Darkest Knight. Karen Duvall

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       “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 and like a mirage, the air rippled and gradually formed the image of a house.

       No ordinary house, its size made it more like a mansion. Yet it still looked like a classic mountain home of exposed cedar logs and natural stones set into the walls. Awesome.

       “Wow,” was all I could say.

       “After you,” Rafe said, making a slight bow.

       I stepped gingerly over the invisible barrier between the seen and unseen. A massive door on the front porch opened and out walked a woman who could have been my mother’s twin. On closer inspection I saw she was much older, with gray streaks running through her wavy ebony hair, and her frame was more generous than my mother’s had been. My grandmother had meat on her bones.

       “Rafael!” she called to angel-man beside me. “And oh, dear lord! Is this our Chalice?”

       I felt my cheeks grow hot.

       “Yes, Aurora. It sure is,” Rafe said, a genuine smile in his voice. He liked her, I could tell.

       “She’s the mirror image of Felicia, rest her soul.” My grandmother pranced down the steps, her breath steaming in the icy air. She hugged a thick wool cardigan closed against her chest and the knitted muffler at her neck trailed behind her. As she came nearer I got a good look at her eyes. Turquoise and gold. Just like mine.

       Smiling, she stopped about a foot from me and opened her arms. I knew she expected a hug, but I wasn’t a hugger. I made only one exception, but getting to hug Aydin wouldn’t happen for a while. For my grandmother I compromised, leaning forward to touch my cheek to hers. She smelled like vanilla and cinnamon.

       Eyes twinkling, she seemed satisfied with that. “Chalice, I’m so happy you’ve come.”

       I was about to say how glad I was to be here when an enormous figure appeared at my grandmother’s back.

       “So this is the granddaughter I’ve heard so much about.” The man stood slightly taller than Rafe in his human form, and his hair was black as Aurora’s. He looked mature, but it was hard to tell his age since there wasn’t a speck of gray in his hair. Signs of years gone by and exposure to the elements creased his handsome face. This must be my grandfather.

       “Zeke, say hello to Chalice,” my grandmother said.

       “Hi, sweetheart,” he said to me, a grin tweaking the corners of his mouth. It made me feel like a little girl again. As happy as I was to finally meet my grandmother, my heart swelled at seeing my grandfather. I knew the sacrifice he’d made. He’d been an angel before deciding to become human just so he could marry the СКАЧАТЬ