted by staff clad in deep green uniforms and brought up and up and over to where they’d be lodging—

“We’re in the same room?” Raana rasped, standing before the threshold of a guest suite as the Imperial Guards who’d come along made a sweep of the space. An assurance there were no traps laid for the Highest Prince.

Adrien finished thanking and dismissing the staff member who’d directed them to this wing of the hall. “We are,” was all he answered, his eyes doing their own pass of the terrain from where he stood in the alcove.

Raana pursed her lips. “You neglected to mention that.”

“It didn’t seem important.”

“Really?” She’d said it with such disbelieving force, the most emotion she’d allowed herself to show in hours, that it made Adrien turn her way. She folded her arms, adding softly, “How will this look to others? Me and you staying together.”

“I don’t care.”

Another flippant response. One that felt purposefully to get underneath her skin.

The guards, one of them Sandrine—who couldn’t seem to bear witness to Raana without a distrustful sneer—concluded their search, deeming the room safe. They bowed to Adrien as they stepped out, and Raana—now in a more modest version of their custom uniform—received a shallow, frigid movement in farewell. Adrien’s keenness towards her was undeniable now. After what had happened at the hall. From where she stood here. She was sure that they had questions, and she was sure they had opinions. Ones she was certain were not favorable.

The prince’s new plaything.

With a low grumble at their forms, retreating for their bedrooms down the hall, Raana turned to her own.

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