Girls Can't Be Knights: (Spirit Knights Book 1) (19 page)

“Okay.” She nodded and wiped her face. It felt dirty and gritty, and so did the rest of her. The last time she’d taken a shower seemed like
ages
ago. A hot bath might be even better. She hoped she wouldn’t screw up their routines too much. “Five-five-seven. I’ll remember.”

He smiled then sighed and herded her up the path to the cottage. “I just realized there’ll be four women in this house now. I think we need another bathroom.”

She grinned, not quite ready to laugh yet. “If Drew stays with us too, then…”

His brow quirked up. “He can—” Peering at the cottage, he frowned and cut himself off. Dropping Claire’s suitcase, he stuck his arm out to stop her. “Something’s not right. Stay close.”

Taking her own look at the small house, Claire saw nothing amiss. The garden still looked bare, the path still had mud, the wood-chopping clearing still had an axe and wood. She trusted Justin and his judgment, though. He’d more than earned it. Staying quiet as she strained to see whatever he’d noticed, she followed him to and through the front door.

When he wiped his feet on the mat, she did the same. He tossed the inner door open and filled the space with his body. His back and legs tensed, and she watched his knuckles turn white as he tightened his grip on his sword.

“Welcome home, Knight.” The cold voice froze her heart.

Chapter 34

Justin

What Justin saw made him want to dive in and kill things. Marie and Drew both sat at his dinner table, tied to the chairs and gagged with duct tape. At least it hadn’t gone to the farmhouse and taken the girls from Jack and Tammy. Marie had been crying long enough to make her eyes red and her cheeks blotchy. That she wore her best red nightie sent guilt coursing through him.

He’d intended to come home and properly express his affection and appreciation for her. Instead, he’d ridden off to return the hat, then rescued Claire. That could have waited a couple of hours. This might not have happened if he’d come here first.

Drew had been roughed up. He had a black eye now and a spritz of blood on his shirt. His glasses lay on the table, one lens cracked and the frame bent out of shape.

“As you can see, we waited for you ever so patiently.” The short, spindly, man-shaped ne-phasm wore a hood, putting his face into shadow. It stood far too close to Marie for comfort.

“What do you want, Terlizzi?”

Its face lifted enough for him to see the sneer on its thin mouth. “So you know my name.” Justin caught a flash of steel as it whipped its hand around to settle a knife under Marie’s chin. “Goody for you. That won’t save your precious, delicious wife.” It ran its fingertips up her arm.

If not for the knife, Justin would have tossed the table aside to rip its arms off. “Take your hands off her or I’ll do it for you.”

“You’d like to, I’m sure.” It pushed the knife against her neck without breaking the skin. “Humans are so disappointingly fragile. I’d almost like a fight to take your essence.”

“I’d be happy to give you a fight. Put down the knife, and let’s take this outside.” He tried to signal with a hand behind his back for Claire to leave before it noticed her. She’d have a better chance against this thing if she could surprise it.

It chuckled. Then it sniffed the air. “Wait. What’s that behind you? It smells…familiar.”

Justin swore.

Chapter 35

Claire

That name, Terlizzi, reminded her of someone. Claire racked her brain, trying to think of how she knew it. His voice tugged at her memory too. She wanted to see his face. Uncertain what Justin’s hand gesture meant, she moved closer, hoping to glimpse the person threatening Marie. Pressing her face to the door jamb, she managed to find a sliver of space to peer through with one eye.

Seeing Drew crushed her. If not for her, he wouldn’t be in this situation. She hated what she saw of Marie too. With difficulty, she forced herself to look away from their horror to see their captor. Though she could only see his chin because of his hood, she recognized him without being able to place him. Where had she seen and heard him before? When he tilted his head to get a better look at her, she saw his beaky nose and a brown eye.

She furrowed her brow in confused recognition, wondering why he, of all people, would do this. “Stewy?”

Justin shifted so she could see better while still standing in front of her. “You know him?”

“Stew
art
.” He scraped the hood away, revealing his full face. Claire remembered him as a clean-cut young man, perhaps twenty years old. This version of him had creases in his face and white patches in his scraggly beard and hair. He’d aged forty years in the span of only six.

Letting her mouth fall open, she stared in disbelief. “What
happened
to you?”

