Darkest Knight. Karen Duvall
I pulled out each item, one by one, starting with the pocket watch. I slowly withdrew the halt charm made of oak bark. “There’s an interesting story behind this one.” I held it out to him and he nodded as if he recognized it. I smiled. “It was actually Shojin who found it.”
Aydin’s cat whiskers twitched.
I nodded. “Yep. I saw him today. He gave me something to give you.” My heart hammered so hard against my ribs I thought they’d break. I tossed the empty rabbit stick in the fire. “Shojin loved you very much.”
Aydin straightened and backed away from me. Though fur covered his face, I could still see his scowl. I think he guessed what I was about to give him. He shook his head.
“He made the ultimate sacrifice, Aydin.” I lifted the beautiful glowing heart from the pouch and held it up. “Shojin died so that you could become a man again.”
Aydin’s chest rose and fell like he had trouble breathing. He pointed at me.
“No!” I gave my head a quick shake. “It wasn’t me, I swear. He harvested the heart with his own claws because he loved you that much.” And so did I.
Still frowning, Aydin gently took the heart from me. My shoulders slouched in relief. Once he ate the heart, I’d have him back the way he used to be. We’d be together again, both free of our curses, both ready to start new lives. My eyes felt hot and I realized they’d filled with tears. Tears of hope.
Aydin’s paws rubbed over the heart as if cherishing a precious gem, which it was. Rare and beautiful. Then he threw back his head and roared. His anguished cry tore through me and I stood to hold my arms open to him. To comfort him. But he tossed the heart at my feet.
I crouched down to snatch it, unbroken, from the frigid ground. “What are you doing?” I yelled.
His lips peeled back from fangs sharp enough to pierce glass without making it crack. He fisted his claws and spread his wings before abruptly vanishing from sight.
three
“AYDIN!” I RAN OUT OF THE BARN AND GAZED up at the dense clouds that had dumped buckets of snow. I didn’t see him, but I sensed him up there. Invisible, and he was flying far away from me.
I clutched the gargoyle heart to my chest and whispered, “Shojin, you didn’t die for nothing. We’ll get him back. I promise.”
“I see he didn’t lose his ability to vanish like a thief in the night.”
I spun around to see Rafe standing behind me.
“How long have you been here?” I asked, blinking hard as I tried to figure out what was wrong with this picture. He looked so…different.
“Long enough to hear him roar and see him vanish,” Rafe said, sounding annoyed. “As I suspected he would.”
I squinted at him. “Rafe, what have you done to yourself?”
He placed both hands on his chest. “Me? Oh, you mean the clothes.”
I nodded and stared, openmouthed. “The clothes, the hair, the skin, and the fact you cut about a foot off your height.”
He turned his back to me and I gasped.
“Oh, my God! What happened to your wings?”
“Relax.” He faced me again. “This is a disguise. We can take human form whenever we wish. It’s often necessary when we interact with mortals.”
His hair was no longer white but a wheat-blond that looked as natural as the stubble on his tan cheeks and chin. What a change. His skin was normally porcelain-smooth, and he was usually taller than a pro basketball player. I had to give him credit for his choice of clothes. Acid-washed denim from top to bottom, but his jacket looked thickly lined with fleece, his gloves leather and his muffler cable-knit. Even his boots were stylin’. He looked like he’d walked straight out of GQ Magazine.
“Wow,” was all I could say.
He scowled, looking uncomfortable, and glanced down at himself. “Did I miss something?”
I shook my head. “Not a thing.”
He smiled. “Good.” Squinting up at the sky, he said, “Now that it’s gone, we can leave.”
Though Aydin’s rejection of the heart was a setback, I wasn’t angry, just disappointed. He needed time to grieve for his old friend and I could be patient. After everything Aydin had done for me he deserved at least that much.
“Rafe, Aydin is a he, not an it. And by the way, I still have the gargoyle heart so we can’t travel through the veil. I already tried and it wouldn’t open for me.”
“Of course not. I made an attempt to warn you about that, but you cut me off, remember?” Lips pressed firmly together, he added, “This is why I acquired a motor vehicle for our transportation.”
Like any good Boy Scout, Rafe had come prepared. This kept getting better and better. “Tell me you’re kidding.”
He scowled again. “Why would I kid you? Don’t you think I can drive?”
“Um. No?”
Shaking his head, he stalked past me and rounded the corner of the barn. I followed. Parked out back in a foot of snow was a shiny black Cadillac Escalade.
Pointing at the tires, I said, “You put the chains on yourself?”
He sighed. “Just get in. Thanks to the trophy you just acquired, we have a long drive ahead.”
Ah, yes. I was finally going to meet my sister knights and my grandmother for the first time. A Hatchet knight herself, she lived with my grandfather—an angel who chose to become mortal—in the very state I’d fled from a month ago. Colorado, here we come.
“Are we there yet?” I sounded like a petulant child, but I didn’t care. We’d traveled over two thousand miles and as nice as this SUV was, I wanted out.
Rafe glanced at his watch. “That’s the second time you’ve asked me in the last fifteen minutes. My answer is still the same. Two hours to go.”
“Correction. That should be one hour and forty-five minutes.”
“Traveling with me hasn’t been that bad, has it?”
I slumped down in the seat and uncrossed, then recrossed, my ankles on the dashboard. “I’m bored and I’m tired and my back hurts.” I wished we’d park in one spot long enough for Aydin to find me. I glanced out the window and peered up at the overcast sky. He had to be up there somewhere.
Rafe followed the direction of my gaze. “Still on the lookout for your winged devil, eh?”
“Don’t call him that.” I understood angels and gargoyles didn’t get along, but for crap sake, this was Aydin. One of the good guys. “He’s on our side, remember?”
Rafe grunted.
I stared at his resolute profile. He looked mortal, but he didn’t behave like one. He’d hardly eaten anything in over thirty hours and he never slept. Not once. The only time we stopped was to gas up and for me to eat and use the bathroom. I wanted a shower in the worst way.
Feeling grungy, I gave myself a sniff. “Do I stink?”
He scowled. “No, you don’t stink.” He shook his head. “You smell fine. You smell like…you.”
I didn’t know if that was good or bad. He had no odor whatsoever and if anyone would know it would be me. “How do you stay so clean without taking a bath?”
“I’m an angel.”
“Duh. I know that.” I rolled my eyes. “But you’re mortal at the moment. You’ve got mortal parts, right?” I looked pointedly