Darkest Knight

by Karen Duvall

  “I must have forgotten to lock it when I was here last.” I fiddled with the knob and tested the lock. “Because it’s working fine now.”

  Quin shrugged and glanced at the stacks of boxes and crates. “I catalogued every one of these before bringing them here.”

  “Quite a project.”

  “You’re telling me.”

  “What can you tell me about the Viking horn of breath?”

  He grimaced. “No more than you already know. You’re the one who stole the bugger.”

  I sighed. “Unfortunately, its history is vague. I need to know if there’s a way to make it give back Rusty’s power.”

  His brow furrowed in thought. “You’ll have to find a shaman with a background in old Nordic magic.”

  “Do you think Elmo would know of someone like that?” Elmo was a mutual friend who owned a coffee shop in Denver favored by the fae. He was an elf with ties to the land of Faerie beyond the green veil. It was another realm beyond the human one, just as the black veil harbored demons, and the silver veil was home to the Arelim and the innocents who needed sanctuary.

  “I don’t know if he does, but it can’t hurt to ask.”

  I added that to my to-do list. Though I wasn’t sure when I’d get the chance to ask him since Halo Home was my virtual prison for a while. Elmo didn’t have a phone so I couldn’t call him. I supposed I could write him a letter if I had to.

  I scanned Aydin’s charm collection, remembering the day I’d hastily grabbed that stupid horn. Though I didn’t totally regret it. After all, Rusty would be dead right now if I hadn’t used it on her. There might even be something here that could counteract what the horn had done, but I felt pretty sure Rusty would refuse whatever I found. I now knew that charms worked differently on knights than they did on full-blooded humans.

  I heard a scraping sound in the far corner of the room. “Damn. We have mice?”

  “I didn’t hear anything,” Quin said.

  I smirked. “Of course not. Your ears aren’t as sensitive as mine.” I thinned the mental barrier around all my senses so I could pinpoint the whereabouts of the rodent, and that’s when I smelled it. Alcohol.

  Hands on hips, I said firmly, “Xenia? Get your ass out from behind those boxes right now.”

  Silence.

  My nose twitched with another scent that confirmed the intruder’s identity: Xenia’s pungent perfume that smelled like rotting gardenias.

  “Give it up, Xenia,” I said.

  Some of the crates and boxes shifted as a figure on hands and knees emerged from behind them. Xenia stood and brushed at the dust bunnies clinging to her sweater, though they blended naturally with the matted yarn that twisted through quarter-size holes from neck to hem. “Hi,” she said with the flash of a grin.

  She gazed up at Quin and her eyes suddenly brightened, as did her smile. “Hello.”

  Frowning, Quin crossed his arms and didn’t return her greeting.

  “What are you doing in here?” I asked.

  “Looking around.” She started backing her way to the door. “Sorry to intrude. I’ll leave you two alone.”

  My nose twitched again as the scent of old wood drifted out from the pocket of Xenia’s jeans.

  “Hold it right there,” I said. “Hand it over.”

  She blinked. “Hand what over?”

  I made a gimme gesture with my hand and she sighed. Her small, pale fingers slid into her pocket and pulled out a bracelet made with oak tiles linked together by tiny, tarnished silver roses.

  It was a Celtic bracelet and each of the seven tiles was marked with a rune. Together the runes predicted a day’s events from dawn until dusk. The rune symbols changed every day. It was a very powerful charm that could easily be abused in the wrong hands.

  Xenia dropped it in my outstretched hand.

  “Do you know what this is?” I asked her.

  “Pretty?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Yes, it’s very pretty. But it’s not simply a piece of jewelry. It’s a very powerful charm.”

  “I…I uh…” she stammered, and shoved her hands in her pockets. “I didn’t realize. I just thought it was some old stuff in storage.”

  I nodded. “It’s old stuff and it’s being stored, but each object here has a special purpose. Some of these things can protect you, or help you. But if used the wrong way they can hurt you.”

  “Like the one that hurt Rusty.”

