Page 13 of Only in Moonlight
That didn’t sound so special. It must have some sort of magic to make it so important to him.
“And where is it?” I asked.
“Locked up in an impenetrable safe behind a platoon of armed guards most of the year,” he said. “It’s no use trying to steal it from there. But Princess Regula will take it out of the safe herself and wear it to the royal ball on the Feast of Queen Diamanda.”
“So I swipe it at the ball. Easy enough. I’ll just impersonate a guest again.”
And if I relieved a few other guests of their jewelry while I was there…
“Unfortunately, the guards have implemented identity checks since you made off with Tullus’s fortune.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“Each guest gets their finger pricked upon arrival. The drop of blood falls on an enchanted paper, which writes their true name. No more shapeshifters impersonating the honorable people of the Moonlit Court.”
I stared at him in silence for several seconds. “Then what do you wantmefor? I can’t get in.”
The palace would be locked down even more tightly than Tullus's manor. Every window would have a magic spell preventing forced entry, and portal wands wouldn’t work inside. Not to mention all the armed guards. I might as well go to the dungeons now and save us the trouble, because they’d catch me for sure.
“Unless…” I said slowly, “I could pretend to be a servant—”
“They go through the same check.” He smiled at my confusion. “You can attend as a guest. You’ll simply need an invitation.”
“And I suppose they invite poor human peasants to these balls all the time.”
“No, but it’s not unheard of for one of us to court a human.”
Oh, no. My head started shaking before I knew what I was doing. He couldn’t have meant what I thought he did…
“You’ll get into the ball on my arm,” he said, confirming my worst fear. “We’ll pose as lovers.”
God and Goddess, no. This man didn’t have any emotions that weren’t fake. He was like a butcher’s knife that had learned to walk—cold, sharp, and looking for something to cleave. I was a decent actress, but I couldn’t pretend to love him. I doubted I could pretend to tolerate him convincingly.
My mother had dealt with far worse men. She’d suffered humiliation and injury from her clients at the brothel to earn enough coin to keep us alive. Now she was old, and I wasn’t a child anymore. Couldn’t I suffer this one man if it meant giving her a better life?
I focused on him, and he wasn’t even pretending not to watch me. My cheeks flushed. I hadn’t been paying attention, so who knew what emotions I’d let show on my face. I had to be more careful. He needed me to steal the jewel, but—
“This still doesn’t make sense,” I said. “Why do you need a shapeshifter if I can’t shapeshift to get into the ball?”
He sat down on a nearby boulder, calm as could be. “You can shapeshift into any form you like; you just have to attend under your real name. Getting into the ball is easy. Luring the princess away from the crowd to steal the jewel and then getting out without anyone realizing we have it—that’s the hard part.”
That made a bit more sense. How many times had I stolen something and then changed shape after I turned a corner? My pursuers would run right past me, clueless that I was the thief.
But Valen’s offer… The whole thing stank of secrets and lies. He obviously wasn’t telling me everything. Hell, he’d barely told meanything.
After I stole the jewel, he’d probably abandon me to the palace guards instead of paying me. He was just like my father. Tullus had promised my mother so many things when he’d come down from the moon and seduced her. But he’d left as soon as she got pregnant. Valen would leave me to the wolves just as fast.
But I couldn’t turn back now. The portal had vanished. I would just have to keep watch for the double-cross.
“You said we’ll pose as lovers.” I watched Valen’s face carefully. “You mean that it’s only pretend. You don’t expect me to make love to you.”
“Correct.” He met my gaze openly. “I want your skills in thievery, nothing else. You don’t have to fear me in that regard.”
Not sure I believed him, but he’d probably keep his word until he got what he wanted from me: this Selenian Jewel, whatever it was.
I stared down at the city. Its network of luminous bridges connecting tower to tower looked more like a spider’s web now. I was thoroughly trapped. My skin crawled at the thought of his calculated touch, his fake affection. The things I would do for money had reached a new low.
But as the Earth shone above, casting its blue glow across the plateau, I made peace with my decision. A few false smiles and public kisses—then my mother would never go to bed hungry again. For that future, I could pretend to love anyone, even him.
