The Luna Choosing Game

Terry narrowed his eyes a small margin. Julian had put him in a corner now. It would seem almost cruel to deny Piper, especially with Julian himself defending her.

“Hurry back,” Terry said, voice silky smooth for the watching cameras.

“I will,” I promised, a blatant lie, and hurried away from the table.

Outside the dining room, I turned to a lingering servant.

“Excuse me, can you direct me to the bathroom?”

But the servant, eyes downcast, gave no indication that he even heard me. This place was a hell– scape. God knew what these poor people endured on the regular.

I left the servant without a word and sought out the bathroom on my own.

After a few minutes, I easily found Nicholas. All I really had to do was follow the sound of his cursing.

The bathroom door was halfway open. He sat on top of the closed toilet lid with a small waste bin between his knees, as he callously plucked the shards of glass from his hand and dropped them into the trash. Content held by NôvelDrama.Org.

As I neared, I felt a sudden tapping on my shoulder. I turned, and it had been a servant. They held out a basket for me. Inside was cleaning wipes and bandages.

I accepted the gift quickly. “Thank you,” I said, heartfelt. With the way they had obviously been trained to be obedient only to Terry, I knew this offering came with a risk to them.

They nodded. Not once in the entire encounter did they look at me. Instead, they turned and scurried away.

Approaching the door, I knocked on the wood and pushed it open.

Nicholas was on his feet in a second, body suddenly tense. When he saw it was me, he exhaled long and slow, and his whole body relaxed again.

“Sit,” I said, coming into the room.

He plopped back down on the closed toilet lid. I dropped my gift basket onto the edge of the sink and came near him.

“Let me see,” I said.

He lifted his bloody hand toward me. “I got most of the glass out, but I can’t see the underside as well. There’s one piece stuck in there, I can feel it.‘

“I’ll get it.” I set to work. The shard was clearly visible.

He clenched his teeth but didn’t otherwise react as I quickly removed the glass and dropped it into the wastebasket.

“Better?”

He sighed in relief. “Yes. Thank you.”

“Come over to the sink. We’ll clean you up.”

He smirked at me a little. “Yes, ma’am.”

I blushed, realizing how demanding I had sounded. “I didn’t mean…”

“It’s fine.” He rose to his feet and followed my instruction, moving to the sink. “I like when you tell me what you want. It saves time.”

My blush burned hotter. “Nick!” I scolded lightly.

He smiled wider. He’d been purposefully teasing me, of course.

“I wanted to see you smile,” he said. “I know this evening has been… unpleasant.”

“That’s putting it mildly.” I turned on the facet, and touching Nicholas’s wrist, guided his hand under the water. Red filled the sink basin. “After you left, he was pawing at me like I was some kind of sex doll or something.”

Nicholas stilled. His whole body went tense again.

I realized my mistake too late. It wasn’t that I didn’t think Nicholas should know what happened after he left, but I certainly hadn’t intended on telling him in such a blasé way, when he was already upset at our being here!

I should have waited until we were somewhere safe, like back in the palace, where Nicholas could lose his cool without endangering his reputation.

As it was, he was a well of barely–contained rage, nearly shaking from it.

“He did what?”