The Moonlight Prince

By Michelle Congdon

I can and will find you, no matter where you are...

These were the chilling words left behind on a note written by the fallen angel, Nathaniel. Did he really mean what he wrote? Or was it just a way to scare Ella into believing the outlandish stories. Either way... something is coming for her.

A rare demon attack during the day leaves Ella McMillan waking up in a strange and unknown place with very little memory of how she got there. She is quick to learn that Dash is nowhere to be seen and that she is no longer in Brooklyn or even on the same continent anymore, but in Russia and in the very heart of the Guardian kingdom.

Ella is instantly drawn to the magical realm but what she can’t seem to figure out is why the Guardians, who consider her kind the enemy, have allowed her into their secretive world in the first place or why their handsome and charming prince has taken interest in her. But not everyone is happy to have her there...

When a famous ballerina is murdered one evening, Ella immediately falls under the suspicion of everyone except the royal family and the few people who have come to know her. To complicate matters, Dash reappears causing unresolved issues between them to resurface. Even though they are constantly at war with one another, Ella can’t stop her feelings for Dash but she can’t help what she feels for the prince either. Who will she choose?

As more bodies fall, Ella discovers that not everyone is who they appear to be and something about her is different...very different. Has Nathaniel finally found a way to get to her? Is she capable of murder without even realizing it? Or is this part of something much bigger? Even in a kingdom glittered with gold that is sworn to protect the human race, evil has a way of lurking in the shadows.

An unforgivable betrayal is made, relationships are tested and a scandalous secret is revealed in the second installment of the Moonlight Series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Michelle Congdon
• Release date: Jun 15, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301045037

Michelle Congdon

Michelle Congdon resides in Sydney, Australia. She has a Dalmatian named Jett, who to this day continues to hold an 8 year grudge against her after she had to leave him with her parents when she moved to the big city- this only proves animals are much like their owners. Michelle enjoys reading books of all sorts of genres, watching way too many movies and TV shows (and Disney cartoons), singing out aloud to her favorite hits and going on adventures involving food and travel. Michelle is loud, talks a lot and shares an ever-growing list of fictional husbands with a friend. From when she was a small girl, she has always had an overactive imagination and has tried to put it to good use by sharing her stories with anyone willing to listen.

Book preview

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Epilogue

Acknowledgements

About the Author

The

Moonlight

Prince

By Michelle Congdon

The Moonlight Prince

By Michelle Congdon

Copyright © Michelle Congdon 2013

Smashwords Edition

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This book is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places and events in this publication, other than those clearly in the public domain, are either a product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to real people, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

Cover image by: © Thomasz Kobiela | Dreamstime.com

© Wyldraven 2011- 2013 | Deviantart.com

Cover design by: © Patrick Congdon 2013

Dedicated to my two beautiful nieces, Elle Rose and Avah Lily.

Where was I? One minute, I was in the middle of an open field surrounded by colorful wildflowers, the warm sun kissing every inch of my skin, a wreath of flowers sitting on my head, my long blond hair dancing in the wind. Wearing a pale-yellow summery dress, I stretched my fingers out and let them brush up against the stems of the flowers I was passing, and laughed as I skipped . . .

Suddenly, though, I saw the sky darken; the flowers disintegrate to ash; and large, dark shadows starting to hover high above. I felt a chill run down my spine as eerie voices began calling out a name: Elena. It wasn’t my name― I knew that much ―but each time I heard the voices, I felt something stir inside me. "Elena . . ." They were calling for me.

The voices weren’t those of humans, but for some reason, I felt calm. How was it possible to feel that way? I didn’t have the answer to that question― all I knew was I had a sudden urge to find my way to the voices.

I tilted my head up towards the heavens, at the dark, human-like figures, which bore large, majestic wings and were filling the skies and making a large circle before flying north. Where were they all going? Somehow, as soon as I asked myself the question, the answer hit me hard: they were leading me to the voices and showing me the way . . .

