Darkest Knight (25 page)

Rafe cleared his throat. “Pharzuph had an errand,” he told the small gathering. “He asked me to let you know he’ll return soon.”

“Barachiel stopped time,” one of them said. “Where did he go?”

“Pharzuph has taken him away.” Rafe turned to look at me and whispered, “Now what?”

I handed him one of the black feathers. “We leave.” I slid a feather inside Maria’s cloak and told her, “Hang on to this and don’t let go.”

She frowned and her lower lip quivered. “I’m scared.”

My heart went out to her. “Me, too.”

Aydin took a feather for himself and we joined Rafe at Maria’s throne.

“Can you stand?” I asked her.

She looked confused again. “I don’t know.”

“Rafe, you should be the one to pick her up,” I said. “The Fallen consider you one of them so I doubt they’ll mind if you help their mistress.”

He took a feather from me before lifting Maria in his arms. When he stood, the changing charm fell out from underneath his tunic and clattered to the floor. The second it did, his wings returned to their original snowy white.

An enraged shout erupted from the tight group of dark angels outside the circle.

twenty-six

“WHAT JUST HAPPENED?” RAFE ASKED ME.

I bent to retrieve the iron key from the floor and held it up to show him. “You dropped this.”

Soriel was watching, his eyes intent on Maria. I sensed he wanted to help
us
so that we could help
her.
As long as the circle held, we were safe, and he knew that as well.

The squires frantically grabbed their husbands to pull them back, using every seductive move imaginable to divert their attention. They’d seen Rafe in his unadulterated glory and I believed the sight had renewed their hope for rescue. Yet I couldn’t take them with us now. Not only was I out of feathers, but we couldn’t break the circle. I’d have to come for them later and I only hoped they’d be safe while I was gone.

His gaze locked with mine, Soriel jerked his head at the women and nodded. He was trying to let me know he would do his best to protect them.

I looked from Rafe to Aydin, marveling at how close they stood to each other without fighting. This was the first time the two had ever had to cooperate and neither appeared awkward or uncomfortable.

I focused on the feather in my hand and experienced an intense feeling of having done this before. But I hadn’t. I’d never crossed the veil before Barachiel brought Aydin and me to this side. Nevertheless, I knew exactly what to do to go back. A pang of understanding hit me in the gut. Maria. When I used the horn of breath to revive her, I probably took her ability the same way I had Rusty’s. It made me wonder what else of hers I had absorbed.

I knew precisely where I wanted the four of us to appear on the other side. It was time to go home. Halo Home.

The energy inside the feather flowed through my fingers, up my arms and curled around the back of my neck. My body hummed with it. Though I wanted to go home, I knew that arriving inside the house would be impossible. The house was protected by the Arelim and had a direct link to the silver veil, so the black veil would never open there. But it would outside the perimeter of the warded property.

I closed my eyes and visualized the snow-packed road in front of the house, then expressed my desire for the four of us to be there. When I opened my eyes, we were still inside the crystal cave, but its walls were fading. The group of angels and their wives faded, too, and were replaced by a swirling fog so dense I could no longer see the ground beneath my feet.

Less than a minute later, the fog lifted and we were all standing in the exact spot I had pictured in my mind. The sun was out, and after two days spent in near total darkness, I’d never been happier to see blue sky. Unfortunately, the impact on my retinas was like having twin ice picks stabbed into my eyes. I pressed my palms over my closed lids and waited to regain control over my senses. Painful as it was, I welcomed them back.

I checked on Maria, who lay limp in Rafe’s arms with her eyes closed.

Either she’d passed out or was too overwhelmed to say anything.

Aydin appeared lost and uncomfortable. He knew he wasn’t wanted here, at least not by my grandparents or the Arelim, but I believed it only temporary. If I had my way, he wouldn’t be a gargoyle much longer.

