Page 69 of One Bad Knight

“The demon,” I managed to get out, though my mouth felt like sandpaper.

He nodded. “Indeed. In the past, we have used this means to take care of the public at large. But there is a cost. A cost we must pay if we wish to continue to do good on this Earth.”

The sick feeling inside me told me I didn’t want to know what the cost was.

“We must sacrifice a loved one of our family to the demon. A… family member of the female persuasion. It’s an exchange so we take our rightful place so we can lead society to the right and just conclusions.”

Time slowed down. My heartbeat thundered in my ears, drowning out everything else. I turned and ran to the door, jiggling the door handle, but it wouldn’t give. I ran around to the French doors, passing my uncle and opened the curtains. No longer were there little square plates of glass. A wall had slid up, covering the door handle and the glass, blocking off my exit.

When the hell did that happen?

“Your cousins helped me call it forth. The entity will be here soon,” my uncle assured. “You should take a seat and relax. Have a glass of whiskey before he comes.”

I began to scream for help.

“Please, Katherine,” my uncle said with slight annoyance. “I wish you wouldn’t. The room has been soundproofed. An oversight that was seen to after your father’s unfortunate passing.”

Either he was right, or the party around the other side of the house drowned out my screams.

No one could hear me, and no one was coming.

29

Kat

Eventually I tired of yelling and kicking at the doors that wouldn’t budge. I put myself across the room, as far away from my uncle as I could, panting from trying to escape. My brain buzzed with panic. This couldn’t be happening.

I felt as if the wool had been pulled from my eyes. For the first time, I saw things clearly.

The way my aunt slammed the door in my face. Her parting warning to get out of the house. I should have left with Gatsby. I should have listened to my gut instead of my guilt and taken Bear and gotten the hell out of town. Gatsby was right. My perception of love was too fucked up to see how I was being twisted and used.

“The relationship I thought I had with you never existed, did it?” I asked, though I already knew the answer. “I did what I always do and painted over the ugly parts so there was only what I wanted to see. Because my parents were gone, I envisioned this loving, supportive relationship with you, but this entire time you’ve kept me at arm’s length. The way my father did. Did he also know there might be a day that would come where he’d have to make the same choice?” Tears stung the backs of my eyes, but I refused to let them fall.

“If you had behaved,” he pleaded, “If you hadn’t ruined this election, everything could have been fine. I tried to make that boy go away again. I called forth a demon dog to chase him off, but yet again, everything was ruined by the both of you together. Do you know the damage that has been done to my reputation by having so many disastrous parties on the week I should be celebrating my inevitable win?”

“I’m so sorry you had to be inconvenienced by Jimi’s attempt to rape me. You poor baby,” I mocked.

“I should have left you in that institution,” he sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“What?” Another wash of cold went through me.

Dropping his arm, he gave a long-suffering look to the heavens. “I debated whether I wanted to deal with your hysterics or not. But we are family, and I took you out even though you would have been cared for there.”

“No, the state had me in there. CPS had me in there until you could come get me.” Even as I said it, clarity cut through me with a razor’s edge. He didn’t save me. He knew where I was and left me in there.

“I was eleven.” It came out as a tortured whisper.

For the first time, guilt showed on his face. “I paid to make your stay comfortable until I could come for you. Katherine, you didn’t know how hard it was, working abroad at the time, and I believed the round-the-clock care would help soothe you.”

There it was. The thing I idolized him for, saving me from that place, was all a lie. He kept me in there like it was a daycare until it was convenient for him to pick me up. Bile rushed to my throat. I fought it back down.

“But Kat, we have to put aside our own pains and think of the greater good. As a politician, I’m a public servant. Like your father. We have to put aside the petty, insignificant needs of our own lives. And now you have the opportunity to serve the greater good too. This is your gift.”

“You think sacrificing the women in your family helps you save the world? You think it makes you fit to guide or rule over anyone? I come from a line of blood-thirsty narcissists.”

“Power means making hard decisions and being able to carry them through.”

“Power has corrupted you into a dark, twisted monster. I’d rather spend my company with any demon over you. At least they don’t deny what they are.” Then the bottom dropped out from under me. “My mother?” I whispered as the realization set in.