The Luna Choosing Game

“It’s not a fault to be dependable,” I said.

“It is if it makes you immovable. You have to be more willing to be wrong.”

I closed my mouth and glared at him. As usual, my sharp looks seemed to bounce right off of him without taking hold.

“Come on,” Julian began walking. He didn’t look back, expecting me to fall in line behind. him. Damn him, I needed to, for Piper’s sake, so I did. “We can’t keep our dear uncle waiting.”

Together, Julian and I walked out of the palace and toward the guard barracks. In the basement beneath their facility was a type of prison. Julian jokingly called it, ‘the dungeon,‘ though that title wasn’t far from the truth. Material © of NôvelDrama.Org.

It had been built long ago and though lighting and plumbing had been added later, it still maintained a certain level of castle dungeon aesthetic: thick stone walls, iron bars, chains on the walls. The interrogation rooms were once torture rooms, though no torture took place now.

At least, none that I was privy to know about. I had suspicions though.

Terry was kept in a special cell at the end of the long, narrow hall. His cell was dimly lit, with only a bulb light on the ceiling in the middle of the stone room. Terry’s hands were bound in shackles. His hair was messed, his beard overgrown.

I blinked, seeing him like this. I’d never seen the man in such a state of disarray.

“How delightful it is that my nephews came to visit me,” Terry said, distain dripping from his voice like poison. “What the hell more could you possibly want from me?”

The shock wore off Julian much faster than me.

“Call off Jane,” Julian said. “Before Piper gets hurt.”

Terry, who was sitting on the floor, dropped his head back against the wall. “Jane went for her head, did she? I imagined she would. It was only my lust for the girl that kept her safe from Jane’s wrath.”

“Call. Her. Off,” I said now, adding an Alpha threat into my voice.

Terry glanced at me incredulously, and then laughed – loud and hard and mocking.

“What the hell is so funny?” Julian asked sharply. He was losing his patience too, it seemed.

“The both of you are, thinking I have any say over what Jane does.” Terry’s laugh ebbed, though the mockery remained in the patronizing lilt of his tone. “She is higher up in the underground organization than I am, you blubbering fools. She was only ever with my by

I freeze, the words slicing through me. Jane is…? How could that be?

But, looking back, I supposed it made sense. Per the letter welcoming Terry to the underground, his admittance had been rather recent. More recent than Jane, from what Piper had previously indicated.

Jane had fallen in with a wayward crowd at a young age. She’d had more time to rise in their ranks.

“Piper is graver danger than she ever was with me running free,” Terry said with a smile. My distress clearly amused him. His eyes stayed on my face, as a smirk curled his lips. “Jane can be quite the little hellspawn when she wants to be. Fantastic in bed, too. Probably like her sister.”

Julian groaned. “Please, stop.”

“It doesn’t matter,” I said, ignoring his comments that were only meant to further upset me. “It doesn’t matter. We will chase Jane from the palace, and without your help, she won’t be able to return.”

Terry laughs again. “You are so sure about that!”

“Why the hell wouldn’t we be?” Julian growled.

Terry stifled himself, but only so long to say, “You think I’m the only connection Jane has in the palace?”

Then he laughed and laughed.

As my stomach sunk lower and lower.