Moody and the Beast

by Kristen Painter

  Then she shucked her evening clothes and shoes, scrubbed her face and teeth, and slipped into her nightgown. Not a moment of that time went by without her thinking about what he’d told her.

  His share of the mine’s profits for a year were more than the kingdom of Limbo was worth.

  The idea of that kind of money was staggering. Not because of how much it was but because of how it could change their lives. It could absolutely pay off her father’s debts. More than that, it could buy him the kind of care he desperately needed. And it could allow him to live in comfort for the remainder of his days. He’d be worry-free, too, knowing that Theo had the means to take care of herself.

  But only if she was willing to give up the most precious thing of her mother’s that she had left.

  She stood at the bathroom sink, staring at the necklace. She hadn’t taken it off since the day after her mother had passed.

  Her father had told her it should be put away in a safe (like they even had one of those), that it was too valuable to be worn every day, that she was too young to look after such a thing. Maybe that was all true, but she’d worried if it left her neck, she’d never see it again. He’d sell it, then gamble the money away. Or maybe he wouldn’t even bother to sell it, just toss it on the table as his bet. She loved her father but hated his addiction. And so she’d stubbornly argued with him and kept the necklace with her at all times.

  Looking back, she wondered if he realized what would happen to the necklace if he ever got his hands on it. If he understood his own weakness. Maybe that was why he hadn’t tried harder to take it from her, because he could have if he’d really made an effort.

  Whatever the reason, she was glad the necklace had stayed with her. On that day after the worst day of her life, it had made her feel like she had a part of her mother with her.

  She flattened her hand over the pendant, pressing the gems into her skin. It still made her feel that way. But she was an adult now, and in the scheme of things she understood it was just an object. Her memories wouldn’t suddenly disappear because the original starstone was gone. She could certainly replace that with glass.

  She also had to consider what her mother would want her to do. Theo took a long, deep breath. The answer to that question came easily.

  Take care of her father.

  A tear slid down Theo’s cheek. She knew it was the right thing, but why did the right thing make her so upset? Why, once again, would she have to sacrifice? It wasn’t fair. But then, not much of her life had been.

  The truth was, she was smart and capable and able to take care of herself. She could live the rest of her life without all that money. But her father couldn’t. Not for long, anyway.

  She brought the pendant to her lips and kissed it. “Tomorrow, Mama.” She’d tell Robin in the morning that she would give the pendant to Amelia. Maybe by then she’d have found some peace about it.

  A yawn suddenly hit her. She was tired. Being social was exhausting. So was the weight of responsibility. She turned the light off and headed for bed, ready to sink into that luxurious mattress and forget everything for a while.

  But a knock on the French doors stopped her in her tracks. Robin? With the darkness outside and the sheers over the glass, she could only assume. She glanced down. She had no robe, and this nightgown was a little too threadbare to be decent. She grabbed the throw off one of the chairs and wrapped it around herself.

  Then she opened the door to see what he wanted. “Robin?”

  “Does he often call on you late at night? And do you always refer to him with such informality?”

  Theo gasped as she saw who’d just spoken to her, then her knees bent on instinct, and she dropped down. “Your Highness.”

  What in Hades was Vesta doing here?

  “Get up.”

  Theo rose, still not believing that Vesta was on her balcony. Whatever reason had brought the queen here, it wasn’t a good one. That was pretty plain. She could feel herself quivering ever so slightly. Nerves or fear, she wasn’t sure. Maybe both. She stayed silent, though, waiting on the queen to speak first.

  She didn’t have to wait long. “You didn’t answer my question.”

  “I’m sorry, Your Highness. What did you ask me?”

  “If my husband often calls on you late at night.”

  They weren’t married anymore. Theo knew that. Everyone in Limbo knew that. In fact, Vesta had several royal companions who did a lot more companioning than Theo was doing with Robin. But obviously, Vesta meant to start something. “No, Your Highness. Never. But I am here as his indentured servant. It would certainly be within his rights.”

