Darkest Knight

He made a good point. Visualizing him like this was as close as I could get to being with him for real. I reached out to touch him and my fingers grazed the rough cloth of his jean jacket like the one he’d worn when we’d shared our first kiss. That was when we said goodbye at the airport. I never saw him human again after that.

Don’t you want to come back? I asked.

He heaved a sigh and closed his eyes. I’ve been thinking long and hard about that. It wouldn’t be right for Shojin to have died in vain. Of course I want to come back. I need you.

Butterflies danced in my belly. He was about to say yes. So you’ll eat the heart?

He winced. That sounds so…barbaric.

I know.

Aydin shook his head. I can’t. Not yet.

My heartbeat slowed. Why not?

You and the few sisters you have left could use a big, ugly immortal gargoyle to your advantage.

Merging with my mind had allowed him to scan my thoughts, which saved me the time of explaining everything about the murders. He now knew as much as I did. Once he became human, he could help me train the squires to use charms for self-protection and lower their risks of getting killed.

I can still help train the squires, he said.

Not if you’re on the opposite side of the wards guarding the house. As a gargoyle, you can’t cross.

He studied me. Convince your grandmother to take them down. I’ll guard the house. Guarding houses is what gargoyles were originally meant to do before they were turned into assassins.

I shook my head. That will never happen. Angels and gargoyles have been enemies since the beginning of time. It will take more than begging to make my grandparents, not to mention the rest of the Arelim, change their minds.

He shrugged. Then we’ll find another way.

I felt a pout coming on. I already know another way.Change back. Be the warrior knight protector you used to be.

And still am. In this dream we shared, he pulled me into a hug. As long as I’m like this, I’m stronger and more intimidating to the bad guys.

Was it selfish of me to want him the way he used to be? Maybe. I’d been waiting over a month to change him back, so another month wouldn’t kill me. But not having his protection could kill my sister knights.

Merging our minds like this was so intimate it made my head spin. I’d never felt this dizzy with him before, but we’d never stayed joined this long, either. That’s when I realized I wasn’t the giddy, swept-off-my-feet kind of dizzy. I couldn’t breathe.

Aydin yanked his spirit out of me so fast that it felt like part of my soul had gone with him. I stood bereft in the icy night without Aydin’s warmth. And without oxygen.

My ears rang with a sudden barrage of shouts coming from the house. One shout sounded louder than the others, and I recognized it as Rafe’s. I peered through glazed eyes to see Rafe charge at Aydin, who was now in physical gargoyle form. His leathery wings spread wide and a violent hiss spewed from his fanged mouth as Rafe sprouted wings of his own. He shed his human form in one great burst of silver sparks and dived toward Aydin.

I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t breathe. I lay on the frozen ground like a gasping fish out of water. My eyes watered, but I still had vision enough to see the cloaked figure standing by the side of the road a hundred yards away.

I pointed and struggled to send Rafe a mental message, but he was too busy trying to take down the one person who might save us all.

Hands were holding me, trying to calm me, but desperation had me flailing to signal that the murderer was mere footsteps away. Couldn’t they see it? A black cloak fluttered around the shadowed face of whoever was trying to kill me. The strength of this creature’s power convinced me I should be dead by now. But it was toying with me, studying me. Clearly it wasn’t finished with me yet.

The figure appeared slender, almost skeletal, as a breeze pressed its robes tight against its body. That’s when I saw the curves. It was a woman.

I jerked a look at the winged warriors who battled soundlessly in a hovered position above the road. Angel and gargoyle wings beat the snow into blizzardlike flurries. Neither could be killed, so if someone didn’t stop them, their pointless fight would last until the end of time.

I saw Aydin try to yank free of Rafe’s powerful grasp. Not to escape, but to get at the woman on the road. From the look of intensity in his eyes, I knew he’d seen her, too.

Air suddenly whooshed into my lungs. I gulped it in, the dry cold making me cough as the top of my head felt ready to explode. I blinked in the woman’s direction. She was gone.

My grandfather wrapped his arms around me in a fierce embrace. “Thank God we have you back,” he said into my hair. I felt his tears wet on my face. He’d thought I was dying.

My grandmother was already on her feet and stomping across the road to where Aydin and Rafe still hovered in battle.

“Kill it!” Aurora shouted to Rafe, her hand stabbing the air in Aydin’s direction.

Nothing but another gargoyle could kill Aydin. However, a knife made from the body of one would do the trick. Rafe pulled something sharp, purple and shiny from the belt around his white tunic.

“No!” I shouted, or tried to. It came out as a squeak no one could hear. But Aydin had. With a powerful flap of wings tough enough to ride a tornado, he shot up into the air and vanished from sight.

seven

I DON’T REMEMBER GOING BACK TO BED, but I wakened there, my head pounding while sunlight stabbed into my corneas like ice picks. Closing my eyes to block it out didn’t help. I buried my head beneath the blankets, where I noticed someone had removed my muddy clothes and left me wearing nothing but panties and a T-shirt.

“Xenia, I told you the light hurts her eyes,” my grandmother said from somewhere in the room. “Close those drapes right now.”

“It’s almost noon,” Xenia said. “None of the rest of us is allowed to sleep in.”

“The rest of you didn’t almost die last night,” Aurora scolded as she stepped into the room.

When I heard the sound of the drapes being closed I peeked outside my cave of bedcovers.

“How are you feeling, Chalice?” Aurora asked, her voice not as warm as I would have liked. “Can I get you anything?”

You can get me my gargoyle boyfriend. But of course I didn’t actually say that. So I asked for water instead. My throat felt like I’d gargled with sandpaper.

After downing the full glass, I said hoarsely, “About last night…”

Aurora sat on the edge of the bed. “You’re lucky to be alive.”

I leaned forward and forced out a wheezy breath. “I know. But it’s not what you think.”

“It’s exactly what I think. That gargoyle tried to kill you.”

“Aydin? That’s ridiculous,” I said. The stern look in Aurora’s eyes told me she thought otherwise. “He’d have no reason to kill me.”

“Then how do you explain what happened?” She stood and stepped to the window, and I was suddenly afraid she knew where I had buried the heart. But its glow was hidden, I’d made sure of it. “A gargoyle is a creature of darkness, a trained assassin. Its nature is to kill people like us. I realize it was only doing what came natural, but that’s no excuse. It has to be destroyed.”

“Grandmother, you’re not listening to me.” I gritted my teeth to stop myself from saying something bitchy. “Aydin cares about me, about all of us. Being our knight’s protector has been his calling since the day he helped Saint Geraldine birth her child nearly a thousand years ago.”

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