Only in Moonlight, page 18
He lunged without warning, his heavier blade cutting through the air where my head had been a heartbeat before. I parried his next strike, the clash of steel ringing through the hallway like a bell. I hadn’t fought him—truly fought him—since we were children. He attacked just as viciously as he had back then, but his technique had vastly improved. I dodged his hacks and slashes, and each time his blade impacted mine, the force rattled my arms up to my shoulders.
Rings glimmered on his beefy fists: lunar onyx for power, lightning quartz for speed. I wore the same gems, so that alone wouldn’t give him an advantage. But he was stronger than me—had always been stronger, even when I wasn’t recovering from the roses’ toxin.
“Still playing the honorable knight?” he snarled, raining blows down on my guard. “Still thinking you’re better than the rest of us?”
I gave ground, hating every inch that he drove me back. Emmeline had backed away from us, but she wasn’t far enough behind me to be safe. She wouldn’t be safe until we escaped the palace, and every second I spent on this fight was a second we couldn’t afford to waste.
His blade scraped along mine as he pressed his attack. “Everything came so easily to you. The knighthood, the women, the respect of the court. While I scraped and clawed for every scrap of recognition.”
Our swords locked at the hilts, and for a moment we were face to face. His breath was hot against my cheek, his eyes wild with years of suppressed rage.
“You got our mother killed,” he hissed.
I didn’t deny it, the memory of her death fresh in my mind thanks to the roses’ toxin, the pain like a scar that had been ripped open.
“Say something!” He shoved me back, his superior strength sending me stumbling. “Are you too good to talk to me?”
The tip of his blade whistled past my ribs, close enough to part the fabric of my surcoat. I spun away, my sword carving an arc toward his stomach, but he caught it on his crossguard. We circled each other in the narrow space, both breathing hard now.
“Valen!” Emmeline’s voice rang out with worry.
Belatedly, I felt the sting over my ribs. His blade must have cut flesh, not just fabric. Emmeline could probably see me bleeding.
“Yes, Valen,” Drudon mocked. “Listen to your little whore. Run while you still can.”
That bastard. I pressed forward, my blade seeking the gaps in his defense with newfound fury. He gave ground for the first time, surprise flickering across his face.
But then his foot caught against something—a loose tile, perhaps, or simply his own clumsiness—and he stumbled backward. His guard dropped, leaving his chest exposed. The opening was perfect, exactly what I’d been waiting for.
I stepped forward, my sword poised for the killing thrust, when Cael’s voice echoed in my memory. You’re too eager for a killing strike. It makes you predictable. Easy to lead into a feint.
Something in Drudon’s eyes—a flicker of calculation beneath the apparent panic—made me hesitate. His stumble had been too convenient, his guard too obviously dropped. Even as my rational mind recognized the trap, my body was already moving.
I twisted aside just as his blade came up in a vicious cut that would have opened me from navel to throat. Instead, it caught only air as I completed my turn, my sword finding the gap between his ribs with practiced precision.
Drudon’s eyes went wide, more with surprise than pain. He stared down at the steel protruding from his chest before looking back up at me.
“You—”
“I’m sorry, Drudon,” I said softly, withdrawing my blade. “I wish it could have ended differently.”
His knees buckled, and he hit the marble hard, blood spreading in a dark pool beneath him.
I stood over my brother’s body, my sword dripping crimson onto the pristine floor. The jewel at my hip continued its cursed pulsing, a rhythm that seemed to match my racing heart. When I finally turned to face Emmeline, I saw my worst fears reflected in her expression.
Horror. Revulsion. The look of someone seeing a monster for the first time.
“Emmeline, I—”
She took a step back, her face pale as moonlight.
Explanations and excuses died on my lips. What had I expected when our alliance turned into something more? That after the heist, she’d stay with me forever? That she could love me? I should've known better—I did know better, but I'd let hope and longing delude me.
I was a killer. The man she might have cared for was a lie. He always had been.
“We should go,” I said, my voice sounding hollow even to my own ears. “Before someone finds us here.”
She nodded mutely, still staring at me with those wide, wounded eyes. As we stepped over Drudon’s body and continued toward our escape, I couldn’t help but think that perhaps he’d won after all. He’d wanted to destroy me, and in a way, he had. He’d shown Emmeline my true self:
Someone she could never love.
Chapter 39
Emmeline
We entered a set of bedchambers just ten feet past Drudon’s corpse. Valen strode straight to a mirror, reached behind it, and flipped some kind of trigger.
A hidden panel along the wall slid open with barely a whisper, revealing a narrow passage that yawned before us like a hungry mouth. Blue torches sputtered to life along the walls, their cold flames casting eerie shadows that danced and writhed in the stale air.
Even with the torchlight, the passageway stretched into darkness, its stone walls slick with moisture and years of neglect. The air tasted of dust and decay, making my throat close up. Or maybe that was just the memory of Drudon’s final breath, the way his eyes had gone vacant while his blood spread across those pristine marble floors.
I pressed my hand to my mouth, fighting down the bile that rose in my throat. I’d seen death before—too many times in Thallence—but never like that. Never so personal, so intimate. Never someone I knew being killed by someone I...
