Читать книгу Darkest Knight - Karen Duvall - Страница 13

six

“YOU WERE DEAD?” MY GRANDMOTHER asked, her turquoise eyes intent on Rusty.

Rusty nodded. “Suffocated. And not from inhaling smoke.”

“She had the breath sucked out of her,” Natalie said. “Sound familiar?”

Aurora’s face went pale. “That does it. No one leaves this house until the murderer is found and dealt with. Is that understood?”

“The Hatchet murderer.” Rusty waggled her fingers and made a ghostly wailing sound.

My grandmother closed her eyes as if praying for patience. “There’s nothing funny about this. Over forty knights have been picked off like flies, leaving only a half dozen left. That’s counting the four of us.”

Rusty bent her head and mumbled, “Sorry.”

“I think Rusty is still suffering from shock. Death will do that to a person.” I felt my grandmother looking at me and sensed she didn’t appreciate a smart-ass.

Aurora sighed. “Okay, I get it. A little levity in a crisis can be cathartic, but please, let’s not forget the knights we have lost.”

Damn. Now I felt guilty. I was trying hard not to feel anything at all and being a smart-ass usually worked for that.

Rafe and my grandfather stood by the fireplace in stony silence. They hadn’t involved themselves in our discussion, which was probably just as well. I’m sure they grieved in their own way.

“Am I interrupting?” asked a young but strong voice from the foot of the stairs. A teenage girl stood with her arms crossed, her jeans torn in a way that should be fashionable, but I didn’t think hers were like that on purpose. Her razor-cut white hair that was too pale to be bleached hung over half her face and the dark liner around her eyes made her look ghoulish. She tugged at her woolen cap as if trying to hide her eyes. Wise choice. She had so much eyeliner on that I couldn’t tell what part of her face was real and what was painted.

“Xenia, come in,” my grandmother said, making a scooping gesture with her hand. “I want you to meet my granddaughter.”

Oh, another knight. Great, but I wondered why she hadn’t come with Natalie and Rusty to the kitchen this morning. Had she slept in?

Xenia avoided my eyes, and she didn’t venture any farther into the room. If I thought I was out of place, this one acted like she was in a whole other world.

Aurora smiled. “Xenia is a new recruit for the knighthood,” she explained. “She came to us last week.”

“A normie,” Rusty said under her breath.

“A what?” I asked.

“Normie,” Natalie repeated. “Means her father wasn’t an angel. She just talks to them.”

Exactly like Quin Dee, who was an angel whisperer like his father had been, and his father’s father, and so on down the line. Saint Geraldine had been an angel whisperer, too.

“Where do the Arelim find these…normies?” I asked.

“Angel whisperers have a telepathic link with the Arelim,” my grandmother said. “The ones selected to train as knights have been screened based on their willingness to devote their entire lives to serving our order.

“Now that we have to practically start the order over from scratch, more young women like Xenia will be joining us.” Aurora gave each of us a long look before adding, “And I’ll be depending on you three to train them.”

I was almost as new as Xenia and still had a lot to learn myself, but I’d do my part. “What kind of powers will the new recruits have?”

“None,” Aurora said. “Their only gift is an ability to communicate with all Arelim, not just their guardians. Plus they will only die if the Arelim allow it.”

“Normies are immortal?” I asked, stunned by this news.

“Sucks, doesn’t it?” Rusty said. “I mean for us. Not for them.”

“This only applies to those whisperers who become Hatchet knights. Possible immortality compensates for their lack of supernatural powers,” my grandmother explained. “It’s their only protection from the evil they will vow to fight.”

Of course. Quin had sacrificed himself to the enemy, and the Arelim had given him his life back. It made sense that these new knights would be granted the same gift.

Xenia rolled her eyes. She obviously didn’t appreciate her immortal status, or she didn’t believe it. If I were her, I’m not sure I’d believe it, either. Pretty far-fetched if you asked me.

“Does this mean they’re protected from whatever is killing the knights?” I asked.

“We don’t know,” my grandfather said. These were the first words I’d heard out of him since this morning. “The angel whisperers, or normies as you girls like to call them, don’t have to succumb to natural causes of death. At least not permanently. We’re not so sure about the unnatural kind.”

“And I suppose guinea pigs for testing this theory are in short supply,” Rusty said.

“Let’s just say we’re not taking any chances,” Zeke told her.

Wow, what a day. Too much too fast, and I was starting to fade. I stifled a yawn.

