Crown of Moonlight (Court of Midnight and Deception #2) - K.M. Shea Page 0,4

the massive ramshackle ballroom.

Indigo held her two orbs of magical light over her head, illuminating the inch of dust that coated the place, the broken glass spattered everywhere, and the gouges in the fancy wooden flooring which was cut in zigzagging patterns.

Most of the castle was decrepit and dirty. Only a few rooms were kept relatively clean—and I was certain it was only because they were required by “tradition.” Ugh.

“Here we are,” Skye announced after leading me through a puzzling maze of hallways. She stopped outside a set of fancy glass doors—which were framed with polished wood and covered by wrought-iron moon and star designs—and nudged them open.

Magic, triggered by our presence, lit up the magic-fed wall sconces, brightening the place up and creating spot lights on all the glass cases arranged in the space.

There were so many of those glass cases and displays that it felt like a museum.

A single glance through the wood paneled room revealed weapons, armor, a few faded robes and dresses, some books, and a huge variety of magical artifacts, the closest being a monkey statue with glittering jade eyes, and the biggest being a gigantic claw that hung on the wall and was almost as tall as I was.

Skye expectantly looked to me, and I obliged her.

“Wow—this is really cool.” I slipped far enough into the room to admire the row of halberds bolted to a wall. “The craftsmanship on this stuff is incredible.”

“Elf work,” Skye said, sounding greatly satisfied. “Though those halberds were made by dwarves, if I recall correctly.”

While the four major supernatural races were werewolves, vampires, wizards, and fae, there were lots of less populated species—like dwarves, dragon shifters, trolls, etc.

Trolls, pixies, and the like were technically fae, so they swore themselves to a Court which they served and in return were protected by.

In theory.

The wizards had their own subspecies—like the oracles, hunters, and slayers—and the werewolves typically spoke for most of the shifters. Except the dragon shifters, anyway.

There used to be elves, but they died out over a century ago—it was around then that magic started to die out, too, and the various supernatural races stopped working together as each one struggled for its survival.

It was only relatively recently that we’d even remotely started to work together, and that was all because our community had outed ourselves to the humans. It had happened before I was born, but not much before then—supposedly the upper crust supernaturals looked at human pop culture and saw how popular vampires and werewolves were, and decided it was the ideal time to reveal ourselves.

The humans didn’t mind us—mostly because together the supernatural community did everything we could to appear beautiful and interesting rather than cutthroat and desperate like we really were.

But no one wanted the humans to fear us—outnumbered as we were, they could wipe us off the face of the planet.

“The original king’s artifacts are down here.” Skye strode to the far end of the room, her stilettos clicking on the floor. “I think you will enjoy seeing the real thing, instead of the drawings in your textbooks.”

I obediently followed after her, stopping when she did.

The original king’s artifacts weren’t kept in a glass case—at least, not all of them were. A crown, several necklaces, bracelets, and a bunch of rings all bearing the crescent moon and star insignia of the Night Court were arranged in a case. But his sword, shield, and bow—it seemed he was a very battle-happy king—were all arranged under a blinding spotlight.

“His most recognizable artifact is, of course, his staff.” Skye gestured to the tall, magically powered weapon.

Topped with a crescent moon the size of a dinner platter, the staff was bigger than I imagined based on the drawings in the history books Skye used to tutor me. It was about my height, and forged out of a golden metal that was so finely worked it looked like it had been poured or sculpted rather than hammered. Metal and gem stars clustered around the top of the moon, and a clear crystal was positioned at the base. The crystal was surprisingly small—the books had made it look a lot bigger—but it might have been damaged or something over time, since the crystal’s perfect formation was a little bumpy and cracked at the top.

“It’s a lot prettier than I expected,” I said. “Did he really use all of these weapons?”

“He did,” Skye confirmed.

I rolled my own royal artifact—my glass prism that I was pretty sure was the least impressive artifact