Page 13 of Only in Moonlight (The Moonlit Court #1)

Emmeline

“ G ood heavens, you’re from Thallence?”

My fork paused partway to my mouth, nearly dropping a few spinach leaves and a strawberry back onto my salad dish.

Valen had brought me to a small dinner party, my first official social outing as his lover.

Our hosts were friends of Valen’s: Amatien and his husband, Ishaq.

Well, they couldn’t have been Valen’s true friends, since he was acting like a different person and lying about our relationship.

But he was friendly with them, at least.

“What’s wrong with Thallence?” Amatien asked.

He was apparently the third son of some lesser noble house, low status enough that nobody had complained when he’d married a human for love. He had a round, fair face and curly blond hair that reached his elbows.

“It’s a fascist nightmare,” Ishaq answered.

He was the one I worried about. A short man with a thick beard and dark skin, he’d been perfectly welcoming. But he was from Earth, so if anyone caught me in a lie about my background, it would be him.

“They execute people for the slightest ‘moral deviance,’ which is often just being born with magic,” Ishaq ranted.

“King Albin steals his people’s livelihood with senseless taxes, and anyone who speaks out against him gets murdered in their own homes along with their entire families.

We have lots of Thallencien refugees in Iladriz, and their stories are horrible. ”

His gaze returned to me, Thallencien citizen, and his eyes widened. “Ah. Forgive me if I caused offense…”

I made sure to swallow my food before I replied. See, Valen? The etiquette lessons paid off.

“I don’t get offended by the truth. King Albin is cruel, yes, but you’re forgetting something.”

“Oh?” Ishaq asked.

“He’s also a beef-witted buffoon.”

Ishaq laughed.

“Not every land is lucky enough to have a monarch like our Queen Verena,” Valen said.

Ha. He sounded so sincere, but if he honestly respected the royals of the Moonlit Court, he wouldn’t be plotting to steal treasure from their princess.

Or maybe he was trying to draw attention away from my foul language.

Amatien lifted his wineglass. “Long may she reign.”

I joined in the toast. She wasn’t my queen, but she couldn’t be worse than King Albin.

Valen, sitting beside me, took my hand and planted a tender kiss atop it. “Thankfully, you’re safe under her rule. You never have to go back to Thallence again.”

I gave him a fake smile, trying to ignore how that chaste kiss made my stomach clench with yearning.

My stomach—and certain other body parts—had been betraying me like that more and more lately.

Every night as I lay in bed, I told myself that Valen was using me to steal the jewel.

And every night, I was achingly aware of his presence beside me, my mind filled with all sorts of dangerous, exhilarating ideas.

I wasn’t the type to fall for good looks alone, but what else could it be? He was an asshole.

An asshole who’s surprisingly sweet sometimes , whispered a treacherous voice in my mind. Who’s wonderfully intelligent and witty and leads a double-life that you can relate to .

Shut up , I replied.

“Whatever were you doing there in the first place?” Amatien asked Valen. “They would have killed you if they’d discovered what you are.”

“What’s the fun of traveling to Earth without a little danger?” Valen gestured grandly. “Besides, they don’t know the first thing about our kind. They never would have recognized me.”

“I did,” I said.

Granted, he’d been barreling down on me in full armor astride a pegasus at the time.

He grinned, so charming and assured that I could almost forget he was acting. “Ah, but you’re exceptional, my darling.”

My stomach fluttered. I reminded myself (again) that he only found my shapeshifting abilities exceptional, and that was only because he could use them.

“So you’ve been here for a week?” Ishaq asked me. “Have you gotten desensitized to the wonders of the moon yet?”

He made a vague wave at the dining room: plush purple chairs, shimmering crystals embedded in the walls, and a domed ceiling of stained glass that cast everything in a kaleidoscope of vivid colors.

“It still amazes me,” I said. “Though it’s not as overwhelming as it was at first.”

“It took a while for Ishaq to get used to it, too,” Amatien said. “I imagine you’re as homesick as he was at first.”

“I… do miss my mother,” I admitted.

Amatien nodded and kindly changed the subject.

Wonder of wonders, I made it through the rest of the meal without slipping up.

Or at least I thought so. Valen would probably point out my mistakes once we got back to his chateau.

I looked forward to sinking into his gigantic bed despite the manacles and his vexing presence.

The meal had exhausted me. I was used to doing quick impersonations, not long performances like this.

I kept heists as short as possible. The longer I lingered, the greater the chance of something going wrong.

Our hosts walked us outside to where our carriage waited, and Ishaq pulled Valen away to talk about something to do with the pegasi. I found myself alone with Amatien and frantically reviewed Valen’s lessons on courtly conversation.

“Thank you for a lovely dinner,” I said.

“Don’t thank me yet,” Amatien replied. “I’m… Ah. How should I put this? I’m about to give you a friendly threat.”

“That’s new.” I blinked. “The friendly part, not the threat. I’ve gotten plenty of those.”

Amatien wasn’t very intimidating. Maybe it was the luxurious hair or the soft face or the dainty floral embroidery on his sleeves. But looks could be deceiving. As a shapeshifter, I knew that better than anyone.

“I can see why Valen likes you. So don’t toy with him, or I’ll have to…” He frowned. “Hm. I’m not so good with threats, am I?”

“I’ll imagine something gory and menacing, shall I?”

“Yes, thank you. You see, I didn’t think Valen would ever recover after Aurea broke off their betrothal.

You’re the first person he’s been serious about since then, so be careful with him, will you?

He deserves some happiness in his life after all that tragedy.

” He shook his head sadly. “People only see his knighthood, not the dreadful way he received it.”

I tried to look like I knew what he was talking about. Valen had been betrothed ? And what did he mean about how Valen had gotten knighted?

“Ready to go home, darling?” Valen asked, returning with Ishaq.

“Y-Yes,” I said.

We said our very courtly goodbyes, and then Valen helped me into the carriage. As we traveled through the city streets, I stared out the window to avoid looking at him.

The scenery dragged by sluggishly. We passed a massive crystal monument taller than any building in the city where I’d grown up.

Definitely magical, it bent the starlight into rainbows that danced across the nearby street.

When a flock of birds flew near it, they seemed to scatter into a kaleidoscope of color.

Pretty, but not enough to distract me from Amatien’s words.

“You did well,” Valen said.

I made my voice as flat as possible. “Huzzah.”

The noise he made wasn’t much, just a slight exhale of air, but it almost sounded like a laugh. It must have been left over from his fake-party persona. God and Goddess, it had been weird seeing him act like that again, so completely different from the real him.

But did I know the real him or just another performance? What made me think I knew him any better than Amatien and Ishaq did?

“They seemed genuinely nice,” I said, not wanting to sit in silence with my own thoughts any longer.

“They are. Terrible gossips, though. If anyone in the Court didn’t know you’d moved in with me before, they will by tomorrow.”

Of course. I’d thought the dinner was a test of my newfound manners, but Valen had yet another hidden motive.

“So we won’t need to go to any more fancy dinners?”

“A few more,” he said.

I sighed.

He studied me in silence for a moment. “We’ll make a public appearance at the Selenic Hunt in two days, and that should solidify our relationship in everyone’s eyes.”

I looked out the window instead of answering, trying to glimpse Earth in the sky.

“Tomorrow, we start planning the heist,” he said.

I spun back toward him, my chest suddenly light.

Finally .