Don’t think about it, I told myself firmly. Not now.
Valen stepped into the passage first, his movements mechanical and precise. He hadn’t spoken since we’d left his brother’s body behind, hadn’t even looked at me directly. The Selenian Jewel kept flickering at his hip, casting an intermittent light that made his face look corpse-pale.
I followed him into the narrow space, immediately regretting it as something sticky caught in my hair. Spiderwebs. Of course. I clawed at the gossamer strands as tiny shapes scuttled away from our footsteps. In the torchlight, they looked like living jewels—emerald and sapphire and ruby—their multifaceted eyes glinting as they disappeared into cracks in the stone.
Another web caught across my face, and I spat out the taste of dust and something viler. My hands shook as I pulled the sticky threads away, and I realized I was trembling. Not from the cold but from everything else. The heist, the fight, the blood.
The way Valen had looked when he’d driven his sword into his brother’s chest.
God and Goddess, I couldn’t imagine how hard that must have been for him. Sure, Drudon was an asshole, but he was still Valen’s brother. And if Valen hadn’t killed him, he’d have murdered both of us. The blood dripping down Valen’s side was proof enough of that.
“Valen,” I whispered, my voice barely audible over our footsteps. “Are you—?”
“Fine.” The word was clipped, final. He didn’t turn around, didn’t slow his relentless pace through the narrow tunnel.
My chest tightened, a familiar ache spreading beneath my ribs. Of course he was pulling away. Why had I expected anything different? The job was done—we had the jewel and were leaving the palace. He’d gotten what he needed from me, and now I was just dead weight.
I wrapped my arms around myself, trying to ward off the chill that had nothing to do with the temperature. My face burned with shame, hot and prickly. How could I have been so stupid? How could I have let myself believe that someone like him—noble, educated, fey—could actually care about someone like me?
I’d sworn I’d never be that naïve. Never trust a fey man’s silver tongue or believe their honeyed lies. But here I was, following Valen through a spider-infested tunnel like some lovesick fool.
The passage curved sharply to the left, and I had to duck under a thick cluster of webs. Something small and many-legged skittered across my shoulder, and I bit back a yelp. The last thing I needed was to look even more pathetic than I already did.
Muffled voices drifted through the walls—guards, probably, searching for us. Or maybe people were already gossiping about Drudon’s murder. My stomach lurched again at the thought, and I pressed my hand against the rough stone wall to steady myself. The surface was damp and cold, leaving a film of moisture on my palm.
“They’ll find him soon, if they haven’t already,” I said, more to fill the oppressive silence than because I expected an answer.
Valen’s shoulders tensed, but he didn’t respond. He just kept walking, his sword hand flexing and clenching at his side. I wanted to reach out to him, to offer some kind of comfort, but what could I say? Sorry you had to kill your brother for a magical rock and a thief you barely know?
I walked into another web, this one thick enough that I had to use both hands to pull it away. The sticky strands clung to my fingers, and I wiped them on my dress with a grimace. My beautiful gown—the one that had made me feel like I belonged in that glittering ballroom—was now torn and stained with dust and worse things.
Just like me. Dressed up and pretty on the surface, but underneath still the same guttersnipe who’d grown up stealing bread and sleeping with lice.
The voices from beyond the walls grew louder for a moment, then faded as we moved deeper into the passage. My heart hammered against my ribs, each beat sending waves of nausea through my already-churning stomach. What if they caught us? What if this nightmare had been for nothing?
But no—Valen had his precious jewel. Whatever happened to me, he’d gotten what he came for. The thought sat in my chest like a stone, heavy and bitter.
I stumbled over an uneven section of floor, my hand shooting out to catch myself against the wall. Behind me, more voices echoed through the walls—closer now, more urgent. They must have been tracking us with Lurena’s spell.
“Shouldn’t we leave the jewel here?” I asked. “Nobody knows about the passage. We can come back for it when it’s safe.”
Nobody knows you’re Drudon’s killer.
He shook his head jerkily. “They’ll break down the wall if they think the Selenian Jewel is behind it. And I need to get the jewel to the rendezvous point before morning. A runner will take it out of the city.”
“What?” I stopped dead in the middle of the passageway. “You never said anything about that.”
“You didn’t need to know.”
He didn’t look at me, just kept marching down the passageway. I scurried to catch up, not daring to test if he would actually leave me behind.
“Valen,” I tried again, desperation creeping into my voice. “Please, just—”
“We’re almost there.” His voice was devoid of emotion. He might have been commenting on the weather.
The dismissal hit me like a physical blow. My throat constricted, and I blinked back tears that I refused to let fall. Not here. Not in front of him.
The passage sloped upward, and I could smell something different in the air—fresher, tinged with night-blooming flowers. Hope flickered in my chest despite everything. We were almost out. Almost free.
But free to what? For him to sell me out? Abandon me? Or to go our separate ways while I pretended this had all meant nothing? To smile and nod while he walked away with his prize, leaving me with nothing but memories and regrets?
