Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Adrop of blood dripped off the hammer in her hand, landing on the cobblestone streets with a wet plop that echoed down the narrow alleyway. The men who tracked her knew just how accurate she was with that deadly weighted end. Now, they would be more careful.

Luna could have kicked herself for being so damned foolish. She should have known better than to swing the hammer at the first man who attacked her. A punch would have done the same amount of damage if she’d timed it right, and then they wouldn’t know she had a weapon. They very much did now, and they would plan accordingly.

For all that they were thugs, the Spirit Quay Gang weren’t idiots. They planned their moves, and that was why they ran this city behind the curtain of government officials. Their leader, that horrible rat-faced Crowley, knew how to tug the right marionette strings.

His shrewd eyes saw everything in this city. When he wanted people to jump, they damn well jumped.

Except Luna, of course. Maybe that was why they’d never seen eye to eye. Crowley had tried giving her orders for years now, and she’d always wiggled her way out from underneath his thumb. She was the best thief in the city, and a girl had to keep her options open for contracts.

He’d have her working only for him, and that sure sounded like a good way to lose money.

“Oh, Luna?” The voice snaked down the alleyway with a lilting quality that only reminded her how deeply she was in the shit of this situation. “We know you’re down there, love. Don’t hide from us now. You know this alley leads to nowhere.”

She should have known that before throwing herself down it, but obviously she’d made a mistake, now hadn’t she?

Luna blew a breath out at the red curls that blocked her vision. Red, like the blood on the end of the hammer. Like the bloom of color that had burst over the man’s temple after metal struck flesh. They always made the mistake of thinking she would be easy to manhandle because she was a woman. But she was over six feet tall, built solid, and had more muscles than most men.

If they wanted an easy target, they should have tried attacking her sister, Beatrix.

Crowley was right, though. She was at a dead end and they knew where she was now. They would walk down this street, come and get her when they wanted, or they’d point a gun at her head and end all this hassle.

She could fight, or she could turn herself in. As much as it hurt her to admit that giving up was the better option, she really wanted to avoid any bullets in her body tonight. They hurt like a bitch, and this was the only time she was jealous of her other sister, Maeve. The one who couldn’t feel any physical pain at all.

Sighing, she tucked the hammer into the back of her tweed pants and held up her hands. Stepping out into the dim light of a street lamp, she waited at the very end of the alley for the rest of the gang to catch up with her.

There were seven men now, where there had been eight. Crowley stood in the back with his hands in his pockets, clearly not worried that she’d attack him. Or perhaps it was the three men behind him with guns pointed at Luna’s head that made him so confident.

“There you are,” he said with a sly grin. “Now where’s that hammer you picked up?”

The wooden handle burned against her back, but there was no way she would let him know she still had it on her person. “I dropped it while I was running. Too incriminating to be running through the streets with a bloody weapon, don’t you think?”

“I think you’re too smart for that. You knew we’d follow you. And you knew we wouldn’t let you go this time.” He lifted a hand and two of the gun holding men stepped forward. “Billie, why don’t you peek at what she’s got in her pockets. Huh?”

Billie was a hulking man who stood even taller than Luna, and it was rare for her to look up to meet a man’s gaze. Of course, he also had a certain lumbering quality to him that made her question his intelligence. There wasn’t a lot of light behind those dark eyes.

He could still point a gun, though, and she didn’t think for a second that he didn’t know how to fire the thing. Even if he was a shit shot, he’d still hit her while he stood only four feet away.

“Fine,” she muttered before the behemoth stepped any closer. “I’ve got the hammer in the back of my pants. But I’m not letting it go until you tell me what all this is about. You tried to jump me in the streets, Crowley. Do you really think I’d want to work for you after all that?”

“I don’t think you’ll have much of a choice.” His grin never budged. But then, when did it?

He was always smiling. Like he’d caught her in the worst sort of compromising position. That grin was known throughout the underbelly of London, because it was a terrible sign that whoever was on the receiving end of said smile wouldn’t wake up in the morning.

But she stole better than anyone else in London, she reminded herself. He didn’t want to put her in a shallow grave or tip her off the pier. He needed her, even if she had become a thorn in his side.

“All right, what do you want?” she muttered. “I know you’ve got some job for me, don’t you?”

“I don’t think I want to work with you anymore, actually. You’ve been too much of a problem, and that has cost me a lot of money lately. People think you’re unagreeable.”

“Unagreeable?” she snorted. “That’s not even a word, Crowley. And here I was thinking you were one of the smart gang leaders.”

His smile wavered, just slightly. Enough that she knew she’d struck a nerve. “I know you took something that was mine, Luna.”

“Oh, did I?” She would have looked at her nails if she didn’t think they’d shoot her the moment she moved. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“The Lux Diamond. The one attached to the Royal Scepter which was in the tower of London last night. Ring any bells?” He gestured with his hands as though he were ringing a bell. “You know. The one you took for another gang, I assume, or for yourself. Playing princess in your room, perhaps?”

She knew exactly what he was talking about. And it wasn’t for another gang, it was for a nobleman who had paid her in more lumber to fix up Martin’s crumbling castle.

But Crowley didn’t need to know that.

All he needed to know was that the scepter was in very safe hands. She cleared her throat and plastered a fake smile on her face. “Look, if I’d known you were interested in the scepter as well, then I never would have stolen it without asking. You know I like to keep everyone happy.”

Such a lie.

