Page 16 of One Bad Knight

When I turned around, I found she had passed out again.

I needed to get her gone. Out of this place and back in her pristine castle before I could fuck things up any further.

It didn’t take long to stitch her up and bandage the scrapes on her arms and legs before I slid a pair of my sweats on her. She didn’t wake, even as I cradled her in my arms on my bike, roaring back to her place.

Avoiding all security cameras, I managed to get her back up to her room. Locked windows and doors weren’t enough to keep me out.

The black and white dog caught up with me and escorted me to Kat’s bed. I’d met her mutt years ago, and after an hour straight of staring at each other, the dog growling low in its throat, it suddenly relaxed and came over to me, licking my hands.

I laid Kat in her own bed and pulled the sheets up to her shoulders. Her normally golden complexion had paled, but I knew she would be alright. The dog jumped onto the bed to lay on Kat’s feet. The canine looked back and forth between me and her master with baleful brown eyes as if silently asking if she would be alright.

“She’ll be fine,” I assured the dog.

Fantastic, now I was as foolish as a civilian, talking to a dog like it could understand me.

Still, the dog laid its head down as if I’d appeased it.

My hand hovered over Kat’s hair, as I was tempted to stroke it. My heart squeezed almost violently as I fought the impulse.

Don’t touch her. You kill everything you touch.

The voice in my head sounded suspiciously like my old master’s. My fingers curled into my palm and I whirled around, striding back toward the balcony.

“You’re him, aren’t you?” a small voice asked behind me.

My shoulders tensed as I stopped, but I didn’t turn around.

“You are the boy who came to my window. The one who visited every night in secret until that night I found you over my father’s body.” Kat’s voice thickened with emotion.

Closing my eyes, I cursed myself. I’d tried to keep her eyes averted from my face at the club. It had been so long, but I feared she would recognize me.

But maybe I wanted her to see me. Because when her eyes fell on me, they didn’t stay surface-level. They cut straight through all my defenses, like she saw everything inside me. That’s how it felt that first night she found me in her tree.

No, I didn’t want that. I didn’t want her to see the dark, ugly things inside me. So, I planned to stay far away, but she proved to be too enticing tonight, and I had to touch her, inhale her in that club. She smelled like every temptation rolled in sugar. But I still walked away.

Then the She attacked, and I couldn’t stand by and do nothing.

Turning my gaze to the floor off to my left, I ground out, “I’m not that boy.”

The bed squeaked as she readjusted herself. “Stop talking in riddles. I know who you are. And I’ve been waiting to ask you something for over ten years.”

When I finally turned to face Kat, tears brimmed in her eyes. Her back now sagged against the bed frame where she sat. The dog stayed lying across her feet.

A lance pierced my heart at the sight of Kat so vulnerable.

“Did you…” Her voice broke. Then she rolled her shoulders back, bracing herself. “Did you kill my father?”

I stared at her, letting the silence stretch out too long between us. Her desperation filled the air, and it choked me.

Master Wu’s voice snaked in my brain again.Everything you touch dies. That is your curse, which we have transformed into our gift.

“No,” I finally said before starting toward the balcony.

“Your name,” she rushed to say as if in a panic. As if she would perish if she didn’t know this very second.

I paused, meaning to tell her she didn’t need to know. That knowing my name could get her killed or worse. But a dark, secret, selfish part of me wanted her to know my name.

“Gatsby. My name is Gatsby.”