My face burned hotter, shame and hurt twisting together in my gut like a living thing. I’d let myself believe in fairy tales despite everything I knew about the world. Despite everything I knew about men from the Moonlit Court and their pretty lies.
The blue torchlight ahead grew brighter, and I could hear running water. We were close now—so close I could taste freedom on the night air. But all I felt was the familiar weight of disappointment settling over my shoulders like an old, worn cloak.
Some things never changed. Some lessons had to be learned over and over again, no matter how much they hurt.
The passage opened ahead of us into what looked like natural stone, rough and unworked, and lantern light filtered in from somewhere ahead. We’d reached the grotto.
We’d made it out.
If only things could get easier from here.
Chapter 40
Emmeline
We left the grotto, finding ourselves in another garden. The palace walls loomed behind us, and an iron fence ahead kept out the riffraff. At least ten feet tall, it had an elegantly wrought border on top that included lots of sharp points. A challenge, sure, but I could climb over it.
Valen was already striding toward it. The jewel’s light seemed even more noticeable outside, streaming through the pouch. We’d have to do something about it once we’d gotten a safe distance from the palace. Or maybe he would do something about it after ditching me. I couldn’t trust him to keep his word about paying me. His demand that I stay with him for another month could have been a clever lie to deflect my suspicions.
Footsteps crunched rapidly through the foliage. I jumped behind a tree, but Valen, five feet ahead of me, couldn’t conceal himself while the jewel kept shining.
“Here!” shouted Lurena breathlessly. “I found it! I told you I was close. It’s—”
She looked behind her, and I braced myself for the arrival of a dozen guards, but no one came.
Lurena’s chest heaved as she caught her breath. She stood next to a statue of a fierce warrior woman astride a pegasus, spear raised triumphantly. Lurena, shoulders curled forward as she hugged a magical-looking wand close to herself, couldn’t have looked more different.
After a moment, she remembered that she’d caught the thief.
“Sir Valen?”
“Lady Lurena.” He gave her a courtly bow. “They didn’t believe you’d tracked the jewel? You need to assert yourself more.”
“But you—” She stared at the jewel’s telltale glow. “Why?”
“I don’t have time to explain.”
He stepped toward her, and she jerked up her wand. A gemstone atop it flared threateningly.
Valen stopped. “I won’t hurt you.”
His voice had softened, taking on a comforting tone he’d used on me before. I’d been a fool to think it was genuine.
“You stole the Selenian Jewel,” Lurena said.
“I did.” He held out his arms loosely, his bearing open like he had nothing to hide. “But for a good reason.”
“What could possibly—?”
“Do you really think your mother should be trusted with the jewel?”
The question rendered Lurena speechless. Valen took one cautious step toward her. When she didn’t react, he took another.
“That...” Lurena looked around nervously. “That’s not for you or me to decide.”
“Maybe not,” Valen agreed calmly, still moving toward her. “But war is coming if she isn’t stopped. She wants to invade Earth. Do you think the jewel’s more important than all the lives that will be saved if she’s discredited?”
So he was stealing the jewel for a noble cause. Excitement sparked inside me before I realized he was probably lying.
“I...”
Lurena’s eyes widened, and then she studied Valen carefully. Her silvery eyebrows drew together, and she bit her lower lip.
The air crackled with unspoken tension—or maybe that was the magical energy from Lurena’s wand. A low hum, almost imperceptible, vibrated out from the gemstone atop the polished wood. A prickling sensation ran down my spine. Lurena might seem as timid as a mouse, but bears were timid too—until you got too close, and they mauled you.
Valen had finally crossed the distance between them. “I need you to trust me.”
After a long moment, Lurena lowered her wand, and the gemstone’s threatening light went out.
Valen exploded into movement. He ripped the wand from her hands and pushed her. She yelped, stumbling, and Valen yanked manacles from another pouch on his belt. He shackled her to the statue, one cuff around the pegasus’s stone leg. He moved so fast that I could barely follow him.
And he wasn’t finished yet. He wrenched the rings from her fingers and ripped off her necklace, snapping the delicate chain. Those magical crystals weren’t just jewelry; they were weapons in the fey’s hands. Valen tore off every piece and then strode away without a word, leaving Lurena shaking with shock.
I slipped through the shadows, catching up with Valen once we’d left Lurena’s sight.
“Did you have to attack her?” I hissed. “She wanted to help.”
Valen reached the fence and climbed. I jumped, gripped the cold metal bars, and scrambled up. Reaching the top before him, I carefully avoided the spikes and slid down the other side.
Valen landed beside me a moment later and immediately set off down the street. “It’s too risky. Lurena can never stand up to her mother for long.”
I ground my teeth. He could have at least given her a chance. Anger at his callousness coiled in my stomach, a knot of tension that constricted my breathing. She’d already seen him, so it’s not like shackling her to the statue would keep her from telling everyone who had stolen the jewel. I wanted to shake him, but then I realized that my anger wasn’t really on Lurena’s behalf.
I’d just watched Valen sweet-talk another woman, gaining her trust, only to turn on her. I wanted to believe I was different, that Valen wouldn’t manipulate me like that, but the truth couldn’t be more obvious if it bit me on the ass.
