Lahat ng Kabanata ng The Rejected Luna : Kabanata 21 - Kabanata 30

"Talk!" Like a whip, the command splintered across the chamber. Heads lowered, naked shoulders gleaming with fear-induced perspiration, the girls froze as they knelt on the chilly stone floor. The darkness that seemed to seep from the vaulted ceiling was fuelled by the hissing of torches from iron brackets and the upward coiling of smoke. The guards' faces were expressionless masks as they stood in stiff lines, their pikes clamped down like a trap's fangs. Luna was afraid to look up. She opened her mouth, but made no sound. The air itself felt oppressive as the silence became thicker. The sound of a predator's prowl reverberated into their bones as boots slapped the stone slowly and deliberately. Roman. His voice was smooth, deep, and vicious as he circled them like a lion in a pit. Which person's heart shook last night? He halted his steps. "Whose hands moved when they ought to have remained motionless?" No response. Just the slight rattling of a breath, forced into

“He knew, somehow, somehow.”The whisper rasped from Luna’s lips before she could stop it. Her breath came fast, shallow, trembling against the silence left in Roman’s wake. The corridor still echoed with his laughter, that velvet stretch of sound that sank beneath her skin. The guards barked orders, herding them like livestock, but her ears buzzed too loud with the memory of his voice to obey at first.“Move.” A soldier shoved her shoulder.Luna stumbled forward, chains biting into her wrists. Selene was pushed ahead of her, hair falling wild around her pale face, eyes darting like a cornered doe. Around them, the other maidens shuffled, their bare feet slapping stone, heads bent low in fear.The torches hissed as they climbed upward through the fortress, until the smell of smoke and morning dew broke through the mold-heavy air. The courtyard opened before them, sky pale with the first light of dawn.Roman stood at its center.He had shed the shadows of the corridor for the open gray

“Do you trust him?”The voice came low, guttural, heavy with suspicion.Luna froze where she crouched, her body pressed against the cold stone, breath held inside her chest until her lungs burned. The corridor had been dark, but the chamber she stumbled near pulsed with firelight, spilling shadows that swayed and bent across the walls. She hadn’t meant to find it. She had only followed the echo of boots, the faint sound of voices, Roman’s voice among them, and now she stood at the edge of revelation.Her bare toes clung to the uneven rock floor. Her thin shift clung damp against her skin. The air itself carried smoke and iron, thick with the scent of men who ruled through fear.Inside the chamber, she could see them.Roman sat at the head of a long table carved of black oak, massive, scarred, as though clawed by wolves long ago. He leaned back in the tall chair, one arm draped lazily over its side, his presence filling the space more than the fire ever could. His dark hair fell untame

"Why do you keep hiding in the shadows?" Luna leaped and whirled around, her pulse pounding. In the dim hallway light, Roman's shadow emerged, appearing large and strong. Even in the low light, she could make out the strong angles of his face, the black sweep of his cloak, and the piercing amber of his eyes. His citadel's corridors appeared suddenly more claustrophobic and smaller, as though the stone itself were yielding to his power. Trying to sound composed, Luna answered, "I... I wasn't hiding." Her heart pounded as she searched for a plausible lie. Roman's lips formed a wry and humorous smile as he said, "I was... just... listening." His voice encircled her and entered her mind, asking, "Are you listening again, little thief?" Not just for ears and sight, the word "thief" has many meanings. She began to say, "I," but he interrupted her with a raised palm and squinted his eyes like a predator assessing its victim. What creatures reside within these stones? "Do you ev

"Are you listening once more, little thief?" His voice was low enough to touch her ear and send a thrill down her spine that she hated, like silk steeped in steel. Luna's breath caught in her throat as she turned abruptly, and there he was, Roman, so near that his shadow appeared to engulf hers, his eyes shining in the dim hallway light. "I wasn't," Thin and fragile, her denial perished. With the cool menace of a predator who had already cornered its victim, Roman cocked his head to study her. Slowly and deliberately, his hand raised, stroking a stray hair from her cheek. "Don't tell lies," he replied quietly. "I could hear the rhythmic changes in your heart." Luna's palms were damp as she placed her back against the chilly stone wall. "Perhaps I was simply walking past." "Walking past Rafael and Cassian talking about loyalty oaths?" A tiny curvature of his lips, not quite a smile. "You wander in an interesting way." She felt a knot in her stomach. The tension betwee