Page 1 of A Fate In Moonstone

Chapter One

Princesses don’t lie.

So, when my mother asks how I spent my day, I won’t tell her I fought goblins and stabbed a stranger.

The man at the end of my sword blinked. Icy blue eyes looked at the polished metal with bluish blood splatters digging into his right shoulder and then at me.

He was beautiful, which shouldn’t have been the first thing I noticed as I dug the tip of my blade into his flesh. I think he’d jumped in to save me from the goblins, a trouble I went into the eerie Hallowstag woods to find, and fight.

Black hair brushed against his raised eyebrow as we stood there. Frozen with the sound of howling goblins regrouping nearby.

The corner of his pink lips lifted on one side. The side with three scars. Each line started just above his eyebrow, then carved space to his eyelid only to jump over his eye and continue down his cheek to the edge of his smirking mouth.

Was he attacked by some clawed creature?

I leaned in, questioning everything about him.

His smile shifted as he watched me.

Was he into this?

Or better yet…was I?

My heart skipped a few beats as I kept staring at his face and then his broad body. He wasn’t like the men in court at the palace. This stranger was dangerous and had seen battle.

“Are you trying to seduce me or kill me?”

Busted.

I withdrew the trip of my sword and pulled the dark blue hood back over my head.

“Neither. You can go.” I spun around as the two conscious goblins howled at me. Their sharp claws grew another inch, and they wiggled their fingers in my direction.

Not all goblins were bad, but the ones in these woods were corrupted. They frequently tried to snatch small children from the edge of the tree line. A string of livestock slaughters have also been linked to this particular group. It’s one thing to kill livestock to eat, but it’s another to murder just because they can.

My mother was dealing with preparations for the visiting royal from Regno Dei Lupi tonight. She had enough on her plate running our immense kingdom. Two soldiers had been sent to find these goons, but they followed a fake trail to the opposite end of the forest.

It was up to me to handle it.

Anger crackled beneath my skin and burned in my chest. I needed to fight, to feel in control of myself. My destiny.

Finding the creatures was easy. As was fighting them. Then this stranger stepped in to rescue me. I figured he’d leave after being stabbed and dismissed.

He stepped softly to my side, a hand on the hilt of his black sword, and blood seeping into the gray tunic at his shoulder. I dared peek at him as he assessed the angry green creatures with their long-pointed ears, gangly limbs, and rounded bellies.

“Would you like assistance?” he asked.

“No, I’ve got a lot of pent-up anger and the skills to use it.”

The largest goblin hissed and ran for me. Its claws were primed for shredding, and its mouth opened wide, baring sharp yellow teeth that would surely take chunks out of my flesh in one bite.

I spun around, sword raised, and sliced faster than the goblin could react. It was fast which was why we had trouble seeing who was killing the livestock. But in the end, Fae were faster.

Three down, one to go.

Black eyes darted between the fallen before vanishing all together.

“Where’d it go?” the stranger asked, and I pressed my finger to my lips. Goblins had powers just like the Fae. But while ours were tied to our nature cores in some way, theirs were more chaotic. Fire, invisibility, shape shift, or telekinetic.