When the Moon Hatched (The Moonfall Series Book 1)

“Kaan, no. I did not agree to this!”

His body stiffens, steps slowing, a low, grating sound coming from him. “Say it again …”

“What?”

“My name, Moonbeam. Say it again.”

If it’ll get me out of this saddle ride, I’ll scream it to the sky until my voice box ruptures.

“Kaan. Kaan. Kaan. Kaan. Kaan! Now put me down. Quick.”

He fills his lungs, his entire chest inflating—like he just took his first breath since he began a deep dive. “You didn’t say please,” he finally says, then kicks forward again.

Wha—

“Please!”

“Too late.”

I’m going to shatter his bones and use them for toothpicks.

“Heartily decline.”

Of course.

I hope he doesn’t mind when I heartily slit his throat.

Why a ball?” comes a rasped voice to my left.

I look sideways at the male I thought was asleep bunched beneath his filthy blanket, instead watching me through the bars. “It’s a moon.”

He frowns. “Then why a moon?”

I cast my gaze forward again, tap-tap-tapping my foot to the soothing tune in my head. “Because they fall.”

Even when we don’t want them to.

It doesn’t matter how much of my skin is smoothed or how deep he kneels at my feet. I’m still an assassin marked for execution come aurora rise, and he’s still a tyrant king.

“I’m still intent on killing you, if given the chance,” I warn past clenched teeth.

“Don’t forget to cut off my head,” he murmurs. “Or I’ll haunt you for eternity.”

“This better be a threesome,” I grind out.

“I’m not one to share,” the King says, his voice low and steady. “But if that’s what you really want, it can be arranged once your back is healed.”

He obviously thinks he’s hilarious, but I’m not laughing, my pulse a violent churn I can’t seem to slow.

“Well done. You possess a brain cell.” I glance up again, holding the Chancellor’s beady glare. “I would cheer, but I’m certain you’ll do enough of that this slumber while you’re staring at your floor-length mirror, fisting your microcock.”

A smile splits my face as I’m nudged up a curl of stairs by one of the boisterous guards …

Might as well have some fun before I die.

“Wanna tussle?” I ask the King, flashing him a complimentary grin he can take to my grave,

then bit off the finger of a prestigious bounty hunter employed by The Crown.”

Well.

Good for me. I’d pat myself on the back if my skin wasn’t flayed.