I found my legs moving mechanically, taking me towards a large temple that materialized before me. The wind was whirling and whipping, collecting dust while sweeping along the now barren wasteland. Ravens had just appeared, their beady, red eyes glaring at me as they screeched in the dead branches of a nearby tree― but it wasn’t frightening. From deep within, I knew that this was my calling…

As I edged closer towards the temple, I was caused to halt by a low growl from behind me. I turned swiftly and my breath caught in my throat. Staring back at me was a wolf― a large, gray and white wolf who had strange, silver eyes the color of moonlight. It wasn’t long before I recognized him as the wolf I’d seen out the front of my house months earlier and as the very creature who’d somehow invaded my dreams. What was he doing here? Was I in another dream?

He bared his canines at me, but made no attempt to attack. It was as if he were trying to tell me something― but what?

Unable to ignore the animal, I found myself taking a step towards him. He hesitated for a moment but didn’t once take his entrancing eyes off me. He then turned, and threw his head over his shoulder to look back at me.

Did he want me to follow? Maybe he knew the way out of this place. When I took another small step towards the magnificent creature, I heard the ravens shriek louder and the voices turn into angry hisses. I tried my best to ignore the cacophony and concentrate hard on the calm, familiar wolf in front of me.

He bowed his head, as if knowing I was silently asking a question, and stepped forward.

I followed him. The further steps I took, the more the scenery changed. Colors swirled around me, shifting the landscape until I became surrounded by a dense, green rainforest. The sky opened up to reveal a breathtaking velvet night sky, scattered with millions of tiny stars that reminded me of dazzling diamonds, and a giant full moon. The forest sparkled under the moon’s luminescent light, and it seemed that I’d stepped into some enchanted fairy realm. It was ethereal, and hauntingly beautiful.

A short time later, the wolf stopped in front of a large, onyx-colored lake and sat beside it. He looked at me briefly, turned back and looked down into the water. Was there something there I needed to look at? Perhaps it was the way out?

I cautiously made my way towards the edge of the lake and knelt down beside the animal. The tranquil water was reflecting a perfect mirror image of the night sky. I leaned closer and could see the creature’s own silvery eyes staring back at me – but something else distracted my attention: my reflection. I could see an image of myself, yet the individual looking back at me wasn’t me at all. Large, impressive black wings were stretching out behind me, my teeth were long and sharp, and my eyes . . . The eyes that were staring back into mine weren’t my familiar blue eyes; instead, they were glowing silver― just like the wolf.

An ear-piercing scream rang through my ears, while I attempted to use my hands to block it out. It took me a moment to realize that the scream was coming from none other than me.

"Take… easy, Ella― you… fully… recovered."

I could hear someone speaking, but I couldn’t make out all the words. They were coming out distorted and unclear, as if the person were talking underwater. All that I managed to catch was that it was a female’s voice― a familiar female voice.

My eyes opened and I blinked instantly as they tried to adjust to the bright light that was blinding me. Everything around me was white and spinning like crazy. My head was pounding as if something were bashing hard against my skull. Instinctively, I began to rise, but I could feel that a firm hand had hold of my shoulder and was forcing me down.

"I said, ‘Take it easy!’ Jeez, when will you ever learn to listen?" It was a teasing voice.

I knew that voice: Amiel. Even though my vision was still a bit hazy and all I could see was a black blob in front of me, Amiel’s sharp, distinct voice was hard to forget. It was burnt into my memory. Sure enough, when the black blob eventually dissolved, Amiel’s pretty face came into view.

But where on earth was I? And what the hell had happened? One thing I could remember was that a fight had erupted inside Hell’s Gate, which was a bar that Amiel owned and occupied. Two members of the Fallen― a race of angels that had been kicked out of heaven ―had come to try to take me away. When both Dash and Amiel had refused to hand me over, a fight broke out.

One of the fallen angels had been Brooke. I’d considered her my best friend, and until the incident, I’d had no idea she was one of them. After the incident, I realized that our friendship had been nothing but lies and over the year’s she’d only been pretending, having been ordered by my biological father to watch over me.

The other fallen angel who’d been involved in the incident was Nathaniel. He was a good-looking but crazy guy who’d pretended to be a student at my school but who was in fact another spy for my father. Some time during the fight, Nathaniel had managed to escape and to leave me a note in which he warned he’d keep coming for me.

Brooke, however, hadn’t been as fortunate.