She really had to stop doing that because lies were slipping a little too easily off her tongue. They were coming to mind so quickly these days. Like telling her sisters she was fine. Telling Martin she didn’t care if he wanted her to steal even more from more dangerous people. Smiling at strangers on the street when they helped her get something from a bin.

She hated this life. She hated who she was becoming, and yet she couldn’t stop. Luna had gotten too lost in her thoughts. The gang leader saw too much.

Had Crowley read her mind again?

He stopped smiling and snapped his fingers. Four of the men lunged forward and grabbed her arms. She twisted, biceps bulging underneath her grimy white shirt as she struggled against their hold.

“Stop moving,” one thug growled in her ear.

She wouldn’t. She’d put up a fight the way she’d been raised to do. If she didn’t, then Luna would know for certain that she’d become a different person. Someone she hated.

So she fought. With every ounce of strength in her body, she fought against them until her muscles burned and her breathing turned ragged. But no matter how many times she wriggled an arm free and then immediately threw a punch, there was another man to take her opponent’s place. Over and over again until finally, desperately, she sagged in the arms of the men who held her.

She could fight off two or three of them. Hell, given the time, she would have knocked all four of the men onto their knees. But six? Including Crowley, now holding a gun in his hands?

The safety clicked loudly and everyone in the alleyway froze. She didn’t know if the others would actually shoot a defenseless woman, but Crowley? She’d seen him shoot many people before. He’d put the end of a pistol directly between a man’s eyes, made him say a prayer, and then shot him point blank. If Crowley wanted her dead, and it sure seemed like he did, then he’d make sure she died quickly.

Luna swallowed hard. “I don’t know what you want from me, Crowley, but you know I’ll do anything to see you put your pistol down.”

“Anything?” He laughed, but the sound was more sinister than mirthful. “You know I don’t want just anything from you, witch.”

There it was. The bitter name he always called her when she really pissed him off.

He wasn’t wrong. Her mother was a witch, so she supposed she was half a witch herself. If she had any actual abilities, she might have been able to cast a couple of spells on the nitwits who thought they could hold her down. But she wasn’t powerful. Not like the woman who had raised her.

A flashing memory of her dear mam bloomed to life behind Crowley. Her mother stepped out of the shadows like a celt from the old days. Blue woad painted down her face in three lines and red hair burning like a bonfire around her head. She reached for Crowley’s throat before disappearing.

Yes, her mother would have killed any man who dared touch her without permission. And had before, even Luna’s father, who had thought he could rape a woman for a sturdy daughter.

If only he’d survived her mother sawing through his neck with a serrated blade, he might have seen Luna’s birth. He might have given her some advice on how to fling men off her arms who thought they had a right to scare her. Threaten her. Try to take her life.

But wasn’t that the way of men? They always wanted to take because women were expected to give.

She ground her teeth together so hard that she tasted blood. “I’ll do whatever it takes. You know I don’t have many options here, Crowley.”

He strode forward and pressed the gun against her temple. The cold metal seared her flesh, as though her very skin knew what it was. Tingles danced down her spine as she stared into his beady, dark eyes.

“You took a lot of money from me in stealing that scepter before my boys could get to it.” He ground the barrel of the gun against her skull. “Now you’re going to get me its worth, and half of its worth more.”

She wasn’t very good with numbers, but she knew the impossibility of what he asked for. “That’s a lifetime of money for people born into it, let alone someone like me.”

“Then you better get working fast.”

“On what?” she snarled. “There’s nothing in this entire city that would get me whatever price you’re making up in your head, Crowley. You know I’ll never be able to pay that much. Or even steal something worth what you’re asking. So if there’s something that you want in particular, then you might as well tell me.”

Her gut twisted with fear that he would ask her to bring him a person. He frequently dealt in human trading and she knew how horrible that would end up for her. If she wasn’t careful, he’d send her off to steal a child that might become a king or queen someday, and then she’d really lose her head at the gallows. Luna was only good at stealing jewelry, gemstones, the things that sang to her in the night. Not people.

He tilted his head to the side, and those beady eyes narrowed with some information he’d never shared with her. “Have you ever heard of the Diamond of Crestfall?”

It was a rumor, nothing more. A myth told around the table by thieves who thought they could steal. “Of course I’ve heard of a diamond the size of a person’s fist. Everyone knows that’s a tall tale, though. It doesn’t exist.”

If it existed, then she would have heard it singing by now. Something that big in London? It might not even sound like a song to her magic. A diamond like that would scream for her.

“Actually, it exists. At least, that’s what my informants have been saying. And the man who holds it is named the Beast of Dead Man’s Crossing. He’s got himself all holed up in his father’s old estate, bringing the ancient building back to life as it were.” Crowley lowered the gun from her temple, only to strike it hard against her collarbone. “You bring me that diamond in a month’s time, and I won’t send my boys after you.”

“A month?” she wheezed, gasping at the pain that bloomed across her torso. “I could be halfway across the sea by then.”

“You won’t be.” He nodded at his men, who dropped their grip on her arms. “You want to see the diamond like I do. You’re enthralled by all that glitters, Luna. We share that fascination. I trust you’ll find the stone and bring it to me as quickly as possible, yeah?”

And just like that, the Spirit Quay Gang walked away from her as though they hadn’t pinned her down like a moth on a board.

Luna rubbed her collarbone that sparked with heat and pain. She should run. Maeve had little money to spare, but Luna had done significant work to get the castle back in order. Her sister owed her enough coin to get her on a boat to the Americas quick enough.

But damn it.

That rat-faced idiot was right.

She wanted to see the diamond for herself. To see if it was real. Even if that meant risking her life to take a peek.