Both my grandparents appeared through the invisible boundary that surrounded Halo Home. My grandmother rushed toward me, her face stricken with worry and tears streaming down her face. I couldn’t tell if she was happy to see me or if a new catastrophe threatened the order. I didn’t think I could handle another one so soon. She didn’t wait for a greeting, just barreled into me and wrapped me in a tight hug, her body shaking with sobs.

“Grandmother, what’s happened?” I asked, a sinking feeling in my gut. “Is everything okay?”

“It is now,” she said into my hair. “You’ve been gone for over two weeks.”

I pulled away from her. “What?” That was impossible. “We crossed over only two days ago.”

She shook her head and wiped at her eyes. “I’ve been worried out of my mind. I was afraid I’d never see you again.”

I smiled sadly and smoothed my hand over her shoulder to try comforting her. The gesture felt awkward. Showing affection wasn’t my strong suit. “I’m fine, see? And so are Rafe and Aydin. And we also brought—”

“Xenia?” My grandmother covered her mouth with her hands. “Oh, my God. I thought for sure Maria had killed her.”

This would be difficult to explain, so I just blurted it out. “Xenia is Maria.”

Aurora’s forehead creased with confusion. “I don’t understand.”

I gave her a brief rundown of what had happened, but left out the faux wedding between Rafe and me. That was a long story best left for another time. I wasn’t sure how an added shock would affect my grandmother’s blood pressure. “When Maria came back to life, she apparently lost all memory of who she is and where she’s been for the past nine centuries.”

“We know who she is.” Aurora began to pace in short, angry steps. “She’s a killer who practically exterminated an entire order of knights. She masqueraded as a Hatchet squire here, inside
my
home, with the intention of…” She gritted her teeth and stopped to stare me in the eyes. “This is a matter for the Arelim to decide.”

“What’s there to decide?” I asked, genuinely puzzled by her venomous hatred of a fellow knight. “She’s here with us now, where she belongs.”

Aurora shook her head. “Her offenses are far too great for her to be accepted into the knighthood.”

“It wasn’t her fault,” I said. “Her father turned her into a monster. She doesn’t even remember any of it.”

“How can you be sure?” She glared at the unconscious woman in Rafe’s arms. “This could be another one of her tricks.”

That was a possibility, but I wasn’t willing to give up on Maria so quickly. Forgiveness was the first step toward healing our order and making it stronger. “Won’t you at least give her a chance?”

“It’s not for me to decide,” Aurora said stiffly.

“All I ask is that you allow her asylum until she gets her strength back.” I gazed at the woman I once knew as Xenia. “She’s not a danger to anyone.”

Aurora shot me a look.

“I have her ability now.” I held out the horn of breath.

My grandmother heaved a sigh, either of relief or exasperation, I couldn’t tell which. “Fine. But only until the Arelim pass judgment on what’s to be done.”

I nodded as I watched my grandfather relieve Rafe of his burden. He turned around and carried Maria across the boundary, disappearing from sight.

“Come inside,” my grandmother told me. “Let’s get that ghastly dress off you and clean you up, then feed you some proper food. You must be exhausted. What a nightmare you’ve had to endure.”

She didn’t know the half of it. I waved a hand toward Aydin. “I still have unfinished business to take care of.”

“You haven’t found the heart?” she asked, her face softening with sympathy.

I shook my head. At least she didn’t hate him, but he was still a gargoyle and not allowed beyond this point. And I would never leave him behind.

“I believe I can help you with that,” Rafe said.

“Excuse me?” I looked Rafe up and down, then studied his face to see if he was teasing. I knew there was no love lost between Rafe and Aydin. Despite our recent nuptial experience, I wasn’t convinced he’d given up his goal to sire a knight for the order. However, Rafe wasn’t a conniver. He had never lied to me before and I didn’t think he’d start now.

“I have something for you,” he said, then walked through the property barrier and vanished from sight.

“What’s going on?” I asked my grandmother.

“I’ll go find out,” she said, and disappeared, too.

