Location via proxy:   [ UP ]  
[Report a bug]   [Manage cookies]                
Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    From $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Moonlight Masquerade
    The Moonlight Masquerade
    The Moonlight Masquerade
    Ebook99 pages1 hour

    The Moonlight Masquerade

    By Rachel Morgan

    4.5/5

    ()

    Switch to audiobook
    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Cinderella retold: Fae, vampires, shifters, and a Godmother who’ll grant you any wish—if you pay the price.


    Elle is desperate enough to do the one thing she promised herself she’d never do: bargain with the Godmother for a wish. But if she pays the price, it will leave her forever changed.


    So she makes the daring decision to lie to the Godmother.


    She’ll pretend to pay the price.


    Can she get away with her freedom before the Godmother finds out?


    ~ ~ ~


    This is episode 3 of 6 of a SERIALIZED Cinderella retelling. It is not novel-length. Expect cliffhangers! Approximately 23,000 words or 100 print pages.


    **Prefer to binge-read all the episodes together? Look for City of Wishes: The Complete Cinderella Story**


    ~ ~ ~


    In a world of fae, vampires and shifters, where wishes can be bought and bargained for, Elle is human, bound to her stepmother by a slave charm. Her only hope at freedom is to wish for it. But the Godmother rules the illegal wish trade, and the price she demands is steep. Is Elle willing to pay it?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRachel Morgan
    Release dateMay 24, 2019
    ISBN9781928510048

    Read more from Rachel Morgan

    Related to The Moonlight Masquerade

    Titles in the series (6)

    View More
    View More

    Related ebooks

    Fantasy For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • UNLIMITED

      Cast Out

      Jul 10, 2021

      Verity pushed back the quilts, rolled off her straw mattress onto the floor, felt for the poker, and stirred the ashes. The embers glowed. She wouldn’t have to go fire-borrowing again. Her chilled hands were clumsy. One glowing bit of wood rolled fro

      21 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Lasting LOVE

      Feb 28, 2024

      Lasting LOVE
      6 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The Eulogy

      Jul 13, 2022

      The Eulogy
      7 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Three Poems

      Jul 1, 2018

      Three Poems
      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Defy the Stars

      May 11, 2017

      Count to five, Noemi decides. If she’s cracking up—if the terror of the past few minutes has scrambled her mind to the point where she’s hallucinating—then this will all go away in a couple of seconds. If this is for real, the mech will be standing h

      25 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The Family Plot

      May 7, 2020

      The Family Plot
      10 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      O Fortuna, Velut Luna

      Sep 15, 2018

      What is Miss Treece’s trouble, according to a popular notion? The man A has failed to show up. Arousing herself at the restaurant, she fixes her lipstick when her solo supper concludes and takes herself down the stairs situated behind the bar. There,

      3 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Last Conversations With My Mother

      Jun 17, 2019

      Last Conversations With My Mother
      3 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Echo

      Jan 10, 2024

      Once, during a depressive episode, Stanley cut out thirteen small paper stars and taped them to the ceiling of his cluttered bedroom. They were made from the construction paper left over from his youth, stored away in a basket on a shelf in the basem

      14 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Helen

      Jun 5, 2023

      She was a friend of my family—the Carlins, as I have chosen to call them. She and my father met in the fifties through the editor of the architecture magazine where she began her career. My father had taken her out a few times. They were never lovers

      30 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Me & Davey Waters

      Jan 15, 2023

      Me & Davey Waters
      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The King’s passion

      Aug 11, 2021

      The King’s passion
      11 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The Only Punishment

      Feb 10, 2022

      The floor of the room was white, but three of the walls and the ceiling were light blue. His own bland pajamas were light green. It was probably supposed to be calming, but it only angered Rats. He knew what this was—a fregging brainwashing facility,

      16 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Fool’s Gold

      Mar 1, 2021

      Fool’s Gold
      13 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The King’s passion

      Aug 11, 2021

      The King’s passion
      11 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      LOVE, Virtually

      Feb 16, 2020

      LOVE, Virtually
      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Part 2 A BOY CALLED EVEREST

      Feb 1, 2022

      Part 2 A BOY CALLED EVEREST
      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Seedlings

      May 6, 2021

      Seedlings
      9 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Elephant In The City Of Blind

      Feb 6, 2020

      Elephant In The City Of Blind
      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Sexual Tension

      Jun 5, 2023

      Sexual Tension
      13 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      A Gift from above

      Jun 6, 2024

      Big fat raindrops sploshed into the water around me and I looked up to the sky in delight. It was 1955 and, aged 5, I loved nothing better than venturing out to the bomb craters in the paddock by our home in Manchester, left behind after the war. The

      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Dead Reckoning

      Sep 9, 2020

      Dead Reckoning
      6 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Choice

      Mar 10, 2024

      It was the whine of the mosquito that woke Ellen, but the slamming of the front door that made her get out of bed. Normally, the twenty-three-year-old would simply bat the pest away from her face, then dig herself under the covers so as to avoid gett

      9 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Don’t Have A Bird

      Aug 2, 2020

      There are so many rites of passage you’ve already missed out on, and the school ball is destined to become another item on that ever-growing list. You try to delay the inevitable until every breath from your lungs sounds as if cystic fibrosis is cack

      12 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Habibi

      Jun 5, 2023

      Habibi
      11 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Moonlight Masquerade

    4.5/5

    20 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      The Moonlight Masquerade - Rachel Morgan

      Author

      On a quiet street in Vale City’s Willowton borough, moonlight shone through a dusty attic window where Elle Winter stood blinking at the glamorous, white-haired fae woman perched on the end of her bed. It was surreal enough that the Godmother herself was sitting in Elle’s bedroom. Perhaps their entire conversation—and the Godmother’s presence—was actually a dream. Elle pressed her nails into her palms, and the pain felt very real. So, not a dream?

