All Chapters of The Rejected Fool Luna: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

Briar did not know when she fell asleep.One moment she was sitting on the floor with her box of things in her lap, and then it was morning and her neck hurt and the carpet had left a red pattern on her cheek.She lay there and looked at the ceiling and waited to feel like getting up.She did not feel like getting up.Her phone was buzzing on the nightstand. The canteen manager's name, three times in a row. She watched it buzz and did not move. After the fourth call she turned it face-down and went back to sleep.By evening Killian had not come home.The house was quiet.She put on her shoes and left.She had been walking for maybe forty minutes when she saw the orange hair.Mabel was coming out of a corner shop with a paper bag under one arm. She stopped when she saw Briar. Briar stopped when she saw Mabel.They stood on the pavement and looked at each other."Hi," Briar said."Hi," Mabel said.Neither of them moved for a moment.Then Briar said, "You quit today. Because of me.""I q

Vivienne spoke first."She took my dress," Vivienne said. Her hand was pressed to her arm where the coffee had caught the sleeve. "I brought her a gift. A burgundy dress, because I thought it would suit her. And she took it into the bathroom and when she came back she said it didn't fit." A pause. "I had another dress in the bag, one that would have fit her better, I was going to offer it next. But she maybe saw this one was more expensive, more refined, I should have thought of that earlier, I just didn't manage to find one two sizes larger in time." She stopped. "I don't know why she threw the coffee. I don't know if it was because she saw Killian and me together outside and she was already upset. I would never hurt her on purpose. She knows that."Every face in the coffee shop had turned toward Briar.Briar sat at the table with the overturned cup in front of her."That is not what happened," she said. "The dress is something Vivienne gave me on her own, I didn't know there was anot

Briar looked at the sheet for a long time.Pregnant.Finally. She had wanted this for so long. She had prayed for it in the cold in front of the east window and she had thought about it lying on the bathroom floo.She was smiling before she knew she was smiling.Then she looked at Liam.His face was not smiling. His face was doing something careful and controlled and very, very serious, and she watched it and felt her own expression start to change."Liam," she said. "Why do you look like that."He pulled his chair closer.He waited until the doctor left the room. Then he leaned forward with his elbows on his knees and told her everything.If Killian found out about the pregnancy, he would bring her back. He would keep her comfortable until the baby came. And then he would use the prophecy, take the child, and reject her. That was what two children meant. That was why the prophecy existed.Briar listened.She listened all the way through without interrupting, which was not something s

Killian went very still.Briar felt him stop breathing for a moment."What did you just say," he said."I want to reject you," she said again. "I want to be the one who does it first."He put her down and took one step back and looked at her."Don't say that again," he said."Why not?""Because I said so! Don't say it again!"Briar looked at him. Her hands were shaking and she pressed them against her sides."You talk about the prophecy like it's everything," she said. "Like it's the only thing. You need two children and then you can have your heir and be free of me." Her voice wobbled but she kept going because Mabel had made her practice this one hundred times and she was going to finish it. "But you keep Vivienne waiting too. You say she's your fated mate and you keep her close but you won't reject me to be with her properly because you're scared. You're scared of a dead woman's words and so you're stuck and you're making everyone around you stuck with you.""Who told you to say th

Mabel's parents lived forty minutes outside the city in a house that had been added to so many times over the years that it no longer had a coherent architectural style, just room after room that had been needed and built and made comfortable. There were plants on every windowsill. The kitchen smelled like something that had been simmering for hours. A dog of indeterminate breed was asleep on the couch and did not move when they came in.Mr. Finch took Briar's bag from her before she had finished getting out of the car. Mrs. Finch came out of the kitchen with flour on her hands and said, "There you are, we've been expecting you," like Briar was someone who had been coming here for years and was simply a little late.Briar stood in the hallway and did not know what to do with her hands.They had made up the small bedroom at the end of the hall. There were fresh towels folded on the chair and a spare blanket at the foot of the bed and a glass of water on the nightstand.Briar sat on the