Black Knight (Royal Elite #4) by Rina Kent

“He technically didn’t say her name.” Aiden speaks from behind us and I can feel his smirk without having to look at him.

“I’m just playing the devil’s advocate and saying what you’re thinking about.” A small, almost innocent smile curves Cole’s lips. “It’s not my fault your mind is already there. I only translate your thoughts, Knight. I don’t form them for you.”

“You can always self-destruct and let Astor do it.” Aiden whistles. “I’m sure he’ll take good care of her. He knows how to make love and all that shit.”

I groan deep in my throat and shove Cole away, plucking a bottle of vodka from the drawer and unclasping it with jerky hands. Neither Cole nor Aiden stop me. One, they don’t really care. Two, they like chaos, so they take every chance they get to watch it unfold. If my current case isn’t the definition of chaos, I don’t know what is.

I barely feel the burn of the first swallow before I follow with the second one.

“Does that mean Astor can do it?” Cole asks.

“It has to be done, after all,” Aiden adds.

“What the fuck are you suggesting, then?” I wipe the drops of alcohol on the side of my mouth. “That I do it?”

“It’s an option.” Cole blows smoke in my face.

I glare at Aiden. “If it was Elsa, would you have done it?”

“It isn’t Elsa and I don’t consider hypothetical situations.”

“I would have,” Cole says. “No thoughts.”

“You’re the fucking devil. You don’t count.”

Cole lifts a shoulder. “Then I’ll just go to hell, if there is one.”

Aiden stands and stops in front of me. “Considering your human rights situation, I’ll answer your question. Yes, I would have done it. There’s the world and there’s Elsa, and she always comes first. Now, you just have to decide if you’re ready to burn.”

I fall on the bed, cradling the bottle to my chest.

“Is that a no?” Aiden asks.

“At least we tried.” Cole flops on the chair beside me. “This will be a long fucking night.”

“Fuck this.” Aiden sits on the other side of me. “I’m not supposed to be here.”

“He sent me a text telling me she said yes to fucking him tonight. First date and all that.” I laugh, but there’s no humour. “She fucking said yes and I freed her of the promise I always held over her head.”

I attempt to take a sip from the bottle, but Cole takes it away.

“You’ll start vomiting and I’m in no mood to clean puke.”

“Aside from babysitting your self-pity party, he means,” Aiden adds.

I fall on the bed and stare at the ceiling. “I freed her of me.”

“Do you think you did the right thing?” Cole stares down at me with his fucking green eyes and I’m tempted to poke out and maybe put in a jar.

“Yes.” My voice breaks and I cover my eyes with the back of my hand, hiding the moisture that gathers there.

No.





Somehow, I fall asleep and somehow, I dream of her.

I always dream of her when I’m at my lowest and when I’m at my highest.

Instead of Aiden and Cole’s arsehole presence, gentle hands are pulling my arm from my face. Cole’s soulless green eyes are replaced by her soft, inviting ones.

There’s moisture in their brightness, too, as if she also wants to cry.

The Kim in my dreams is a play of my imagination. She looks so real while she touches me, while she strokes my hair back like she used to do when we were kids.

A few of my favourite memories always begin with me laying my head on her lap, her stroking my hair, and me handpicking the fucking green M&M’s for her before I ate the other colours.

Then I fed her the pistachio gelato while she read her magical stories about wizards and princes and kingdoms aloud.

And knights.

Lots of fucking knights. Even if there wasn’t one, she made them up and inserted them everywhere.

My knight, she used to call me.

Now, I’m a rusty one without armour or a sword.

I abandoned being her knight to become War.

“Why have you been drinking again?” she asks in a brittle voice. “What happened to your hand?”

“Shh, don’t ruin it. Just stay like this.” I lift my head and set it on her lap so that I’m staring up at her.

The Kimberly from my dreams always tells me what a fuck-up I am and that I can do better, just as before. I can be a knight instead of War.

But not today. Today is fucked up.

Today, she’s with Ronan and I can’t do anything about it. Today, I have Cole and Aiden as my guardians because they don’t want me to do some stupid shit like getting myself killed in a gang fight.

I reach out a hand and touch her cheek with my fingers. She trembles underneath my skin as if she always wanted me to do that. My palm burns due to the cut, but I almost don’t feel it.

“You’re so beautiful, Green, and I fucking hate you for it.”

“Xan…” My nickname catches in her mouth like she doesn’t want to say it. “What the hell? You’re not supposed to call me that.”

“And you’re not supposed to be here. I freed you.”