A Trace of Moonlight Read Online Free Page A

would subject her to that? That’s more calculating than I would give you credit for, brother.”
    He shook his head, tugging on his hair in evident frustration. “It was merely a backup plan if Brystion could not break through. To think of lying with her under these pretenses is abhorrent . . . and yet I will do so if it saves her life.”
    “How noble of you,” a small voice piped up from between them, and I realized the tiny unicorn—Phineas—took council with them. He trotted forward, snorting. “Forgive me if I’m not overly impressed with your scheming.”
    Talivar sank onto a nearby bench. “We’re running out of options, Phin. She pledged herself to be the sacrifice . . .and as our mother’s subjects, Moira and I cannot go directly against that. To do so would make us oathbreakers.”
    “And that I will not risk,” Moira murmured, her hand up on his shoulder. “The crown is a heavy duty.”
    “Tight enough to make your head swell,” the unicorn grumbled, hopping up onto the bench beside the prince, answering her glare with the snap of his own teeth at her backside.
    Delicately, she shifted out of his reach. “I still don’t get it. What makes you think having Brystion kidnap her would solve anything?”
    “It was a risk he was willing to take,” Talivar said. “As a daemon himself, he wasn’t bound to the Fae’s word. Besides,” the prince added wryly, “I suspect he would have tried it with or without our blessing. Why do you think the Queen banished him in the first place?”
    Unable to listen to any more of this, I fled. The three of them turned toward me as my shoes scraped the gravel . . . but I could no longer stay here. It was quite obvious that I was only a puppet—my forgetful state being taken advantage of—dancing to whatever sick tune they’d decided to play.
    I didn’t even begin to want to know what Talivar’s thought process was. To think that I’d come to trust the man with my very life . . . my love? And what was a Tithe? Frantically I wiped at my burning eyes, my thoughts racing. Where I was going to go, and how I was going to get there? The beauty of this place suddenly seemed like a Candyland nightmare—as though I’d scraped away the sugar coating only to reveal a rotten core.
    “Abby!” Talivar’s ragged voice sounded from behind me.
    “I don’t want to talk to you,” I shouted over my shoulder, walking away as swiftly as I dared. “I don’t even know who you are!”
    “If you would just let me explain,” he insisted, his hand closing on my wrist. “Please.”
    I jerked away and he let me go, even as I whirled to face him. His shifted his weight onto his good leg, but I refused to feel sorry for him. “I don’t know what sort of idiot you all take me for, but I’m done. I want . . .”
    My voice trailed away. What did I want?
    After a moment with that question, I proclaimed instinctively, “I want to go home. Wherever that is. Surely I have a family somewhere. A real family,” I added darkly. “Not this palace full of liars.”
    “Abby.” He raised a hand as though to stroke my cheek, but I stepped back. He sighed, his gaze troubled. “You are home. Please, come with me and we’ll explain everything. Or try to.”
    “Don’t trouble yourself on my account.”
    “You don’t understand. We have tried to discuss these things with you before, but within hours you no longer remember any of it. Some of the small details stick with you, but as to who you are or how you got here?” He snapped his fingers. “Poof. All we’re trying to do is keep you safe.”
    “Oh, sure. By marrying someone you find abhorrent?” My lip curled at him. “Planning on making me some sort of royal brood mare? And what’s a TouchStone? A Tithe?”
    “Abby, it’s not like that. Moira is your sister—your half sister . . .”
    “How the hell could I be related to Moira?” I snatched at my rounded ears. “In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not