Free Darkest Knight by Karen Duvall Page A

dear.” She smoothed her hand over my bed-head hair. “I’d say you were just in time.”
    * * *
    I emerged from the bathroom and nearly ran over Xenia.
    “Do you always pop out of nowhere?” I asked her.
    She smiled, her Cupid’s bow lips curling up in the corners and making her look sweeter than I think she was. But I didn’t know her yet.
    “Sorry,” she said. “I grew up in a family where I had to hide a lot.”
    At least she had a family, but it would be rude to actually say that. “I bet you miss them. Do they know you’re here?”
    She shook her head. “I’m all that’s left, which is kind of why I’m here. My father isn’t around and my mom died soon after I was born. I was raised in foster care.”
    Good to know we had some things in common. “Shouldn’t you be in school?”
    Frowning, she said, “College?”
    “No, high school.”
    Xenia barked a laugh. “I graduated high school four years ago. You thought I was a kid?”
    I tapped my chin and tried to look serious, but I had to laugh myself. “Guilty.”
    “I know I look young for my age, but so do you.”
    I topped out at a mere five foot two, but at least I had boobs. “I never thought much about it.”
    “I turn twenty-one this summer so I’ll finally get to meet my guardian.”
    “You mean you haven’t known him all your life?” I asked, surprised with this new tidbit of info.
    She gave me a quizzical look. “Are you saying you’ve known yours?”
    “Hell no,” I told her. “I only met him a month ago.”
    Her eyes widened.
    “It’s a long story. I was sure you’d heard it by now.”
    Xenia shook her head. “I knew you had one, but Aurora said you’d tell us all at the same time.”
    “By all you mean…?”
    “The squires.”
    “I see,” I said, nodding. That made sense. No point in anyone having to tell it more than once.
    “So I take it you’re new to all this knight stuff, too.”
    “Yep.” Yet I was to be her teacher. I think in this case we’d be teaching each other and that’s what my grandmother had in mind all along. “You talk to angels?”
    “Well, I mostly listen.” She glanced behind her as if to make sure no one else listened in. “My foster family thought I was crazy and pretty much convinced me of it, too. The social worker assigned to my case had me diagnosed as schizophrenic. I was institutionalized, fed a bunch of drugs, but I eventually ran away. Once the crap cleaned out of my system, I could hear the angels again.”
    “And they told you to come here,” I prompted.
    “Something like that.”
    “Chalice?” my grandmother called from downstairs. “We’re waiting for you.”
    By we I’m sure she meant Rafe was with her.
    “Good luck,” Xenia told me.
    As I turned to go she gently tapped my arm and said, “I know what it’s like when no one believes you. I saw what you saw.”
    I smiled. “Thanks.”
    “Anytime.”
    Wrapped in a thick wool sweater and wearing a clean pair of Levi’s, I padded my way down the stairs and into the great room. Rafe and my grandparents stood stoically beside the fireplace, all eyes on me.
    I glanced down at my jeans to make sure they weren’t stained. There was an old bloodstain on one cuff but I was the only one who could see it. “What’s wrong?” I asked them.
    Rafe, now back in his GQ human form, asked, “What’s this about a mysterious cloaked stranger?”
    He had to be kidding me. “Come on, Rafe. You must have seen her, too. Your eyesight is almost as good as mine.”
    “I had something else on my mind at the time,” he said, and rubbed one of his shoulders like it was sore. I didn’t think angels could get hurt. “Your BF kept me busy.”
    I crossed my arms. “You started it.”
    He scowled at me. “He was trying to kill you.”
    “No, he wasn’t.”
    Aurora held up her hands in the shape of a T. “Time out. You two should talk. Right now.”
    She was right. The only way to convince them that Aydin wasn’t a threat was to