Stewart scowled and loosened the knife at Marie’s throat. “Your stupid essence, Claire, that’s what. Your essence gave me everything. Suddenly, I could leave my master Phasm’s embrace. I roamed for a while. Found a nascent Knight and devoured him. Ate a few other people. But I needed something they couldn’t give me. Your dad stopped me before I could get all of your essence.” He spat on the floor.

“Without that last piece of you, I couldn’t grow. I found this idiot and took his shell. It was easy by then. I got your mother to hire me as your nanny. But then! Augh, your father did something and your essence was locked away. So I stayed and I watched and I tried to puzzle it out. In the end, I tried to kill you, but that didn’t work either. Because you escaped somehow.”

As he spoke, his face twitched, and his eyes narrowed more and more until she wondered how he could see her. “And you disappeared. Vanished. Gone. That cop Knight found me and thought he knew something. He didn’t. I shot him, and then I watched him. He fell so hard. I kept tabs on him, and he tried to figure out more about Justin.

“Then, just a few days ago, some of my urs found a strange, tasty morsel when she stepped off safe property for more than five minutes. I’ve been looking for you since then, Claire. Thanks to Drew here, who burst out of the police station and ran up the street while I was nearby, I figured out what Avery couldn’t—where Justin lives. So. Here we all are. Isn’t this nice?”

Claire noticed his knife hanging limp in his hand and figured Justin would see it too. If they could get Stewart away from Marie, Justin could leap in and skewer him. She pushed on Justin’s side, and he let her through with a frown. No matter how he felt about her plan, though, she knew he’d protect her.

“Here I am,” she said. Clearing the doorway, she held her hands out for Stewart and tried to keep them from shaking. “You want it, come and take it.”

Stewart’s mouth and nose twitched in a pout. “I already know I can’t. I just told you. There’s something in the way.”

Her mouth dry, she pulled the locket off her neck. She had to clench her teeth together and focus with all of her will to let it dangle from her fingers. “How about now?”

His eyes widened, and his gray tongue slid out between his lips. “The last piece,” he breathed.

Claire hoped she survived this dumb idea.

Chapter 36

Justin

The moment he figured out Claire’s plan, Justin went still. His job for the next several seconds involved being forgotten by this thing that called itself Stewart. Someplace, maybe under the couch cushions, he could probably find a quarter. With it, he would be willing to bet that Kurt had slain a corrupted Phasm named Stewart shortly before Justin had found his way to the Palace.

He watched Stewart’s face betray its naked lust for Claire’s essence. It stepped away from Marie. Justin tensed to act in the perfect moment when it got far enough away not to threaten his wife anymore without getting close enough to Claire to attack her. Time slowed down for him. Each footfall took forever. He heard the faucet dripping. Marie sagged against the duct tape binding her hands. The locket swung back and forth through the air.

Justin charged, sword-first. It had worked on a window, so it could work on a ne-phasm that had somehow managed to get itself into a human form. It batted his blade aside with more strength than he expected, and Justin crashed into Stewart without stabbing him. They tumbled to the floor together, Justin’s hand smacking painfully into the couch’s wooden frame on the way. His sword bounced and slid across the floor. Stewart surged with a grunt to pin Justin on his back. Justin grabbed Stewart’s wrist to keep the ne-phasm from plunging its knife into his chest.

“Claire, run!” He heaved to the side, forcing Stewart to stab the floor. The knife dug an inch into the cheap linoleum and the plywood underneath. Using the momentum of the roll, he threw a punch at Stewart’s face. To his great surprise, the ne-phasm cackled and sent them spinning until they hit the wall.

Somehow, Stewart kept a grip on his knife. The ne-phasm slammed it down again, this time arcing its arm around to plunge the short blade into Justin’s side. It pulled the knife out and rocked to clamber off his body. Justin ground his teeth together against the pain and lurched off the floor, catching Stewart’s ankle before it could scamper away.

Claire stepped into the fray, her face painted with rage. Amazed and awed by her courage, Justin watched her swing a chair at Stewart’s head. It clipped the ne-phasm in the shoulder, stunning it. Justin heaved himself onto the ne-phasm’s legs and held it in place while Claire slammed the chair down on its head.

“This is for my father,” she growled. Stomping a foot on its chest, she said, “This is for my mother.” She dropped to the floor in a pro-wrestling-style move to drive her elbow into its chest. “And this is for my brother!”