  “You called him Robin. Seems awfully informal for a servant.”

  That wasn’t a question, so Theo didn’t answer it.

  Thankfully, Vesta moved on. Her finely penciled brows arched. “Does he house all of his indentured servants in guest quarters on the same floor as his own?”

  Vesta’s second thinly veiled suggestion that something else was going on nudged Theo’s nerves in the direction of outright anger. But it wouldn’t do to get angry with a woman like Vesta. The power she wielded made her far too dangerous an opponent to take on. “I wouldn’t know, Your Highness.”

  Vesta hesitated, then strolled to the edge of the balcony, put her hands on the railing, and stared out at the garden. She wore a long turquoise gown of silk with a wide jeweled gold belt that matched the lace edging the sleeves and hem of the dress.

  The strands of jewels woven into the braids piled high on her head complemented those in the belt. More jewels dripped from her ears, neck, and fingers. Even her slippers were jeweled. And the tips of her ears were painted with tiny gold designs. After a moment, she spoke. “This house is breathtaking, isn’t it? I designed these gardens. Did you know that?”

  “Yes, Your Highness.” Short answers were probably the best. Short answers with as little additional information as possible.

  Vesta looked over her shoulder. “So he still speaks of me, then?”

  Theo briefly thought about shoving the queen over the railing, but they were only one floor up. The fall would cause injury, for sure, but not enough to make it worth the effort. “Yes, Your Highness.”

  Theo said a little prayer that Vesta’s visit would be short and not include a trip to her old quarters. If it did, Theo prayed Vesta wouldn’t remember exactly how things had been left, considering that Theo currently had a lot of the clothes in the closet separated into piles.

  Vesta turned suddenly and leaned back, hands wide on the railing. “I have a kingdom to run, so I’m going to keep this short. You work for me now, do you understand? You will be my eyes and ears. As such, you will write me a letter daily telling me everything he does. Everything. I already know you’re good at writing letters, so don’t pretend otherwise.”

  That explained so much. Like how Vesta had found out Theo was here. Vesta had read the letters Theo had sent home to her father. Or at least the one. If Vesta had read the second, with Robin’s offer for him to relocate, she’d probably be angrier than she was now.

  Well, Theo was feeling a little angry herself. Especially because she suspected either Elswood or Baton were responsible for getting the letters to Vesta. “No, I don’t understand. Why do you want—”

  “You dare question your queen?” Vesta’s eyes narrowed as a cold, calculating gleam lit them. “All you need to know is what you have been told. You will report on everything he does. Or your father will be placed in the darkest, dampest cell in my dungeons. That won’t be very good for his health now, will it?”

  No, it wouldn’t, but Theo was in no mood to agree with the fairy menace before her. She clenched her teeth in an effort to quell her rising rage. “A letter every day. I understand.”

  Vesta smiled. “That’s a good girl. Now, since I don’t have time for a letter about today’s events, why don’t you answer a few questions for me? Has he done anything unusual lately?”

  Like throwing a dinner par
ty? Or kissing her? Professing his love for her? Giving her starstone earrings worth a fortune? Theo thought those probably qualified as unusual, but she wasn’t about to share any of that with the woman who’d just threatened her father. “I’ve only been here a few days. I don’t know him well enough to know what would be unusual for him.”

  A muscle in Vesta’s jaw twitched. “It’s very easy to forget to feed a prisoner in the dungeons. Days might go by even.”

  More threats. Theo’s fingers dug into the throw she was clutching. It was that or put her fist into Vesta’s nose. How familiar that rage was, even though she hadn’t felt it in a few days. “I spent most of the day working in the kitchen.” That wasn’t a total lie. Theo’s anger spilled out just a little, raising her voice. “I can’t tell you about what I don’t know.”

  “Keep it down, girl.”

  “Yes, Your Highness.”

  “Did he say anything about going anywhere?”

  “The first day I was here, he went to the mines.”