  “Exactly.” I stepped behind the boxes and crouched down to retrieve the rusted metal box that had held the bracelet. “This is nothing to fool around with. Understand?”

  She nodded. “Can I go now?”

  My eyes spotted movement from underneath Xenia’s sweater. She quickly covered the spot with her hand and coughed. “Wow, the dust in here is bad.”

  I held out my hand again. “What’s under your shirt?”

  “Nothing,” she said, taking her hand away. “I swear.”

  Whatever it was jumped again. I lunged at her and reached my hand down the front of her sweater.

  “Hey!” she said, trying to push me away.

  My fingers wrapped around the object I suspected and my heart jerked with dismay. Xenia had tried to steal my pet. She’d almost taken Ruby.

  I opened my hand. The jewel-encrusted frog gazed up at me with shining ruby eyes and chirped. I petted her head with the tip of my finger. “Hello, Ruby.”

  “That’s its name?” Xenia asked, excitement in her voice.

  “Yes, it’s Ruby and it belongs to Chalice,” Quin said in a steely tone that sounded nothing like him. “How dare you try to steal from someone who’s here to help you.”

  I imagined Xenia had done this kind of thing before. I was like her at that age, only I hadn’t stolen things for myself. I’d stolen them for a sorcerer who’d sworn to have me killed by the creature bonded to me if I didn’t do what I was told. Xenia was under no such pressure. She stole for the hell of it.

  Xenia’s expression made a sudden transformation from awe to rage in under ten seconds.

  “You think you’re better than me?” she asked.

  What the hell? Dealing with these women the past few days made it clear why I had so few girlfriends. They made no sense. “No,” I said firmly. “Do you think you’re better than me?”

  “Yeah, I sure do.” She stalked to the door and Quin stepped ahead of her to lean against it, barring her way out. “I was called here. I’m special. And I’m not like you or Rusty or any of those other bitches pretending to be squires.”

  “Aren’t you a cheeky little thing,” Quin said, his lip curled in distaste. This was a side of him I hadn’t seen before. He’d never been so outspoken in front of me.

  “You’re not helping,” I told him.

  He grunted and glowered at Xenia. Was there some history there I didn’t know about?

  “I’m not like you or anyone else here,” Xenia went on.

  “Good to know,” I said calmly, feeling proud of myself for not losing my cool. “Care to share your divine purpose with the rest of us?”

  “No.” She glared at me, reminding me of yesterday’s confrontation with Rusty. I wasn’t about to go through that again. “It’s none of your damn business.”

  Okay, so she’d gotten caught and was obviously used to getting away with the stuff she stole. I should expect her to be defensive. But there was something else here, something I couldn’t quite put my finger on. And it worried me.

  “Maybe we should discuss this with Aurora,” I said.

  Her face suddenly changed to that of a scared little girl. “Chalice, I’m so sorry. I don’t know what got into me.” She caught her bottom lip between her teeth and looked remorseful. “I never should have picked that lock. When I was a kid I had to steal to survive, sell what I could to buy food. That’s the only life I knew and old habits die hard. I didn’t mean to—” She broke out in tears, the gasping kind that caused hiccups.

  Looking pained, Quin carefully placed a fatherly arm
around her shoulders. “Chalice won’t tell on you. Will you, Chalice?”

  He changed his tune awful fast.

  “Xenia, we really need to talk to Aurora about what you said.” Warning bells clanged inside my head, but I couldn’t explain why.

  Xenia nodded. “You’re right. I need to tell her what I was doing in here. I have to apologize.”

  “I mean we need to tell her what you said about being more special than the others. What did you mean by that?”

  She laughed and waved me off. “I didn’t mean anything. I was just trying to save my own ass by making up shit. Forget about it. It was nothing.”

  It wasn’t nothing, but I’d let it go for now. We could explore it further after I decided what charms to assign the squires, and after we had Natalie back to her old self again. The first order of business was getting Aydin in here to guide Natalie’s mind back from wherever it had drifted. Whatever mystery Xenia had cooked up would have to sit on the back burner for now.

