Page 40 of Only in Moonlight (The Moonlit Court #1)

Emmeline

W e 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.

“Over there!”

“Stop! Thief!”

And now the guards had found us. This night just kept getting better.

Valen shoved the pouch holding the jewel into my hands.

“Go,” he ordered. “I’ll hold them off.”

I stared at him, feeling numb. Cold realization swept through me, a sharp contrast to the hot jewel in my hands.

Valen’s gaze was so intense, so sincere, that I almost fell for it.

My heart beat a slow, shocked rhythm against my ribs, each thud a painful reminder of the harsh truth that had settled upon me.

He was setting me up to take the fall. The guards would chase the shining beacon I now held, while he could slip away, free as a bird.

“No.” I threw the pouch back at him. “I don’t want the jewel. I don’t want anything to do with you!”

And I ran.