  Vesta sighed. “Anywhere else? Did he go into town?”

  “He doesn’t go into town. Or anywhere, really.” Was that what she was after? Trying to find out if her bespelled boundaries were still secure? Interesting. That could mean she’d sensed something was off with her magic here but didn’t know more than that. Valuable information. And something Amelia might be able to use.

  Vesta smiled and nodded like that was the answer she’d wanted. “Keep a record of that. I want to know if he leaves this house or ventures out anywhere besides the mines. I want to know where he goes. And how long he’s gone for. And if he goes to visit anyone. If he does, I want to know who that person is. In fact…” Vesta raised a finger as though an idea had just come to her. “You should try to go with him.”

  Theo frowned and played dumb. Vesta probably thought very little of her IQ already, so why not? “Why would he want me to go along?”

  “Yes, why?” Vesta looked her up and down. “You aren’t the most appealing thing, are you? Even so, it shouldn’t be hard to sway him. Just fawn all over him and laugh at his jokes. Then make him think you’re desperate to share his bed. That will do it. Men are simple creatures with simple needs. Robin is no exception.”

  Was that what Vesta had done? Lied to Robin about her affection for him? Shared his bed and made him think it was love? “Yes, Your Highness.”

  “Good. I’ll expect the first letter tomorrow.”

  “How should I send it?”

  Vesta made a face. “The same way you sent the letter to your father. Give it to the housekeeper. Or whoever you give them to.”

  The last sentence came too late. Vesta knew Baton was the one delivering the letters. But Vesta definitely hadn’t read the second one yet. The second letter would change everything. Theo decided to test her theory. “Won’t that take longer than a day to reach you?”

  Vesta sighed as if Theo was impossibly dumb. “Yes, but I will still expect tomorrow’s report as soon as possible.”

  “Yes, Your Highness.”

  Vesta leaned in. She smelled of sandalwood and roses and desperation. “Remember, little goblin. If I don’t get a letter every day, your father’s future will turn very dark indeed.”

  Theo wanted to ram her head into Vesta’s face. Instead, she nodded. “Yes, Your Highness.”

  “Tra-la-la.” Vesta waved her hand at Theo. “Off to bed with you now. You have a busy day tomorrow.”

  “Yes, Your Highness.” Theo slipped back inside, leaving the door slightly ajar, then she dropped the throw and quickly shifted into the form of a lightning bug. Immediately, she flew out through the cracked door to see where the queen went.

  Vesta traipsed down the stairs and into the garden. Theo followed, buzzing along a safe distance behind. With a quick glance to either side, Vesta hitched up her skirts and dashed beneath the pavilion. She went straight to the beautiful tiled fountain, took one more look around, then stepped up onto the ledge.

  She whispered a few words. “Peri peri nixie ta.”

  The water lit up with a soft blue glow. Vesta jumped into the fountain and disappeared without a splash.

  Outside of a few pet words of her mother’s, Theo had never learned to speak fae, but she didn’t need to in order to understand what she’d just seen. The garden Vesta had built contained a portal to Limbo.

  And it was controlled by fairy magic.

  Still in lightning bug form, she flew straight to Robin’s balcony. This couldn’t wait. Vesta would read the second letter very soon, and Theo knew her father would pay the price. She couldn’t risk whatever might happen next.

  She hovered above the chaise. There was no sign of Robin on the balcony. He must have already fallen asleep, which meant he was in bed. She landed and returned to her human form, realizing too late she was only in her nightgown. Modesty would have to wait for another day.

  She went to the French doors that led into his bedroom and peered in. Despite the darkness, she could just make out a Robin-shaped form under the covers. She knocked softly, not wanting to startle him. “Robin,” she whispered. “Wake up.”

  He moved, but that was it. She knocked again, a little harder this time, and raised her voice. “Robin. Get up.”

  He moved some more and this time sat up. He blinked with the kind of sleepy slowness of someone roused well before they were ready. He looked a little grumpy. She didn’t blame him. Being woken up too soon had that effect on her as well. He squinted at the door. And looked like he might lie down again.

