THE LUNA THEY’LL NEVER LOVE

36: BUSTED

PHEEONA.

I turned back to Bennedict before he could even think about following us further in. "You can't join. I want to feel normal, and blend in. You'll ruin the fun."

He looked like he wanted to argue, but I was already pulling Anyssa toward the bar before he could get a word out, weaving between bodies until we found two open seats near the counter, the noise of the place wrapping around us in a way that already felt like freedom.

I sat down and tried to catch the bartender's attention, but there was no such luck. He moved past us twice without so much as a glance, hands full of glasses, sweat beading at his temple from the sheer volume of people demanding his attention all at once.

"It's how things are almost everywhere tonight," a male voice said from beside me.

I turned. It was a young man, maybe my age, who gestured toward the bartender with a knowing look, like he'd been sitting here long enough to understand the particular chaos of this exact bar. "Everything's packed for the celebration. Hard to get any favoritism with a crowd like this."

"What are they celebrating?" I asked.

"The kings’ marriage," he said, leaning in slightly so I could hear him over the noise. "To the princess of Lunaris. We hear she's even their mate."

I went still.

I shared a quick look with Anyssa before turning back to him, schooling my expression into something neutral, curious, anything but what I was actually feeling. "Is that such a cause for celebration?"

"Certainly," he said, like the answer should've been obvious to anyone. "Our leaders are whole now. They can only rise from here."

I watched him, confused, trying to make sense of the weight people here seemed to put on a bond I hadn't asked for, hadn't wanted, had spent eleven months running from before it had finally caught up to me anyway.

"Anyway," he continued, oblivious to the storm quietly happening behind my eyes, "the festivities have been held off by the palace. We think the princess might've fallen ill, probably not used to Ashenbane cuisine. So we haven't had our banquets or anything yet."

I cut in. "Banquets?"

He looked down at me with a small, curious frown. "Are you visiting?" Then his expression shifted, something amused creeping into it. “Or… are you one of the outsider territories?"

I frowned. "Outsider territories?"

He shrugged, easily and unbothered. "You know, were you and your people absorbed into Ashenbane?"

It hit me then exactly what he was asking. Whether I'd been one of the conquered, one of the kingdoms swallowed into this empire over the years, stripped of its own identity and folded into something larger.

The question made perfect sense. I was sitting here at a bar in the heart of Ashenbane with absolutely no idea about any of its traditions, its history, or its people.

I nodded, deciding it was easier than explaining the truth.

"Ah," he said, understanding settling over his face. "It's tradition. Over here, we celebrate marriages with a seven day feast. There's going to be a party tonight." He gestured toward Anyssa, smiling now, friendly in a way that almost made me forget where I was for a second. "You and your friend should come."

I was about to answer when Bennedict appeared beside me, every inch of him lines with tension. His voice was low and urgent in a way that immediately set every nerve in my body on edge. "Princess. We should leave now."

I barely had time to process the urgency in his tone before the main door swung open, a bell chiming so loudly it cut clean through the noise of the tavern.

The room went quiet.

Not all at once. But slowly, second by second, the chatter dying down in a wave that moved backward from the entrance until the whole place had gone nearly silent, glasses pausing halfway to mouths, conversations dying mid-sentence.

I turned around, my heart already racing in a single, undeniable direction, the bond in my chest pulling taut before my mind had even caught up to what it was reacting to.

Every face in the tavern had turned toward the door, attention pulled like magnets toward whoever had just walked in, the entire room holding its breath in unison.

I lifted my gaze.

And in the next second, they were locked on Nashyn’s irritated glare.