It was about a month after the fight, when Dash was away speaking with the other Guardians about what to do with me, that a demon I’d never seen before attacked in broad daylight. Amiel had been busy fighting the creature when something sharp suddenly struck me in the side of my stomach. I’d screamed and attempted to dislodge the long spike that was then buried deep inside me. A sharp, excruciating pain had shot through my body, after which everything had gone black.

That’s where my memory of what had happened had ended, and I’d now woken up in this strange room that was painted all white and smelt like a sterilized hospital room. Where am I? I managed to choke out, my voice dry and croaky. Every time I tried to talk, my throat hurt. Water . . . I needed water to soothe the burning inside my throat.

My sight was now much better― it wasn’t perfect, but I could now see Amiel’s striking, icy-blue eyes carefully scrutinizing me.

You’re safe, she declared without a blink. "We’re at my family pal― home. Here: take a small sip." She lifted a small glass of clear liquid to my lips and slowly tilted it upwards.

It was water― how’d she know? I took a large gulp and instantly choked, but the cool liquid was like heaven as it travelled down the back of my throat, extinguishing the fire within.

I heard Amiel click her tongue as she promptly took the glass away. Her comment began to whirl around in my head: You’re safe― we’re at my family home. She had family in New York?

However, as her words echoed inside my head, I couldn’t quite shake the feeling I had that there was something she was keeping from me. Sure, this girl had major jealousy issues, and most of the time she was a downright bitch, but she’d never try to hurt me, right? Not when we were just beginning to tolerate each other.

Another person entered the room then, and was voicing something that pulled me out of my thoughts. The unfamiliar person was speaking quickly in a bizarre language that I’d never heard before . . . but an even stranger thing then occurred: Amiel turned towards the direction the voice was coming from and started replying in the same, strange tongue.

I listened in, not understanding a word of the foreign conversation, and continued to watch Amiel with a slight look of confusion on my face. What was going on?

Amiel nodded once and turned back to face me, a huge grin stretched out across her beautiful face. She was certainly blessed with supermodel genes. Amiel was one of those women who wear minimal make-up and still look flawless. If it hadn’t been for her scary, pretentious attitude, I’d have been very envious of her.

What language were you speaking in? I asked her warily. And who was that you were just speaking to?

Russian, she replied, and that lovely lady was Nastasia Borisovna. She’s one of the maids here.

Nastasia Borisovna― what kind of name was that? And more importantly, Amiel’s family had maids? Did that mean she was rich?

"Russian? I queried, But . . . You can speak Russian?" I blinked, feeling confused. My head was starting to spin again, so I decided to close my eyes and take a few slow, deep breaths.

Yes, she began, "I can speak Russian. My family’s from Russia― you’ve known all this already, Ella . . . But hush now. I’ll explain everything when you’re well enough."

She was right: I did know all this― she was Russian, just like Dash. Everything was making so little sense and not adding up. I really wanted to talk to Amiel about it all, but my body had other ideas. Everything around me was beginning to darken. The first thing to change was the white walls, followed by the window . . . and finally, Amiel’s face, which bore a look of slight concern, disappeared and was replaced by nothing but complete darkness.

I gasped, and my eyes shot open as I desperately tried to steady my breathing. I’d been dreaming― a strange, weird dream in which Amiel was being borderline creepy-nice and speaking in Russian to somebody. It was a dream, Ella – just a dream! I reminded myself as I tried to wipe the sweat off my forehead. I lifted up my hand and a throbbing ache shot through my body, forcing the hand back down. Why was I so sore?

In a slight daze now, I glanced around the dark room. The light of the moon was shining through a sheer, closed-curtained window, just enough so that the unfamiliar furniture around the room was shimmering in an alluring, silvery light. Even in that light, I could see that the furniture and décor were fancy, in a very European way. Hold on a minute: where the hell am I now? This place didn’t look like anything I’d seen in Amiel’s establishment before. Was I in Amiel’s bedroom? No. As large and impressive as this room would look in daylight, I already knew it’d be much too plain for Amiel, who had extravagant tastes. Was it a secret room? Maybe, when Dash and I had come to stay with her, she’d purposely told us her place had only two bedrooms, so that Dash had to share a room with her.