  “Robin.” She tapped her fingers on the glass.

  He squinted harder, then tossed the covers aside and padded to the door. He opened it, revealing he was in boxer shorts. And nothing else.

  She almost forgot why she was standing there.

  “Hey,” he said sleepily. A slow grin spread across his face as his gaze raked across her body. And the thin nightdress covering it. “This is a nice surprise.”

  She crossed her arms over her chest. “You won’t think it’s so nice when I tell you why I’m here.” She shook her head like she was trying to make sense of something. “I just had a visitor on my balcony.”

  “Who?”

  She sighed. “Vesta.”

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  Robin used up every curse he knew. Twice. And one of them three times. But none of them adequately expressed what he was truly feeling about his ex-wife paying a visit to Theo. That blasted woman had no right to be here.

  He strode back to his bed, grabbed the robe off the bench at the end of it, and handed it to Theo without looking at her. “Here.”

  Not that he didn’t want to look at her. The nightgown she was wearing left little to the imagination, and his imagination had already been working overtime where she was concerned. This was not the time for such pleasurable pursuits, however, and he sensed she was uncomfortable.

  “Thank you.”

  He stared at the wall while she put the robe on. “What in Hades did that woman want?”

  “For me to tell her everything you’re doing.”

  He turned. Theo was finishing the knot in the robe’s tie. Still beautiful, even in something too big for her. “She didn’t just expect you to do that because you’re a dutiful citizen of Limbo, did she? Let me guess. She threatened your father? Or you?”

  Theo nodded, the hard light in her eyes a mix of sorrow and anger. “My father mostly. And do you know how she found out about him? And about me being here? Baton.”

  He frowned. “Wait. Baton’s working for her?”

  Theo shrugged. “Seems that way. Vesta wants me to write her a daily letter detailing your actions. When I asked how to get those letters to her, she told me just to keep giving them to the housekeeper.”

  Robin pondered that. “I know Hyacinth isn’t the warmest of people, but that doesn’t mean she’s on Vesta’s payroll. It could be Vesta’s got someone on the other side who receives and then delivers the correspondence when it arrives. That person could kn
ow it comes from the housekeeper.”

  “True. And if your mother isn’t getting her letters from you…”

  “We don’t know that for sure. It still could be that she’s just not answering me.”

  Theo hugged her arms around her torso. “I suppose. I guess I didn’t think the letters through entirely.”

  “You could still be right. At this point, we’re probably better off not trusting anyone.” He sat on the end of the bed, using the bench as a footstool. “What else did Vesta say? Did she do anything? Did she come into the house or stay on the balcony? Tell me everything.”

  “Well…” Theo climbed up and sat beside him. She started at the beginning and explained everything that had occurred. At the end, she shook her head. “I think we need to do two things and do them very quickly. One, we need to tell Amelia that Vesta doesn’t appear to have control over her magic here, just the sense that it had changed in some way.”

  “Agreed.”

  “And two, I need to go through that portal and bring my father here before he becomes Vesta’s prisoner. I’d say we need to bring your mother, too, but given that you’ve had no communication with her in so long, I don’t know if she’d be open to that.”

  “I don’t know. I’d love to bring my mother over, but now might not be the time.” If she really wanted nothing to do with him, his attempt to move her to Shadowvale could be disastrous in many ways. “And listen, I know you’re worried about your father, but you can’t go through that portal. You have no idea where it ends up. What if it’s in the middle of the Fangmore courtyard? There is a fountain there. Or there used to be. Regardless, you’d end up in the dungeons quicker than your father.”

  Theo frowned. “Not if I go through in another form. I could be a fish. And then transform again once I know the coast is clear.”

  “And if she’s filled that fountain with eels? I won’t have you become a late-night snack for one of those slimy buggers.”

  “Then I’ll go in as an eel.” She slanted her eyes at him. “This is my father’s life we’re talking about.”