My grandmother cleared her throat. “Chalice, you’ll be sharing a room with Xenia.”

Xenia rolled her eyes again. If she kept doing that they’d get stuck staring at the back of her own head. The girl jerked her chin in the direction of the stairs before heading that way herself.

“Hold on, Xenia. I need to give Chalice something first.” Aurora tugged at a loop of thin chain she wore around her neck and pulled a shiny object out from beneath her sweater. She dragged it up and over her head, then held it out to me. “This belongs to you now.”

I glanced at Rafe, who stood still as a mannequin beside the fireplace. He nodded and tilted his head toward my grandmother.

I stepped closer to see what she offered. About the size of my palm, it looked like a talisman in the shape of a shield. An embossed crest was divided in half, with one side the scarlet cross of the Crusades, and the other a silver angel wing. The sight of it brought a lump to my throat. I’d never seen it before, but I knew exactly what it was.

“My mother’s shield,” I whispered.

Aurora nodded. “I gave this shield to your mother on the day she was old enough for knighthood, just as my mother had given it to me, and her mother to her.” She lowered the chain with the shield over my head. “It symbolizes dozens of generations from our bloodline, all the way back to the first Hatchet knights who fought in the Crusades.”

Which meant my ancestor was a knight who had fought beside Saint Geraldine. A chill skittered down my spine and made my ears ring. My chest felt tight with so much emotion I was afraid I’d crumble, but it wouldn’t do for me to show weakness in front of a recruit who already had doubts.

I inspected the old shield and found deep cracks in the metal and evidence of rust or blood beneath a surface of thick, clear lacquer. “Is this the original?” I asked.

My grandmother tilted her head to one side. “Part of it. The original shield was used in battle, where it was nearly destroyed. After the war ended it was broken down and reshaped into what you hold in your hands.”

“Wow.” It felt heavy and I couldn’t imagine wearing this around my neck 24/7.

“It’s a symbol now, Chalice.” She smoothed the hair from my forehead, then cupped my face in both her hands to stare into my eyes. “This shield of knighthood is yours to keep. It’s who you are and who you’ll always be.”

I inhaled a shaky breath and pressed the shield to my chest. “I’ll take good care of it.”

She lightly patted my cheek. “I know you will. Now scoot. You must be exhausted and you have a big day tomorrow.”

“I do?”

“A half-dozen squires are expected here before noon.”

Squires were knights in training. Oh, my God. So soon? I wasn’t ready.

“You’re ready,” Rafe said, as if he’d heard my thoughts.

I shot him a look and narrowed my eyes. Such a know-it-all. He gave me a crooked grin.

Dazed from my surreal day, I robotically followed Xenia up the stairs to our room. A bed never looked so good. My bag of meager belongings sat on the floor beside it.

I think Xenia was talking to me when I trudged bonelessly to the edge of the bed. She could have been speaking Mandarin Chinese for all I knew. My brain was fried and sleep called to me like a siren’s song. I did a face-plant on the mattress, missing the pillow completely, and fell instantly asleep.

* * *

I awakened slowly and thought my bladder was about to burst.

Opening my eyes to a deep darkness that only a moonless night could provide, it took me a few seconds to place my surroundings. My night vision kicked in and a bedroom came into focus.

I padded my way down the hall, following the scent of shampoo and soap. By the time I returned to my bed I was no longer sleepy. My brain had already started buzzing with all that had happened the day before and what I’d have going on today. It was exciting and daunting at the same time.

I wandered to the window and glanced outside at a bluish haze, which was how my eyes perceived night. It looked as I expected until my gaze landed on the snow around the giant ponderosa in the yard. The tree glowed with life, which I also expected, but the area where I’d buried Shojin’s heart glowed, too. So brightly, in fact, that it could easily be seen by anyone without my superior eyesight.

“Oh no,” I murmured. I’d meant to hide the heart, not make it a beacon. If I brought it inside the house, it would glow no matter where I put it. I’d just have to bury it deeper. Then I could cover it with iron to guarantee no one would find it. Iron blocked all magic as well as extrasensory perception.

Since I hadn’t bothered to undress before falling into bed, I didn’t have to worry about waking my roommate by rummaging through my bag looking for clothes. I glanced over at the twin-size bed on the other side of the room to see Xenia still as death beneath a hill of blankets. I fought the urge to shake her and make sure she was alive. The Hatchet murderer had made me paranoid.