When I suddenly thought of Dash, my heart sank: I missed him, and I wanted him beside me to tell me that everything was going to be alright. However, I was torn in my feelings for him. We’d started out despising each other, but after going through what I’d been through, I’d soon realized I had feelings for him. He’d protected me no matter what, and no matter that the protection was against his Guardian laws.

Dash had admitted he felt the same, but after the attack in which Brooke and Nathaniel were involved, he’d proved that all I was to him was an assignment― a Guardian assignment, to keep me safe until I didn’t need the protection any more. That’s what the Guardians of Earth did: protected humans from the ‘evils’ that roamed in the darkest parts of our planet. Those evils were in the form of demons and fallen angels.

To add to the mess that was becoming my life, I’d recently learned I wasn’t even a full human. My biological father was a fallen angel and the reason he was after me was because I was what they called a nephilim― a hybrid of a half-fallen angel and a half-human. And although the Guardians didn’t protect offspring of the Fallen, for some reason Dash didn’t care about that minor detail.

He and I had shared a kiss. We’d even spent a night in each other’s arms, and he’d told me he’d never let anything bad happen to me. However, after he’d found the ‘warning’ note that Nathaniel had left behind― the note I’d stupidly left sitting on my bed ―Dash had turned all ‘protector’ on me again.

The older Guardians had eventually allowed him to give me protection, but had informed him that it’d be at his own risk, which meant that if I decided to turn on him, they wouldn’t come to the rescue. That condition was harsh and cruel, but I now understood their concern, even though I wasn’t entirely sure how I could possibly hurt anyone who could wield a weapon as well as Dash or Amiel could.

It was at that point he’d told me I was nothing to him except an assignment― well, he hadn’t exactly put it that way, but he’d made it sound as if he were now duty bound to keep me safe.

I just needed to stop thinking about him. Once I figured out where I was, I’d find him and tell him how I really felt: angry and confused. I needed to fix this mess . . . once I’d worked out where I was.

I rose from the bed slowly, using my feet to tug off the rest of the blanket. I glanced around the silvery room, trying to find anything familiar to possibly help myself work out where I was . . . Nothing.

My body ached. I was determined to ignore the pain, but there was something else I couldn’t ignore as easily: in sitting up, I’d realized I needed to go to the bathroom, urgently― crap!

A shock of cold shot through me, like ice, as my bare feet made contact with the smooth marble floor. Involuntarily, I felt a shiver go through me. My gaze made its way to the ground, and that was when I noticed . . . my outfit. What the hell was I dressed in? Although I was having trouble seeing clearly in the dim light, I could see that my nightgown was practically glowing, like a neon light. The long, white nightie had a floral pattern embroidered across the chest, and was long sleeved and surprisingly warm. Where’d it come from? It wasn’t something Amiel would’ve been keeping in her wardrobe. I could never imagine her wearing something like this. She preferred her nightgowns to be short and see-through.

Touching the nightie, I registered it was made of some kind of furry fabric that was soft to the touch. I was reminded of some kind of animal. I scrunched my face up at the thought of the poor, defenseless creatures that’d been slaughtered so the nightgown could be made― but would the Guardians really kill animals, being able, as they were, to turn into them as well? Was I the only one who considered animal killing to be weird and cruel?

I didn’t have time to sit and work out what material my strange nightgown was made of, though: I needed to find that bathroom, feeling that my bladder was about ready to explode.

I came to a pair of large, wooden doors that had strange, patterned swirls on them, and pulled one of them open. It was so heavy I needed to use both hands, and suddenly that little voice inside my head was telling me I definitely wasn’t in Amiel’s house any more.

I poked my head out and cast a glance in both directions, hoping to find anything familiar so I could set my mind at ease. Nothing. In both directions there was only a long hallway that was lit up with soft lights that were attached to gleaming, stone pillars. Seeing the long hallway on both sides, I found no comfort in it, because I had no idea where I was anyway. I took a deep breath and contemplated which way I should go. Eventually, I decided to go left.

I closed the door behind me quietly, careful not to make a sound, and tiptoed down the strange, long, narrow hall. I couldn’t help but be completely taken aback by my surroundings― not that I could see much but, what I could see caused my jaw to drop in an instant.

The