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CHAPTER1
Being fae is not something I would say has a ton of advantages, but there’s one obvious benefit to my fae heritage: it makes being a thief a hell of a lot easier.
A grin tilts my lips as I phase through the wall of the massive penthouse apartment I’ve marked as my target this evening. My body turns incorporeal, and I step easily from the balcony into the living room, as if the thick wall between the two spaces doesn’t even exist.
Easy peasy. So far, so good.
The apartment is empty—I’m sure of that, since I watched the owner leave about twenty minutes ago—so I don’t worry about being spotted as I glance around the living room. I don’t turn invisible when I phase through things, so I had to make sure no one would be home during my attempted theft.
Even though I’ve taken precautions to make sure I won’t be seen or caught, I still have a ski mask on, covering my brunette hair and obscuring my features. The most that anyone who got a look at me could possibly say is that I’m of average height, with a lean build and dark brown eyes, and that could describe thousands of people in this city.
“Okay, Kiara,” I mutter to myself. “If you were a super-rich antiquities collector, where would you store your Nightmare Amulet?”
It’s sort of a rhetorical question, since I’m about as far from a wealthy antiquities collector as it’s possible to be. I’m a twenty-something fae girl who’s been masquerading as a human for more than a decade, going to college during the days and using my special abilities to moonlight as a thief at night.
Luckily, I’m a good enough thief that I can still get inside the mind of a rich-as-fuck collector of ancient objects.
If there’s a study in this apartment, that’s where the object I’m after will be. I got a good look at the guy when he stepped out of the apartment, and he looked uptight and nervous, so I’m sure he keeps all of his most impressive antiquities close at hand in the room where he spends most of his time.
“Study, study, study,” I murmur, padding quickly across the floor as I scan my surroundings. No lights are on, but ambient light from outside allows me to see just fine. It never gets fully dark in New York City. “Where’s the damn study?”
As I make my way through the apartment, I phase back in so that I’m corporeal. I can’t pick anything up while I’m literally insubstantial, and I’ll need to be able to grab the Nightmare Amulet once I find it.
I have no idea why my buyer wants a Nightmare Amulet, but hey, I’m not paid to ask questions, I’m paid to get the job done. And I really,reallyneed to get this job done. I need the money.
Once I locate the study, I step inside and begin to search the space. I’m mainly looking for the Nightmare Amulet, but I keep an eye out for an Aurora Gem, just in case.
I check for an Aurora Gem on every job I do, hoping against hope that I’ll find one of the incredibly rare supernatural gemstones.
“Fuck,” I whisper when my search turns up no sign of a gem. It was a long shot, but I really do need to find one.
Not for any buyer, though.
I need an Aurora Gem for myself.
I stole one from a vampire who’s way more powerful and connected than I thought, and now I need to find a replacement, and I need to give it to him before he drains me dry.
Literally.
You can say a lot of things about my life, but calling it boring is not one of them.
My search doesn’t turn up a Nightmare Amulet either, but I do find a wall safe hidden behind a painting that looks promising.
As the painting swings away from the wall on silent hinges, I crack my knuckles.
Okay. Time to safe crack.
This is arguably the hardest part of the job. If you’re a burglar and you just want to get in and grab whatever art and jewelry you can get your hands on, then excellent, you’re in for an easy night. But I’ve gotten good enough at thievery by now that I have clients asking for specific things—powerful artifacts and rare magical items, the kind of things you just don’t keep on display out in the open.
Holding my breath, I pull out my stethoscope, press it to the safe door with one hand, and begin cracking with the other. Fae tend to have particularly good hearing—although our ears are not pointed, thank you very much—which definitely helps. I could drill into the safe, but that would be loud and messy, and the owner would know something had been messed with the second he got home. Plus, I don’t want to lug all that equipment around.
After about a minute of fiddling, the safe cracks open. I grin again, mentally patting myself on the back. That was one of my fastest times ever, although it helps that I know what type of model this is and how it works.
Nice work, Kiara.
The safe opens silently on well-oiled hinges, and I tilt my head as I peer inside.
Damn it. There’s no Aurora Gem in here either. I swallow hard, trying to shove down my disappointment.