I grabbed my jacket from the floor and scurried down the stairs to the kitchen. It didn’t take long for me to find the iron skillet I was looking for. It took a bit longer to find a shovel, which was stashed with a couple of terra-cotta pots and an empty half-barrel planter under the deck outside.

The snow over the buried heart had softened and would probably have been completely melted in a few hours. I scooped away the slush and dug the shovel into the mud underneath. The hole I had made for the heart was even shallower than I thought. Though the stone was probably harder than most rocks, I handled it gently, taking care not to crack or chip its glowing surface. It had to be perfect for Aydin.

I shrugged off my jacket, which had made me too warm anyway, and wrapped it around the heart before getting back to work. The ground became harder the deeper I dug, the frozen mixture of clay and soil solid as a brick. But I hammered at it, swearing under my breath, until I finally pulled away fist-size chunks. Once I got about two feet down, I kneeled to place the heart back in the hole, covered it with the iron skillet, then mounded clods of frozen dirt on top. A generous frosting of snow completed the job. A perfect deep-dish mud pie. And here I thought I couldn’t cook.

I stood to survey my work. No more glow. Mission accomplished.

Shaking the bits of snow and dirt from my jacket, I slipped it on over my sweaty shirt and zipped it closed. My boots were covered in mud, the knees of my jeans caked with the stuff, and my face was undoubtedly smudged with evidence of my secret. I’d have to shower and change before anyone saw me and started asking questions. Aurora and Rafe were the only ones beside Aydin who knew about the heart.

No sooner did his name pass through my mind than I caught a faint whiff of damp fur and sandalwood. A bare whisper of Aydin’s scent trailed on a chilly breeze, and then it was gone. I’d only imagined it. I couldn’t get him out of my mind.

I vaguely wondered what time it was and let my gaze sweep the horizon in search of dawn’s faint light. Instead I found the ghostly outline of a figure just beyond the perimeter of Halo Home’s warded boundaries. Opening and closing his wings, the hulking form paced slowly back and forth across the road.

I could see that Aydin waited for me. The compulsion to run to him grew like a cresting wave that had nowhere to go but forward. My grandmother had forbidden us to leave the property, but she’d surely make an exception this time. Aydin would protect me. He always had.

I ran through the drifted snow, my boots breaking through a crust of ice that had formed overnight. When I reached the perimeter of wards, I stopped. Aydin would be invisible to someone with normal vision, but I could see the particles of his life force. His ghostly gargoyle form turned to face me. I breached the wards and walked his way.

He wasn’t solid in this state, and I knew he couldn’t materialize without the risk of being detected. If I could just get close enough to sense his essence, I could imagine him as he once was and get lost in the fantasy of us being together again. We’d never had a chance to get as close as we had wanted, but it didn’t have to stay that way. We could have a future now, but only if he did the one thing that would make him human.

Aydin came to me. His gait was brisk and I realized then that he had no plan of stopping. That’s what had happened inside Geraldine’s tomb when Aydin’s ghostly body had merged with mine, his thoughts blending with my own before putting me to sleep. He’d had to do it to prevent me from accidentally spilling the secrets Geraldine had told us to our Vyantara master. I doubted sleep was Aydin’s intention this time and so I welcomed the merge. I needed to feel him close and having him inside my mind was more than okay with me.

I closed my eyes, sensing his presence flow into me like water through a stream. My pulse quickened, my skin flushed with heat, and an electric buzz skimmed down my spine. Aydin and I were now one.

I’ve missed you, I told him in mind.

I missed you too, he said, and my heart melted because I could hear his voice, his human voice, inside my head.

You’re not mad at me anymore? I asked.

I was never mad at you, Chalice. He paused. I was hurt. You know how much Shojin meant to me.

Of course I know. His sacrifice was… I couldn’t find the words.

He was a selfless creature. I tried to tell you that.

He certainly had and I’d never believed him until it was too late. But even then, I doubt anything could have stopped Shojin from giving up his heart.

I inhaled Aydin’s familiar scent and it comforted me. Eyes still closed, it was like being in a lucid dream. I stood, semiconscious, on the snowy road. Scents of fresh pine and new-fallen snow filled my nostrils. Then I imagined him big as life right in front of me.

My head felt suddenly too light and I dreamed of Aydin reaching out with human hands to catch me before I could fall.

You look…human.

It’s your imagination. You’re seeing me as you remember. His almond-shaped eyes captivated me, and they crinkled in the corners when he smiled. I knew that smile. I’m inside your head right now. At least this way I can talk to you without snarls and grunts.

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.