A Trace of Moonlight Read Online Free PDF

unicorn shook out his mane, the tiny horn glinting silver in the sun. A scowl crept over my face. “At least he’s notlying to me. Hell, for all I know he tried to free me and that’s why he’s been locked up.”
    “You shouldn’t be here, Abby—” Phin began.
    “And why shouldn’t I try to free her?” Maurice gave me a wan smile. “We mortals need to stick together in this place, don’t we? Can’t expect a creature like that to understand.”
    “I want this necklace off, Phin.”
    “It can’t come off.” He sighed. “And no one has lied to you. Omitted information, yes—but there were reasons for it. Look, I know you’re upset right now, but this is not the way or the place to handle it.”
    My fingers clenched tight around the bells again. “As opposed to keeping me in the dark?” I inclined my head toward the old man. “ He says there’s a way to get it off. We can ‘handle it’ however you want, after that.”
    Maurice glanced toward the tops of the hedges. “I think we’re going to need to hurry up this conversation, my dear.” His mouth quirked mockingly. “You’ve got an impeccable sense of timing.”
    Phineas frowned, his nostrils flaring. I caught the whiff of rotten eggs and smoke on the breeze and exhaled sharply to try to avoid tasting it any more than I had to. Was something burning?
    “Daemons,” the unicorn hissed. “The castle’s been breached!”
    Around us the carefully manicured hedges exploded in a great cracking of branches, wood and leaves scattering in all directions. Phineas reared up and shouted something about reinforcements before tearing away into the maze. The elvish guards whirled in unison as the first of the daemons emerged from the brokenhedge, his head and body cloaked in black. Swords bristled like quills from his shoulders.
    The guard who had spoken to me before snatched me by the arm to press me behind him, my calves scraping against the fountain. Of course, this also put me within reach of Maurice, who studied his fingers. “The sad thing is that a few more minutes with you and I wouldn’t have needed this sort of thing. Oh well.” He shrugged. “Opportunities never come when you think they should.”
    The daemon attacked the guards, and I flinched at the sound of screeching metal. “We have to get out of here.” I blinked as his previous words sank in. “What are you talking about?”
    “Just what I said,” he murmured. The clink of the chains rang like a warning in my ear, my brain slowly connecting the sound, even distracted as it was with the fighting guards. Three more daemons had joined the fray, slowly pushing my would-be protectors away from the fountain. Instinctively, my body shifted away from the noise, but Maurice’s fingers snatched my hair, yanking me back. He slapped me hard across the jaw when I struggled. My eyes watered with the sting, my own hands coming up to ward him off.
    Grunting when my nails scored his cheek, he twisted my hair harder, and slammed my head into the stone wall. I let out a dull groan, my vision going red. Dimly I heard what sounded like Talivar shouting my name, but it came from a great distance, through walls of cotton. The heavy chains rolled thick around my neck, the metal pressing into the soft flesh of my throat.
    “And now I’ll remove that pretty amulet for you,”Maurice said pleasantly. I barely registered the words beyond the struggle to breathe, my fingers clawing at the chains. He cupped my jaw, his thumb tenderly stroking my parted lips like a lover. A pause, an anguished cry from someone nearby, and a crack.
    Just a little thing, really—a subtle crushing of my windpipe and the twist of vertebrae separating from the base of my skull. The inner part of me gaped with a sort of detached astonishment, Maurice’s face the last thing I saw before everything faded into darkness.
    And then I died.



Three
    I ’d like to say that dying was the greatest adventure I’ve ever had, but honestly?