Page 34 of Only in Moonlight (The Moonlit Court #1)

Emmeline

I took a deep breath to calm myself. My chest expanded, filling my lungs with air and easing the tightness I’d felt in my shoulders and neck.

A slow exhale released the tension, loosening the knot in my stomach.

But that awful magic kept buzzing through my body, rattling inside my skull.

It felt as if a hundred needles were jabbing my hand holding the necklace.

The jewel, beautiful and blue, glimmered innocently in the dim light.

I dropped the stupid thing. The necklace hit the stone floor with a metallic clang, and the buzzing instantly stopped.

I sighed and ran my hands over my arms and torso, trying to rub away the prickling echoes of the magic.

I’d never felt anything like that, and I’d rather get another kiss from Regula than touch the jewel again.

Then an awful fear clutched my throat. What if I couldn’t shapeshift again?

I changed into the form of the fey man so fast that I stumbled. Then I let out a huge breath, pressing a hand to my forehead in grateful relief. The jewel’s effect wasn’t permanent. It only stopped my shapeshifting abilities when I was touching it.

So how the hell was I supposed to sneak it out of the palace?

On the floor, Regula kept snoozing, so at least one thing was going right. My foot tapped rapidly as I tried to think, aware that every moment I lingered here risked someone stepping out onto the balcony and discovering me.

The original plan was to hide the jewel in my dress, rejoin Valen in the ballroom, and leave together.

That wouldn’t work now. I couldn’t carry the jewel anywhere that another person might see me.

Valen would have to transport it. He didn’t have any shapeshifting abilities for its magic to disrupt.

If I waited out here long enough, he would probably come and find me…

No. Too risky. I couldn’t waste so much time. I could leave the jewel here, find him in the ballroom, and bring him back to pick it up himself… But again, that would take too long, and one of those guards along the corridor might get suspicious.

I couldn’t leave the jewel here with the unconscious princess. If I could stash it somewhere else without anyone seeing me… The corridor? No, there was too high a chance that I’d run into another guest. But where else…?

I ran to the edge of the balcony and looked over the railing. The garden below was dark except for bushes of glowing flowers. More importantly, I didn’t see a single person strolling through it.

This is a terrible idea.

Gritting my teeth in anticipation of the buzzing magic, I picked up the necklace again. Even though I kept my fingers on the metal band rather than the jewel itself, the magic still hit me. I swore it nearly vibrated my bones. My assumed shape left me, and my head throbbed.

I chucked the priceless magical artifact over the balcony and watched it vanish beneath the trees with a rustle of leaves.

I felt lighter after that. Maybe I’d made a terrible decision, but it was done now, and hopefully I’d never have to touch the damn thing again.

I shapeshifted back into the fey man’s form, stepped around the princess, and walked back inside.

Retracing my steps down the corridor, I added a blush to my cheeks as I walked past the guards, smoothing down my hair as if a passionate encounter had ruffled it.

They made no move to stop me as I entered the ballroom.

Time was my enemy. I had to leave the ballroom again through a different door and find an unseen place to change into Sir Valen’s beautiful, red-headed lover.

Then I tracked down Valen, finding him conversing with Prince Cael and a few other men.

Valen gave me a bland smile when he spotted me, but I caught the relief shining in his eyes.

I curtsied to the prince, stumbling slightly as if drunk. Then I draped myself over Valen and slurred, “It’s hot and noisy in here. Can we go somewhere private?”

Valen politely excused us, and we drew knowing chuckles from the other men. As we crossed the ballroom, Valen pretended to support my tipsy wobbling.

“We need to get to the gardens under the east balcony,” I whispered.

His mouth tightened, but he didn’t question me in the middle of the ballroom. He led me through a magnificent maze of gilded corridors and glossy staircases. We left behind the ball guests in their opulent fashions, passing only a few hurrying servants and the ever-present armored guards.

“Sir?” one guard questioned when Valen reached for a door.

“Just looking for a little privacy.” Valen put an arm around my waist and gave the guard a rakish grin.

The guard sighed wearily. “Please be careful of the plants.”

Valen was already opening the door and escorting me out. “Of course.”

The door closed behind us, and my eyes took a moment to adjust to the darkness.

Golden lights shone from the windows of a different wing of the palace across the gardens, but it almost felt as if I’d stepped into a primeval forest. The air hung heavy with the damp scent of decaying leaves and fertile earth.

A chill settled on my skin, a prickling sensation that spoke of age and secrets held within the trees.

A symphony of unseen creatures chirped and rustled, and the closest flowers bent toward us like sentient animals. I stepped back, bumping into Valen.

“Would you care to tell me why we’re here?” he asked.

“I chucked the jewel over the balcony. We need to find it.”

I started down the cobblestone path, darting aside to avoid the flowers. Their stems curved toward me, the petals stretching like fingers.

Valen stomped past them, and they brushed harmlessly off his boots. “Why?”

“Don’t give me that look. It’s your fault, you know. You said the jewel wasn’t magical anymore.”

“Because every scholar who’s ever written about it said—” He shook his head. “What happened?”

I described the buzzing magic and the way it had nullified my shapeshifting abilities. He nodded thoughtfully, and some tension in the back of my neck unwound. I’d half expected him to berate me for hurling the jewel down here.

“Do you remember where it landed?” he asked.

I looked up at the balcony to get my bearings. “By the trees over there, I think.”

I made to cut through the flowers, but Valen grabbed my arm.

“Don’t. We need to stay on the path as much as possible.”

The skin on the back of my neck prickled. “Why?”

“You heard the guard warn us to be careful of the plants.”