I went to Aydin, wondering if now would be a good time for us to talk. We hadn’t had a chance to communicate since crossing the veil, and now that he had his power of invisibility back, we could link minds again. He must have been thinking the same thing because he abruptly faded to his ghost form. Just as he took a step toward me, Rafe reemerged through the barrier carrying a small iron chest.

“This is for you,” he said, handing me the box.

I accepted it and lifted the lid. Inside was the vibrant, shiny purple jewel of Shojin’s heart.

My own heart leaped with joy at the sight of it, but a dozen questions beat it out of me when I realized what Rafe had done. “You’ve had it all this time?”

“I didn’t understand our relationship until we faced each other in your bridal chambers.” Looking sheepish, he added, “I’m sorry. Before that, I thought I was protecting you.”

“By lying to me?”

“I didn’t lie.” His gaze avoided mine as he focused on the line of trees standing on the opposite side of the road. “I simply kept the truth to myself.”

“You watched me dig under the tree where I’d hidden it and you saw how devastated I was to find it gone.” My fury cooked up a fireball in my hand that I hurled down to the snow. It sizzled as the ice melted around it. “How could you?”

“As your guardian, I did what I thought best for you and the knighthood.”

“No, you did what you thought best for yourself. You didn’t want to give me up.”

“No, I didn’t. Not then. But that’s changed now.” He finally looked at me and tears stood in his eyes. “You were right and I understand now that a union between us would be wrong. Your true mate is standing right there.” He nodded at Aydin, who had rematerialized the second Rafe came into view. “I promise to no longer stand in your way.”

I narrowed my eyes at him, hating him and loving him at the same time. That’s how it was with family. “I thought you couldn’t touch this,” I said, balancing the heavy box on one hand.

“I found an empty iron box in the charm storage room,” he said. “I used it to scoop up the heart and then replaced the box in the room. No one knew it was there but me.”

Clever angel. But I was still angry. How would I ever trust him again?

“I apologize,” he said softly.

I gritted my teeth. “What’s done is done, Rafe. We have the heart now and that’s all that matters.” At the moment, anyway. I knew nothing could ever be the same between Rafe and me. I would never forgive him.

Eyes shadowed with shame, Rafe nodded at us both, then spun slowly on his heel and headed back to the house.

I peered inside the iron box again, remembering the day Shojin had torn his beating heart from his chest and given it to me. The heart was beautiful, but even more beautiful was the loving sentiment behind it. I gazed on it one last time before presenting it to Aydin.

Aydin stared into the box, his human eyes filled with affection for the beast he had been bonded to for over eight hundred years. This gem was all that was left of his friend. We both knew that when Aydin took it into himself, Shojin’s memory would live on. The two would be as one.

He reached his paw inside the box and scooped up the heart as if it were fragile as an egg. It fit perfectly in his giant palm and I knew from handling it myself that it was hard as stone. Gargoyle stone.

Aydin opened his mouth, unhinging his jaw like a snake does to swallow its victims. He slid the heart between his lips and pushed it to the back of his throat. Then he swallowed it whole.

Nothing happened at first and I suddenly feared we had been fooled into believing the impossible. Until I noticed a change in Aydin’s expression. He blinked as the fur on his face receded into his flesh, which reformed around his shrinking head that morphed into a more human shape. His wings shriveled down to nothing, his tail vanished, his claws retracted, and his body lost its fur as bones and muscles restructured to the normal shape of a man. A naked man whose skin was turning blue from standing in the snow so long.

It didn’t seem to bother him. His purple lips widened in a white-toothed smile as he shivered. He thrust his fist into the air and shouted, “Yeah!” He yelled it several times, in fact. It was the first word he’d been able to say for weeks and I imagined it tasted delicious.

I was so overcome with relief and joy I could hardly move, but I didn’t have to. Aydin lifted me up and twirled me around until I became so light-headed I nearly passed out. But the spinning wasn’t what made me dizzy. My head spun with happiness at finally being in the arms of the man I loved.

I had my Aydin back.

* * * * *