      I’m sorry, she said to the Godmother. "I know it’s really late, so maybe I zoned out for a second and misheard you. But it sounded like you said you want me to kill the prince?"

      Yes. Prince Chevalier of House Belmont.

      Elle let out a choke of a laugh. Is—is that a joke?

      The smallest of frowns marred the Godmother’s perfect features. I don’t ever joke about the price of a wish.

      N-no! Elle blurted out. "I won’t kill someone. You can’t ask me to do that."

      Elle, you just told me how important it is that you wish for your freedom. That it’s the only way you and your stepsister can run away together, and that she means more to you than anyone else. Has that changed within the last few seconds?

      No, of course not. But … I mean … you’re asking me to commit murder.

      I am, the Godmother said, as simply as if she were asking Elle to pick up something she’d just dropped on the floor.

      But … this … this doesn’t even make sense, Elle said, hoping to bring some rationality to the conversation. Why me? I’m not even allowed to go to the ball. Surely it’s far less complicated if you ask someone who’s actually going? There must be people summoning you for wishes all the time. I’m sure you’ll find someone else in the next few days.

      I’m not asking someone else, Elle. I’m asking you. You can get close to him.

      "And someone else can’t? You can’t? You’re the Godmother. You can do anything."

      Well, I’m flattered you think so. The Godmother smoothed one hand over her perfectly styled hair. But there’s a limit to the extent of my reach. Prince Chevalier has certain magical wards placed around him. Wards that specifically target me. I can’t get close enough to him. It has to be you.

      Elle shook her head. I’m … I’m really not the right person for this job, she insisted, her voice trembling slightly as despair began to inch its way up her chest and into her throat. Even if I was happy to end someone’s life, I would have no idea what to do. I’d mess up the whole thing.

      You are exactly the right person for this job. Your talents make you uniquely equipped.

      My talents?

      I know you’re not entirely human, Estelle Winter.

      Excuse me? I’m definitely human. My blood is as red as any other human’s.

      The Godmother leaned back on one hand. "Forgive me. That isn’t quite what I meant. I know you’re human, but I also know what you can do, and it isn’t something any other human can do."

      For several moments, Elle was silent. She longed to ask when exactly she and the Godmother had met and how the Godmother knew these things about her, but the mysterious woman had already made it clear she wouldn’t answer questions about the past. About ‘someone else’s story,’ as she’d put it. Yes, okay, Elle said eventually. I can remove people’s memories. I have no idea how I possess this strange magical ability while also being human, but that’s the way it is. What does that have to do with killing the prince?

      Your power doesn’t simply remove memories, the Godmother said patiently. "If you take it further—if you remove all memories, if you remove the mind itself—the body cannot survive on its own."

      Elle felt a sickening jolt in her stomach. What? How do you know that?

      You’ve done it before.

      I most certainly have not.

      You don’t remember. You took the memory from yourself.

      Elle could only stare, her heart pounding, dread building inside her. That … can’t be true. I’ve—I’ve never used my ability on myself. She realized the absurdity of what she was saying as the words left her mouth. If she had taken a memory from herself, then of course she wouldn’t remember doing it. Her clients had their memories of meeting with her; they knew she’d taken something, even if they didn’t know what it was. But if she had done something terrible and then immediately removed that space of time from her own mind, she would have no way of knowing it ever happened if she didn’t write herself a note or leave some other clue.

      The Godmother let out a sigh. It honestly doesn’t matter what you believe. What you’ve done in the past isn’t relevant right now. My point is that you need no weapon. You need no killing expertise. You will simply do what you’ve been doing for years. You’ll convince the prince to accompany you to a quiet spot away from all the activity of the ball, and then you’ll take his memories and his mind, to the point where he slips away from this world.

      Elle swallowed past the rising nausea in her throat. And what if he doesn’t want to follow me anywhere? What if I don’t even have the chance to get near him? There’ll be hundreds of women vying for his attention.

      And you will be the one to capture it. I’ll make sure of that. And your hairstyle will hide the tips of your ears so he won’t know you’re human. Trust me, Elle. Prince Chevalier will follow you anywhere.

      But … I … Elle trailed off. She’d run out of things to say, used every argument she could think of, but it seemed the Godmother wasn’t open to negotiating. She’d decided on her price, and now Elle had to say yes or no.

      A noise reached her ears from downstairs. Elle looked over her shoulder, terror wrapping its fingers around her heart and squeezing tight. What would Salvia do if she walked in here and found the Godmother?

      Don’t worry, the Godmother said. No one can hear us while I’m in this room. Now, I need your answer, Elle. Do you accept this price or not?

      Oh, I, uh … Elle’s scrambled thoughts tumbled over one another. Can I have a day or two to think about it?

      Don’t you know the rules?

      The hand of fear squeezed a little tighter. What rules?

      If you summon me and refuse to pay the price I set, you don’t get to summon me again. That will be it. The end of all our dealings.

      But—then—

      "It’s a simple decision, Elle. This is what it comes down to: who would you rather save? Your stepsister

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1