Page 36 of Only in Moonlight (The Moonlit Court #1)

Emmeline

V alen passed out five minutes later.

I cursed, staggering under his weight, and looked behind us. No witnesses—thank God and Goddess for small favors. What now? I couldn’t carry him the entire way. What if someone saw us?

If the palace floor plans were right, the door to the solarium lay ten feet ahead. I could find a place for us to hide in there. That would at least buy me some time to think.

I heaved Valen through the door and into a large, domed room made of glass panels.

Starlight shone down on an indoor garden.

Exquisite flowers bloomed in thick bushes—hopefully none of them were toxic.

Sweet-smelling fruit hung overhead from verdant trees, and the warm air would have given me a comfortable, drowsy feeling under any other circumstances.

I scanned the forest-like greenery for any sign of other people.

The gorgeous, isolated room seemed like the perfect place for—

“Did you hear something?”a woman asked.

I froze.

“Mm?”

Two voices. Like I’d been thinking, this room was the perfect place for a secret tryst.I dragged Valen behind the nearest bush, cursing the scraping of his boots on the path and the rustle of leaves. Then I ducked down and hoped for the best.

“Probably a guard,” said a man whose voice I recognized—Aristoph. “I saw a bunch of them running around earlier.”

“Do you think something’s wrong?”

Now I recognized the woman’s soft voice, too: Lurena.

“Who cares?” Aristoph hiccupped, and then the conversation gave way to rustles and moaning.

Yuck. Poor Lurena. She was obviously following her mother’s orders, but kissing Aristoph was probably like getting slobbered on by a dog. He was so full of alcohol she’d get a buzz just from contact.

And if that wasn’t bad enough, the next sound I heard was retching.

“Oh,” Lurena squeaked. “Um, are you all right?”

Aristoph made a sound like he was dying. “Shit. Sorry about your dress.”

“Um,” said Lurena. “Maybe we should—”

“Lurena? Lurena!”

Regula. I clenched Valen’s arm, not daring to lift my head for a better look. She must have come in through the opposite door. My muscles tensed, my chest constricting my lungs. She was awake. Oh, shit. What if she found me?

“M-Mother?”

Lurena sounded just as alarmed by her appearance as I did. I ordered myself to calm down. Valen and I were a good twenty feet away from the princess, hidden by a bush. Even if she saw us, she wouldn’t recognize me as the pretty blond man who’d knocked her out.

“There you are.” Regula stomped through the solarium with all the delicacy of an angry bull. “What are you doing over here?”

“I—”

“Never mind your excuses. I need— Oh, Aristoph. I didn’t see you there.” Regula switched to an oily tone. “Whatever is the matter, dear?”

“The wine doesn’t agree with me,” Aristoph groaned.

“I’m hardly surprised with that cheap swill my sister is serving. Guards?” Her voice turned into a shout. “Guards!”

Two guards rushed in.

“Take Aristoph to one of the guest rooms. See that he has water and a soothing tea.”

Footsteps retreated from the room, but how many? Had Regula left, too?

“I’m in the middle of a crisis and you’re cavorting around like you don’t have a care in the world,” Regula hissed.

Of course not. I couldn’t be so lucky.

Lurena spluttered. “But you told me to—”

“Oh, be quiet. The Selenian Jewel has been stolen.”

“What?!”

“The thief assaulted me as soon as you left me alone on the balcony. You didn’t even notice, did you?

But now you have a chance to redeem yourself.

All those hours you spent studying the useless rock, pouring over dusty tomes of magic instead of learning something useful—can you cast a spell to locate it? ”

It felt like I’d swallowed a rock even bigger than the Selenian Jewel. A tracking spell? I thought we’d planned for every contingency, but I hadn’t dreamed of that one.

“I— I don’t know,” Lurena said.

“Well, go find out,” Regula snapped. “Or do you want our family’s honor to be ruined?”

Lurena’s footsteps moved rapidly out of the room, but I heard no sign of Regula leaving. My heart skipped a beat. Had she sensed our presence somehow?

“Fuck,” Regula whispered to herself.

Ah. She hadn’t sensed us. She was processing how much shit she was in.

My heart wept for her. Truly.

A butterfly alighted on a nearby flower, its pale purple wings as delicate as glass and glowing faintly.

I’d worry about it catching Regula’s eye if we were on Earth, but weird magical animals were normal here on the moon.

I breathed carefully and shallowly, trying not to make a sound.

As long as Regula left through the same door she’d entered, she wouldn’t come anywhere near us.

Regula muttered another curse and then stomped off—straight toward us.

Shit. My muscles coiled, urging me to run.

The bush didn’t give us enough cover. Regula’s footsteps charged closer, and the path would put her less than two feet away.

Unless she was completely oblivious, she’d spot us when she came storming past. She might not recognize me as the thief, but she’d certainly be suspicious.

There was no reason for me to be hiding behind a bush—

What was I thinking? Of course there was.

I shapeshifted, dove onto Valen’s unconscious body, and kissed him.