Free Darkest Knight by Karen Duvall

you.”
    “Aydin? That’s ridiculous,” I said. The stern look in Aurora’s eyes told me she thought otherwise. “He’d have no reason to kill me.”
    “Then how do you explain what happened?” She stood and stepped to the window, and I was suddenly afraid she knew where I had buried the heart. But its glow was hidden, I’d made sure of it. “A gargoyle is a creature of darkness, a trained assassin. Its nature is to kill people like us. I realize it was only doing what came natural, but that’s no excuse. It has to be destroyed.”
    “Grandmother, you’re not listening to me.” I gritted my teeth to stop myself from saying something bitchy. “Aydin cares about me, about all of us. Being our knight’s protector has been his calling since the day he helped Saint Geraldine birth her child nearly a thousand years ago.”
    She nodded. “He also made a deal with one of the Fallen, who just happened to be that child’s father. I’ve heard the story. But let me remind you that Aydin is a monster now. He can’t help what he is.”
    “He isn’t a monster!” I bit my lip a split second after I shouted the words. I glanced at my grandmother, who looked neither astonished or hurt. Her expression was apathetic.
    “Sorry,” I said.
    “Don’t be.” She patted my knee. “You’re having a hard time letting go. I understand. In a few weeks you’ll be over this crush you had on a man you hardly knew who no longer exists.”
    I buried my head in my hands. How could I get through to her? Maybe I shouldn’t even try. There had to be a better way to convince her how wrong she was.
    So I offered her an objective observation. “Did you see the cloaked figure by the side of the road?”
    She scowled. “I was too preoccupied with watching you die and Rafael battle a gargoyle. No, I didn’t see anyone else on the road.”
    “It was a woman wearing a black cloak with a hood that hid her face. She was the one stealing my breath.”
    Aurora stared at me, then sat down on the bed again. “You were delirious from lack of oxygen, honey. Seeing things. Who knows what kind of strange visions that gargoyle planted inside your head.”
    Good grief. “Aydin saw her, too.”
    My grandmother huffed. “What he saw was his own ass getting kicked by an angel.”
    “Chalice wasn’t seeing things.” Xenia, who I’d forgotten was still there, stepped out of a shadowed corner. She apparently had a gift for fading into the background. “I saw it from my bedroom window after I told you and Zeke that Chalice was gone from her bed.”
    I was starting to like this girl.
    Aurora crossed her arms and tilted her head while looking up at Xenia. She wasn’t easily convinced.
    Xenia shrugged. “I saw what I saw.”
    “I’m sure Rafe saw it, too,” I said, hearing the defensive edge in my voice. But I was more than defensive. I was determined to put an end to a threat I’d seen with my own eyes. Until my grandparents realized the danger was real they’d continue to lay blame where it didn’t belong, which put Aydin and the entire order at risk.
    Aurora stood. “Let’s go downstairs and ask him.”
    “I need to shower and change first,” I told her while digging through my bag for something clean to wear.
    She nodded. “We’ll put off the squires’ training until tomorrow. All five of them are here at the house now and settling into their dorms.”
    “There are dorms?” I asked, having thought the upstairs of this house had the only living quarters.
    “We added a new building to the property last month.” She offered me a quick smile. “When the Arelim found out you had contacted Quin Dee, I had a feeling you’d be coming to us soon. The time to organize the Hatchet ranks was long overdue.”
    A twinge of grief touched my heart. Our ranks had dwindled to hardly enough players for a game of poker, and the stakes were higher than ever.
    I fiddled with the zipper on my bag. “And here I am, late to the party.”
    “No,