  * * *

  “What are you doing?” I asked Quin once we were alone. We sat at the kitchen table drinking tea and eating the last of my grandmother’s peanut butter cookies.

  “I’m untangling the chains for these charms,” he said, his fingers nimbly working at a tangle of fine silver. He spread the necklace out on a black velvet cloth and began working on the next one.

  “That’s not what I meant.” I took a bite of a cookie as I watched him work. “What’s up with you and Xenia?”

  His hands remained steady as his nails tweezed a stubborn knot. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “There’s something about her that bugs you.” It bothered me, too, but I couldn’t wrap my mind around exactly what. I was hoping he had more insight.

  Quin stopped messing with the chains to lean back in his chair. “What I know is that the Arelim have been having trouble communicating with her over the past few days.”

  I frowned. “Do you all have some kind of mental chat room where you converse telepathically?”

  “Something like that, yeah.” He took a sip of tea. “While the three of us were in the storage room, they buzzed me about this. That’s why I came off so…gruff.”

  I recalled the night I first met him, when he’d been “told” telepathically that I was cursed. Within minutes his attitude had changed from charming to trying to get as far away from me as possible. News travels fast between the Arelim and their whisperers.

  “By trouble communicating, what exactly do you mean?”

  He brushed away some cookie crumbs before leaning forward to rest his elbows on the table. “I mean she ignores them completely.”

  “Then why was she even recruited?”

  “The angel who recruited her claims she’s the perfect choice. He never explained why, but he’s highly respected among the Arelim and no one questioned his decision.”

  “What’s the angel’s name?”

  “He’s Rusty’s guardian, Harachel.”

  I knew there was something about that guy I didn’t like. It made me wonder if he had an ulterior motive. “What do you make of Xenia’s claim to be extra ‘special.’”

  He shrugged. “No idea, but I’m certain she’s hiding something she doesn’t want the Arelim to know.”

  “So what happens now?”

  He licked his lips and swallowed. “They’ve selected her guardian to present to her on her twenty-first birthday, but now they’re rethinking their decision.”

  “Their decision about the guardian? Or about her becoming a knight?”

  “Both.”

  “Is she aware of any of this?” Xenia was a confused kid and I was worried. It must be difficult giving up the life she’d always known in order to live a new one filled with danger and magic. I could relate, only I’d never had a choice. Maybe she wasn’t up to it. “If not, she needs to know.”

  Quin shook his head. “It’s not my place to tell her, and it’s not yours, either. Nothing changes, at least for the time being. The Arelim are more concerned about Natalie.”

  “What do they think of my idea to have Aydin merge with her to bring her mind back?” I asked.

  He visibly shuddered. “Oh, dear. That brings back some unpleasant memories.”

  Poor Quin knew firsthand what that was like. “It couldn’t have been that bad,” I said.

  “No, not really. It only hurt when he squeezed my lungs from the inside and made me pass out.”

  I tilted my head down and looked up at him through my lashes, trying to look ashamed. He smiled. I failed.

  “That was then and this is now,” he said. “I know Aydin. He’s an honorable man and I’m sure he’ll do all he can to help Natalie.”

  My shoulders lifted and dropped with an exaggerated sigh. “I’m so glad to hear you say that. As soon as everyone has their ghost-repellent charm, the wards around the property can be changed and Aydin will finally be allowed inside.”

  He handed me a necklace. “What do you think?”

  I held the shimmering blue Celestine crystal and let my sensitive gaze pierce the multifaceted surface. The stone sat in a silver filigree setting, the intricate threads wound into an elegant design. I found Celestine to be more beautiful than any diamond. A miniature galaxy of stars appeared to pulse at the crystal’s core and it gave me goose bumps.

  A gentle touch on my shoulder broke me out of my trance.

  “Thought I’d lost you there for a second,” Quin said.

  I smiled. “Only for a second. And I felt more found than lost.” I handed him back the necklace. “You do beautiful work.”

