Page 2 of The Robin on the Oak Throne

So she’d left New York to find answers that didn’t come with strings attached. While she missed the city, her family…and even Graves, she wasn’t ready for that reunion.

She didn’t have time to think about Graves. He was a problem for another day. Right now came step three, the tricky part: sneak into the queen’s rooms.

Kierse extricated herself from the flow of people heading toward the receiving room. When she came uponthe next enormous staircase, she waited until the pair of goblin guards were distracted by a group of werewolves to slip past and up the stairs. Her feet were feather light as she crept along the deserted upper level, toward the private quarters. Her heart beat a staccato rhythm against her chest, and an old, familiar smile graced her features.

It wasn’t a natural smile. It was herwrongsmile. The one that said shelikedthe thieving. The danger, the suspense, the act of doing something she wasn’t supposed to do.

It sure helped that she was damn good at it. She wouldn’t go as far as to say the best in the business, but her old mentor, Jason—may he rot in hell—had been the best in New York, and she’d ended up better than him.

Now to get that bracelet and get out of there. Then she could happily return to Dublin, where Gen was safely tucked away, working on their next fruitless mission into the Irish countryside.

Kierse blew out an exasperated breath as she hurried down the crisscrossed hardwood floors. The hallway was white and narrow with arched windows looking out across the grounds to the left opposite a series of closed wooden doorways. The rooms she glimpsed weren’t decorated to the same picturesque standard she’d seen on the tour earlier that week. Instead, she found peeling antique wallpaper, furniture covered with white sheets, and even empty rooms with exposed wires. They were in sharp contrast to the magnificent Hall of Mirrors, the carefully restored display of original bedrooms, and thousands of priceless works of art.

It made the palace feel more real than myth. Much like everything else in her life.

Following the blueprint in her mind, she turned down an empty servant hallway. Thankfully, most of the workers were busy with the rest of the party. Then her enhanced Fae hearing picked up the sound of voices up ahead.

Kierse cursed, backtracked a few steps, and slid behind a large, floor-length curtain. She held her breath as two female voices approached and then passed her, speaking in hushed French. She’d learned a few passing words before she’d made the trip, but they certainly weren’t sufficient to follow this conversation.

When the coast was clear, Kierse eased back out and hastened down the rest of the hallway, nearly to her destination. She peered around the corner and found two guards standing in front of the queen’s chambers. Same as when she’d slipped away from her group on the tour—they’d taken the queen’s bedchamber off the official route now that the palace was occupied once more. Lucky for her, she wasn’t going in through the front door.

Kierse retrieved her tools, delved into her wisp magic, and manipulated time. From one breath to the next, the world slid into slow motion. The gold of her magic floated around her as she darted to the door adjacent to the queen’s rooms and got to work with her lockpicks. An easy click of the lock later, she pushed into the room and closed the door firmly behind her. She released her magic, letting everything come back into focus.

Her wisp magic was something she was still getting used to, but her slow motion had always been part of her. The little edge that she used to get herself in and out of bad situations. It was the newer magic that she was still wrangling. Like wards.

She pressed her hand to the door, closed her eyes, and pushed her intent into the door. A trickle of power rushed into the frame. She shivered at the release. That would act as a trip wire for at least the next hour. If anyone walked through this door, she would know to use another exit.

Praying she wouldn’t need to, she hurried to the balcony window and slipped through it into the cool spring air. The party didn’t wrap around to this side of the palace, so the grounds were empty of witnesses. Clouds hung heavy on the horizon, promising rain. She needed to be done before it reached her.

She judged the distance to the next balcony with unease. Before the spell that hid her true nature had been removed, revealing her Fae heritage—pointed ears and all—Kierse never would have attempted this. And though she’d gotten over her fear of heights before—thanks to a quick shove from Jason and a swift plummet to the ground below—she didn’t particularly want to test a three-story drop. But with her new magic came increased sensory awareness, quicker reflexes, and strength. Not that she was 100 percent confident on using any of these new skills, but tonight she’d have to make it work. Because a human wasn’t going to make this jump.

Good thing she was no longer human.

Kierse winced at that. She still identified as human, having spent the last twenty-five years thinking she was one. Thinking otherwise sat wrong with her. At least she’d learned enough magic to glamour her pointed ears back into the rounded ones she’d had most of her life. It was useful on missions where she needed to blend in, but sometimes she liked to wear the glamour just to feel more like herself.

She slipped off her heels, leaving them hidden on the balcony, then hiked up her skirts and scrambled onto the iron balustrade. She hissed as the iron touched her bare skin. It didn’t incapacitate her like the faerie tales had made it seem like it would, but it also wasn’t comfortable.

“Here goes nothing,” she said.

With a spring, she jumped, reaching out for the enormous lantern suspended between the two balconies. She caught it and swung back once, her muscles protesting the strain. Then on her forward swing, when her momentum was at the right angle, she released. She barely held back a scream as she launched, landing in a roll on the next balcony. She heard a rip from her dress.Fucking great.

Kierse stood on shaky legs. Well, she’d made it.

She dusted off her dress and inspected the rip. It had only made the already high slit slightly obscene. This was why she wore practical clothing when she broke into places, but there hadn’t been another choice for this job. And now there wasn’t time to deal with it.

After a quick listen at the door, she pushed into the queen’s opulent chambers. Everything was sixteenth-century chic, à la King Louis XIV, with patterned armless chairs and an impressive four-poster bed with gauzy white curtains obscuring it from view. Kierse strode across the antique rugs and to a door at the back of the room. Her contact had told her exactly where the bracelet would be. She felt her thieving smile return as she swung open the door and revealed the safe behind.

Nothing fancy, but it didn’t need to be. Kierse inspected the wards written around its edges—fleur-de-lis inside that illusive language she always felt hovered at the edge of herunderstanding. The magic was old—a warlock had put these wards in place a long time ago. Not that a magic’s age affected Kierse’s ability to bypass it.

Kierse’s main magical ability was absorption. Magic didn’t affect her unless she took inwaytoo much magic at once. Which meant the wards weren’t a problem, and she could crack a lock like this in her sleep.

The safe was older than the warding, which always worked in her favor. She pressed her ear to the safe door, listening to the tumblers as she put together the code. Then she grinned devilishly as she turned the dial one last time and the whole thing popped open.

“Excellent,” she breathed.

Inside was an assortment of sparkling jewels all encased in lush gold and silver settings. It was a smaller collection than she’d been anticipating. Probably just what the queen wore on the regular—not the state jewels.

The bracelet she was after was goblin-made with an amethyst at the center of the silver filigreed band. It should have been here amidst the jewelry. While there was every other manner of gemstone, there wasn’t a single amethyst bracelet in sight.

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