Page 33 of Only in Moonlight (The Moonlit Court #1)

Valen

I lost the thread of the conversation and nodded distractedly.

The elegant chaos of the ballroom, once a vibrant spectacle, now felt like a suffocating pressure.

Music and chatter besieged my ears, everyone dancing and mingling in their elaborate outfits that sometimes shifted color or included small celestial bodies orbiting their heads.

No sign of Emmeline. How much longer should I wait before going after her?

My palms grew damp, slick against the flute of sparkling wine I unconsciously clutched tighter.

Truly, not an enormous amount of time had passed.

Emmeline wouldn’t rush her performance. She would wait until she’d lured Regula right up to the bag of dream dust before flinging it.

I hadn’t chosen Emmeline just because of her shapeshifting abilities.

She was resourceful and kept calm under pressure. I needed to trust her now.

Trust . Humorless laughter nearly bubbled up my throat. Trust was the problem. No, I was the problem. Seeing Aurea had brought all of it back, the memories crystal clear.

Over a year ago now, I had paced around a white gazebo in a small public garden near Aurea’s family home.

It had been night, the city as close to sleeping as it ever came.

A cold sweat had slicked my skin as a wave of anxiety washed over me.

What if she didn’t come? What if someone else told her first?

“Valen?”

Aurea hurried up the steps, wearing a cloak against the night’s chill. I rushed up to her.

“You made it,” I breathed.

“I almost didn’t. You heard about my aunt?”

The question felt like a punch to the gut. “Yes. That’s why I wanted to talk.”

Her hands flew up, covering her mouth. “I knew it. You’re breaking off our betrothal. The scandal—”

“No.” I clutched her arms, willing her to believe me. “No. That’s not it at all.”

She lowered her hands. “Then what?”

I stepped back, running a hand through my hair.

I’d rehearsed versions of this speech a hundred times but still didn’t know what to say.

How could I tell her I’d suspected her aunt was a spy for the Dark Moon Court all along?

I’d courted Aurea to get close to the family so I could gather evidence. I’d never expected to fall in love.

I swallowed. “I—”

“He’s the reason Servinna is in the dungeons,” someone growled from the shadows.

Servinna’s husband, Maxenum, strode up the steps, sword in hand. I pushed Aurea behind me. I had found no evidence to implicate him in his wife’s crimes, though I’d suspected he’d been complicit. He was supposed to be under house arrest.

My hand went to the hilt of my sword, but I didn’t draw it yet. “Don’t do anything rash, Maxenum.”

“You should have thought of that before you got my wife arrested!”

I pushed Aurea aside the moment I saw him lunge. She screamed. Maxenum’s blade grazed my upper arm, and I cursed.

I drew my sword, and the sting in my arm flared to a burn. I blocked Maxenum’s next strike, and the next. Rage guided his attacks, not strategy, but that only made him slightly less dangerous. He was a military man, and he knew his way around a sword.

I struck at his thigh, but he parried and nearly sliced my chest open. The clang of steel on steel shrieked in my ears, and each parry sent jolts of pain up my arm, inflaming my wound. I didn’t want to kill Aurea’s uncle in front of her, but my injury was slowing me. If I didn’t end this soon…

Maxenum backed up and looked me over, face red and sweaty, jaw clenched tight. A tremor ran through his powerful frame, barely perceptible, yet betraying the exertion of the last minute.

“Uncle Max! Valen! Stop!” Aurea shrieked. “What are you doing?”

She’d been shouting for some time, but I’d been too focused on the fight to hear her.

“Shut up!” Maxenum rounded on her. “You were in on it, weren’t you? Were you helping him sneak into our home? How many times did he screw you before you agreed to betray your own family?!”

He charged toward her, sword raised, and the sight struck me like lightning.

I shot forward and brought my sword down across his back.

A choked cry escaped him, and he crumpled to the ground, the gleaming steel clattering onto the stone.

For a heartbeat, silence reigned, broken only by the ragged rasp of his breathing. Then even that went quiet.

Aurea looked from her uncle’s corpse up to me, his blood splattered on my shirt and face, and screamed.

I would never forget that sound. I could almost hear it through the music as I stood in the ballroom now. And I could still see the expression of absolute horror on Aurea’s face when she’d looked at me.

Surprisingly, the pain of her rejection had lessened. Time had healed the wound, or perhaps Emmeline had. Losing Aurea didn’t hurt as much now that I had her.

And that brought fresh pain, a cold, heavy dread that squeezed my chest and made it difficult to breathe.

I was using Emmeline just as I’d used Aurea and had fallen for her just the same.

How could I expect it to end any differently?

Soon Emmeline would realize the truth just as Aurea had: that underneath my courtly manners and suave flirtations lurked a ruthless killer.

“Valen?”

I blinked. Cael had called my name. He was staring at me, and so were the other four people we’d been talking with.

“I apologize,” I said. “My mind was wandering.”

“Wandering to the other side of the galaxy,” Cael said. “Are you sure you’re all right?”

I bit back a sigh. The queen hadn’t told Cael of my mission to give him plausible deniability, but I wished she’d at least hinted that something was happening tonight. Then he’d know better than to draw attention to me.

But I knew how to deflect suspicion, even if I had to use my own pain to do it.

“I ran into Aurea earlier,” I admitted. “I had to introduce her and Emmeline.”

Cael winced, and the rest of the group offered sympathy. My broken betrothal had been hot gossip, so no one needed any further explanation.

“Introducing the new lover to the ex…” Some noble’s heir whose name I’d forgotten pretended to shudder. “That’s anyone’s worst nightmare.”

“No,” said another man. “Meeting the ex’s new lover when you’re still single is worse.”

“True! At least Sir Valen has that pretty little human to show off.”

I let their offensive conversation wash over me as I scanned the ballroom. My relationship angst faded into the background, overtaken by a more pressing worry.

Emmeline should have come back by now.