  He beamed at me. “Thanks.” He continued his job of untangling the chains. “As soon as I’m done Rafael can take them through the silver veil so the Arelim can invoke the ghost-repelling charm.”

  In the meantime, I’d decide which charms from Aydin’s collection would best suit each squire. Not all charms were created equal, and though each squire would eventually use more than one, their first time was meaningful. Charm virgins should be handled with care.

  ten

  I HAD QUIN’S DETAILED LIST OF EVERY CHARM in the storage room. Ruby perched on my shoulder, chirping softly to let me know she’d rather not go back inside her box. But it didn’t feel safe leaving her out in the open. Ruby was enchanted, but she wasn’t a charm. She couldn’t really do anything, though she did have an uncanny skill for detecting lies. That could come in handy.

  Ruby hooked her metal toes into my sweater and disguised herself as a pin.

  “What a brilliant idea, Ruby,” I told her. “If you keep that up, I’ll let you stay out. I’m only thinking of your safety.”

  The emeralds on her back blinked, which I took to mean she understood.

  It comforted me to have her around. Despite all the people in the house, my grandparents included, I felt lonely. I missed Aydin. I could talk to Rafe, but his presence was often intimidating and he wasn’t the friendliest guy in the world. I needed a little fun in my life and Ruby made me smile.

  I picked up a charmed pen and held it up to the light. Before I’d broken the bond with my gargoyle, this had been my last acquisition and it was a powerful find. It held invisible ink that affected the person using it instead of the surface it was applied to.

  I had intended the pen for Xenia because of her uncanny skill for hiding. But in light of what I now knew about her, I wasn’t so sure it was a good idea. Then again, I’d see her regardless of any magical ink, and so would my grandmother. Aurora and I shared the same gift for seeing the unseen. And if Xenia tried to hide from us, we would find her.

  I watched the girls’ faces as I entered the great room. They looked bored and listless, and who could blame them. We’d all been stuck inside this house too long and needed a change of scenery. Rusty still hadn’t returned from her sojourn with Harachel beyond the veil, and Natalie slept on. Something had to break soon or we’d all go stir-crazy.

  They perked up when I lifted my canvas bag of goodies. “Are you re
ady to be charmed?”

  Judging from their gasps of enthusiasm, they were ready.

  They’d heard my tale of having been kidnapped as a child and bonded to a homicidal maniac for half my life, so they knew enough about my past to trust me. Wariness was to be expected, but at least now they had some context of who I was and where I came from. Credibility carries a lot of weight when you put your life on the line for people you hardly know. It’s true that we were sisters in knighthood, but the bond between us had yet to be forged.

  I gazed down at a freckle-faced girl, her red hair springy with curls and her eyes round with wonder. I chose for her the Forget-Me-Not charm so that she might regain a few extra minutes when faced with a villain intent on doing her harm. What better way to escape a situation than to make the perpetrator forget why they were coming after you in the first place?

  I held up the delicate ring. “This ring is for you.” I handed it to her. “Go ahead and put it on. It’s perfectly safe.”

  She looked doubtful and kept her hands in her lap. “What does it do?”

  “It causes short-term memory loss for whoever you want to make forgetful.” I smiled and put the ring on my own finger. “I’m immune to charms, but I can still show you how to make it work. All you need to do is shake the person’s hand. The tiny blue flowers on the ring scratch the person’s skin and the spell is invoked.” I pointed at the forget-me-not flowers surrounding the band. “Be careful not to scratch yourself. If you do, you’ll become the forgetful one.”

  She blinked. “It’s not going to make me pay with my soul to use it, is it?”

  I shook my head. “Only a charm or curse that returns a vital part of yourself will take something similar in value. The charms I’m giving you aren’t that powerful. They’ll just offer you an edge.”

  Lisa accepted the ring. “How far back will the person forget?”

  “Not long, so you won’t have much time to do whatever you need to do.” I winked at her. “They’ll forget anything that happened up to two hours earlier. So if you’re trying to make someone forget the day they met you, it ain’t gonna happen.”