Darkest Knight - Karen Duvall

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       “Look, there’s a truck stop. Hungry? Need to use the facilities?”

       “Sure,” I said, settling back in my seat again. “I could eat and take a pee. Don’t you have to pee?”

       “No.”

       I jutted my chin toward the hand that covered his package. “Then what good is that?”

       “It’s plenty good, I assure you.” He turned the wheel a bit too sharply and I slid across the seat. I nearly landed on top of him.

       I moved over to hug the door on my side.

       “Sorry about that,” Rafe said, and a shadow of a grin touched his lips. He wasn’t sorry at all. He’d done that on purpose. “Don’t pout. It’s unbecoming for a knight.”

       “I’m not pouting.” Crossing my arms firmly against my chest, I sat up straight and looked longingly at the coffee shop ahead. Hungrier than I thought, I wondered if it was morning or afternoon. I’d completely lost track of time. “Waffles. No, make that French toast. Two eggs over easy and order me extra bacon.” He parked the Escalade and I hopped out to make a beeline for the restrooms. “Thanks, Rafe. You’re an angel.”

       I gave myself a whore’s bath in the restroom sink, using generous amounts of hand soap in the process. The hand dryer was an awkward way to dry off, but I was used to it. I’d done this countless times on the road during my thieving days so I was no stranger to prancing around a public bathroom in the buff. Luckily no one came in while I indulged in my trucker’s toilette.

       Moderately refreshed, I got dressed and strode inside the restaurant to find Rafe. He sat in a booth looking worse than dejected. He looked lost.

       “Hey,” I said softly, sensing something was wrong. I slid onto the bench seat across from him. “You okay?”

       He blinked at me. “I just received a message.”

       I cocked my head. “Yeah? Who from?”

       He swallowed, his Adam’s apple making a deep bob in his human throat. “The Arelim. It’s bad news.”

       My heart sank into my stomach. Rafe had a telepathic link with his angelic brothers, who were never chatty without good reason. An angel with bad news always meant trouble. I waited for him to tell me what it was.

       “Your sister knights,” he said slowly, his human eyes shining brighter than they should. He closed them and his hands curled into fists on the table. “Almost all of them are dead.”

      four

      “WHAT? No!”I STOOD UP AND NEARLY TOPPLED the table. I’d waited so long, struggled so hard to finally join my sisters in the knighthood. My mission was to train them in self-protection. I refused to believe it was too late. “It must be a mistake.”

       Rafe gazed down at his fists and shook his head. “No mistake,” he whispered. “It happened a few hours ago. I was just told that those who didn’t perish were either out of the country, in a warded area, or on sacred ground. That’s the only common link the Arelim have found.”

       I blinked over dry eyes that stung from the effort to control my sensitive vision. This news was too distracting. Lights became too bright, I saw people’s auras spike with the colors of their emotions, and smells from the kitchen roiled what little I had in my stomach. I no longer had an appetite.

       “How?” I asked.

       “Suffocation.” Rafe leaned back in the booth seat, his handsome face looking haggard, as if defeated. Angel or not, the dark circles under his eyes were proof he needed sleep. “How they suffocated is unclear, but it happened as they slept.”

       It was mildly comforting to know they hadn’t suffered. I grieved for Shojin and now I added my sisters to what seemed to be a growing list. I hoped this wasn’t a sign of more to come. “What killed them?”

       “Unknown, but the cause appears unnatural,” he said. “And by that I mean supernatural.”

       That didn’t surprise me considering each knight had a supernatural ability of her own. “Magic?”

       Narrowing his eyes, Rafe said, “Not exactly. The Arelim detected no spells, charms or curses.”

       “Yet they weren’t strangled or smothered?”

       He shook his head. “It’s as if their breath was snatched right out of their lungs.”

       Now I was really puzzled. “What could do that? A demon?”

       “Possibly.” He gave me a long look. “Or another knight.”

       Wow. “Don’t tell me my sisters are prone to killing each other.”

       “It’s been known to happen in the past, but that was hundreds of years ago. The motive had always been jealousy, usually of another knight’s abilities, or if her guardian angel chose to become human after mating. It’s very rare within the order to have an angel for a husband.”

       Yet my grandmother had wedded her guardian after my mother was conceived. Had her sisters been jealous? Was her life ever threatened? There was so much I still didn’t know. “Are the surviving knights under suspicion?”

       “No one is above suspicion, Chalice. Not even you.”

       “Me?” That surprised me. “Impossible. I’ve been with you this whole time.”

       “Perhaps it was someone you know.” His eyes became hard. “Someone who can enter a body and make it do whatever he wants.”

       He was talking about Aydin. Even though he had that ability, Aydin would never use it to harm a living soul. Just because gargoyles were assassins for the Vyantara didn’t automatically make him one. “I know who you’re talking about and he’s not like that.” I felt my ire heating up. “What reason could he possibly have to hurt my sisters?”

       Rafe shrugged. “He’s a beast of darkness now. Who knows what he would do, or why.”

       I glared at him. “You’re wrong. Aydin took a vow to Saint Geraldine that he would protect the Hatchets. He’d never go back on his word.” Saint Geraldine was one of the very first knights in the order, but she was a mummy now. Or at least her head was a mummy. Suffice to say she still lived despite existing over nine hundred years without the rest of her body.

       Rafe blew a blast of air out his nose. “How can you be so sure? You hardly even know each other.”

       “I know him better than I know you.”

       He looked stunned for a second, but quickly recovered. His eyes hooded as if he were bored. Though we hadn’t ordered anything, Rafe threw a couple of bills on the table and stood. “Let’s not keep your grandmother waiting longer than she already has. She needs you. And you need her.”

       What I really needed was to be away from Rafe for a while. He’d been wearing on my nerves ever since we left Quebec and after seeing his hostile attitude toward Aydin, I’d rather be alone. Rafe’s ego was big enough to fill a small planet.

       We finished our drive to Golden, Colorado, in awkward silence. I was angry and Rafe was…who knew what. Angels were hard to read. He appeared deep in thought, but he also seemed to be sulking.

       The long, snow-packed driveway leading to my grandmother’s home had tall pines on either side that sparkled with frost. It looked like a fairy winter wonderland.

       Rafe stopped the car. “We’re here.”

       My gaze wandered over the majestic ponderosas and skeletal aspens that had lost all their leaves. No house in sight. “We are? I don’t see anything but trees and a few big rocks.”

       He opened the car door and stepped out, his boots squeaking on the snowy ground. “That’s because it’s protected by a privacy ward.” His hand waved through empty space

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