Stewart squealed and grunted. With a swell of pride, Justin judged Claire to have the ne-phasm under control for the moment. He dove for his sword and curled his fingers around the hilt. In the time it took him to do that and spring back, Stewart managed to recover enough to grab Claire and roll her into the couch, pinning her there.

With a flash of bright white light, Claire disappeared. Stewart’s arms held empty space. It scrabbled to its hands and knees. “No!” Patting the couch as if it’d find a secret door or compartment, Stewart made panicked, wailing noises.

Justin let out a sigh of relief. “She’s out of your reach now.” Her door would be a couch, the lucky little snot. She’d be able to find one in any house, furniture store, or breakroom, and even restaurants and bars. Rising to one knee, he shoved his sword through Stewart’s back. The ne-phasm never saw it coming and stared down at the blade sticking out of its chest, arms falling limp at its sides.

“No,” it whimpered. “This isn’t how it’s supposed to be.”

“Don’t care.” Justin dragged the blade to the side and hacked at it again. This thing would never harm Claire—or anyone else—ever again. It painted his home with blood, but they’d survive, and the girls could stay at Jack and Tammy’s until he and Marie cleaned it up. Under the weight of exhaustion caused by a very long day, he sagged to the floor and took a deep breath.

“I’m sorry,” he said to Marie as he pulled on Tariel’s power to heal yet another injury. Energy surged from his sprite to him, making it possible for him to stand. He grabbed a steak knife and cut the duct tape holding Marie’s hands together. She threw her arms around his neck. He held her while she shuddered with tears that he thought came more from relief than anything else. “I’m going to let you get the tape off your own mouth so you can keep it from hurting too much. I have to cut Drew free.”

As soon as Justin loosed him, Drew ran to the couch, sucking in panicked gasps. He ripped the tape off his mouth with a high-pitched shriek, then groped the couch frantically. “What happened? I don’t understand any of this.”

“It’s okay. She’s fine.” Justin stepped to his side and squeezed his shoulder. “We’ll find a way to explain later. Right now, I have to go get her.”

Marie had ripped her own tape off with a whimper and now rubbed an ice cube over her mouth. “Come home tonight, no matter what.”

“I promise. Drew, go wash up in the bathroom and don’t come out until my wife is dressed.” He kissed Marie’s cheek. “I’m sorry this happened, and I’m sorry I didn’t come back right away. Kurt died. It seems like it happened weeks ago, but it was today. Now Claire is a Knight, and I have to keep anyone from gutting her for it.”

Marie nodded and hugged him. “Get something to eat there. I’m going to clean up and go to bed. Wake me when you crawl into bed tonight.”

“I will. I love you.”

“I love you too. Get going.” She slapped him on the butt.

He snorted. “Put on a robe or something, woman. That’s a teenage boy in the bathroom.” He picked up the hacked corpse by the hair and found it unexpectedly light. Using a towel as a sling, he collected all its parts in one load and took them out into the woods. He preferred dealing with Phasms and ur-phasms—they dissolved when they died. This thing got blood and gore everywhere, and he’d have to bury it properly later.

For now, he dumped all the disgusting pieces in a pile as he hurried to his sycamore, hoping Claire hadn’t riled up the whole Palace already.

Chapter 37

Claire

Claire hit hard stone and tumbled into a wall. The bare, empty square confused her. Justin had said it would be a bedroom, a place where she could rest and be safe. A bedroom should, she thought, have a bed. It could also have a dresser, some shelves, maybe a lamp. The room did at least have enough light to see by, though she saw no obvious source.

Staring up at the ceiling, she noticed all the aches and scrapes and pains from falling off Tariel and stomping on Stewart. Justin…had to take care of that. If he didn’t, then she’d never find anyone to adopt her. After the past few days, she couldn’t go back into the foster care system. She’d stay here. But first, she needed to know if Justin was okay.

With a groan, she used the wall to help herself stand. The room had its own private bath and toilet. It needed towels and toilet paper. She pulled the front door open and stared at it. From the inside, it appeared to be a regular wood door. The outside confused her until she touched it. Couch cushions exactly like the ones at Justin’s house made up her door, with the number 462 emblazoned in green at her eye level. She touched the numbers and discovered they had been made from tiny bits of crushed stone.