“We’re stealing a magic jewel from a literal princess, and you’re worried about damaging some flowers?”

“I’m worried about the flowers damaging you. Those are Moonshatter Orchids. When disturbed, they release crystalline pollen that temporarily blinds anyone caught in it.”

I looked down at the pale blue flowers that emitted a soft glow like moonlight. “Oh.”

Throwing the jewel down here suddenly felt like an even worse mistake. I’d thought the gardens looked small before, but now they seemed massive. How long would it take to find the jewel?

We followed the path, scanning the shadowy bushes and trees for any sign of the Selenian Jewel. Helpfully—and a little disturbingly—Valen pointed out the lethal flora we passed.

“Sapphire ice lilies.” He gestured at a patch of deep blue flowers. “Contact causes instant frostbite.”

I shivered, feeling the chill as we moved past them.

“Starfall vines.” He guided me away from black vines with tiny white flowers that looked like distant stars. “They can wrap around a limb in seconds.”

“No wonder nobody else is here. It’s a total deathtrap. Who plants a garden like this?”

“The head gardener was also the head torturer during the reign of Queen Magnissa the Mad,” Valen said in a flat voice.

“I hate him.”

Valen smiled bitterly. “You and me both.” Then he pointed to our left.

The jewel! It had landed in the middle of a humongous rose thicket, the necklace dangling off a thorny stem.

The huge blooms had petals of deep crimson that seemed to glow from within, and they filled the air with a heady floral scent, sweet and a little musky.

The blue jewel seemed out of place among them, twinkling at us almost mockingly.

“That’s a perfectly normal rose bush, right?” I asked with little hope.

Valen’s expression had turned stony. “Queen’s Blood Roses.”

Well, that didn’t sound ominous at all.

“A toxin coats their thorns,” he said. “A single scratch inflicts a strong fever, sudden weakness, and potent hallucinations.”

“Nice, relaxing hallucinations?”

“They’re generally described as ‘torturous’ and ‘nightmarish.’”

“Of course,” I huffed.

Valen drew his sword and cautiously approached the thicket. My breath caught, and I couldn’t speak, the sudden tension choking me. He was just going to charge in? No strategy, no whispered plans?

At first, I feared he was going to hack at the plant and get himself scratched to pieces.

But as he stretched the tip of his sword toward the necklace, I understood his intention.

He could use the blade to hook the necklace without getting too close to the thorns—ideally.

In reality, the thicket was just too big.

Even with the sword’s extra length, he would need to stick his hands between the branches to reach.

“Wait,” I said when it became obvious he was going to do just that.

I bent down, tugging at the bottom layer of my dress. The sumptuous fabric was surprisingly strong, and I couldn’t rip it.

“Give me your sword,” I said. “We can wrap some cloth around your hand. It’s better than nothing.”

I cut off some fabric from the innermost layer, which no one should notice unless they paid extremely close attention. Then I wrapped it around Valen’s right hand.

“If only we could find a leather glove…” I pulled the knot tight but didn’t let go of his hand, biting my lip as I looked at him. The fabric was too thin. It would barely give him any protection at all.

“No time,” he said. “Wish me luck.”

I kissed him—it was hard, desperate, and much too fast. He gave my hands a reassuring squeeze and then pulled away, approaching the thicket.

Slowly, he extended his sword toward the jewel.

The tip fell short by five or six inches, an impossibly wide gap when every little twig on the thicket was covered in thorns.

I clutched my face as he eased his hand between two stems, moving the sword’s tip a little closer to its target.

His knuckles shone white where he clutched the hilt, and a bead of sweat trickled down his forehead.

I could barely breathe as I watched, the scent of the roses thick and suffocating.

As he slipped his hand deeper into the thicket, I swore I could feel the phantom prickle of thorns on my own skin.

The sword inched closer to the necklace.

Valen’s biceps, taut with the strain of careful movement, stood out beneath his formfitting shirt.

His chest rose and fell in steady, controlled breaths.

I hated seeing him like this. I should be the one risking myself to get the jewel; I’d thrown it into that damned thicket.

But Valen hadn’t given me a chance to volunteer.

The blade brushed the necklace’s metal band.

I sucked in a sharp breath as the necklace swayed, still dangling from a thorny branch.

A muscle in Valen’s jaw twitched, his eyes remaining locked on the jewel.

A puff of air left his nose as he stretched farther, tilting the sword upward.

It caught the necklace, lifting it up. He maneuvered it carefully around the branch…

The necklace caught on a thorn, sending a shudder through the thicket. Leaves rustled. I covered my mouth with my hand to stop from crying out and distracting him. Had a branch brushed his hand? I couldn’t see.

Valen painstakingly edged the necklace away from the thorn. Once it was free, he began extracting his hand from the thicket.

He couldn’t make half an inch’s progress without having to adjust so the necklace wouldn’t catch on another branch, twig, or flower. It was maddening. How much time had passed? Valen couldn’t rush, but a guard or someone would surely discover Regula before much longer.

When his hand emerged from the thicket, the rush of relief left me dizzy. The sword followed, and he briskly removed the necklace’s metal band and sheathed the blade.

He held the jewel in his hand. Even better, he showed no sign he felt that buzzing magic that had stopped my shapeshifting. I felt giddy. We’d done it. We could go now.

“We need to move fast.” He stuffed the Selenian Jewel into a pouch on his belt. “I can pass off the toxin’s effects as drunkenness to everyone else, but the guard inside will realize the truth.”

The toxin’s effects...? My stomach clenched tight as my gaze dropped to his hand.

The cloth was torn. He unwrapped it, revealing a thin red line on his forefinger.

He’d been scratched.