Black Knight (Royal Elite #4) - Rina Kent Page 0,3

– or RES – in record time since it’s not far from Kir’s school.

At the car park, I stare at my reflection in the mirror and take a deep breath. I can do this.

For Kir.

I flip my brown hair that’s intertwined with green strands – or it’s probably the other way around, more green, less brown. What? I love the colour. I’m just thankful I was born with light green eyes. Another thing to add to my green collection.

Okay, that sounded a bit off, even in my head.

I come out of my car, clutching the straps of my backpack as I stride through RES’s huge entrance. Royal Elite School has ten gigantic towers and a magnificent building that goes back to medieval times.

The golden lion and shield logo is all about the majestic power of this place.

Rich, influential people send their kids to this school so they’ll have an easier initiation into society. After all, most of the UK’s politicians, parliament members, and diplomats have walked the halls of this school – Dad included.

He’s now a renowned diplomat who works closely with the European Union in Brussels, and for that reason, we barely see him. Maybe everything will change now the country is leaving the EU.

But I’m fairly sure he’ll find a way to boot himself someplace else. It’s as if he doesn’t want to be with us – or with Mum.

Usually, I would walk these halls with my best friend, Elsa, by my side, but since her accident and heart disease complications, she’s now resting at her house. In the meantime, I’m all on my own between people who either hate me or pretend I don’t exist.

The familiar jabs begin.

“She thinks she’s all pretty now?”

“Once fat, always fat, Kimberly.”

“Look at those thighs.”

“Elsa’s little bitch.”

My skin prickles the more their words seep under it. I try to tune them out, but like the fog, they’re impossible to ignore. They keep multiplying by the second, heightening and filling my head with those thoughts.

The grey ones that taste like bitterness and burn like acid.

No one cares about you.

You’re a nobody. Absolutely nothing.

I shake my head as I cut the distance towards the classroom. They will not get to me.

Not today, Satan. Go crawl into your little hole.

This has been my school for three years, but I’ve never once felt as if I belong in this place.

I turned eighteen a few days ago and I celebrated my birthday on Elsa’s sickness bed with Kir by my side and Dad on Skype.

No matter how old I am, it never gets easy to walk these halls, to let the knives stab me with each word out of their malicious mouths.

I wonder if they’re seeing the blood following me like a trail or if I’m the only one.

My fingers snake to my wrist, then I quickly drop my hand to my side.

For Kir, I repeat the mantra in my mind. You’re doing this for Kir.

If I get a good college and a scholarship, I’ll be able to afford a private dorm and take Kir with me, because there’s no way in fuck I’m leaving him with Mum once I’m in college.

The voices around me start blurring into themselves and I lift my head high as I put one foot in front of the other.

They’re nothing.

They’re just a ramification of the fog and I always beat down that damn fog.

Except once.

Okay, twice, and Kir witnessed one of them.

“Scarce, fucker.”

My feet come to a halt on their own accord at that voice. That strong, low voice that’s been a constant in my dreams.

And my nightmares.

Okay, my nightmares more than my dreams.

That cruel voice has ended my life over and over again when he could’ve saved me. Instead of letting me hold on to him, he left me for dead.

That voice isn’t only a part of nightmares, he’s a nightmare all on his own.

The earth tilts off balance as I lift my head. I have to keep reminding myself that gravity exists and I won’t actually fall over.

That he doesn’t matter. He stopped mattering that day seven years ago.

But maybe I’m only fooling myself, because even though I see him every day – or rather, avoid him – his view never gets more familiar or easier or fucking normal.

But there’s nothing normal about Xander Knight. He was born to become part of the elite, the ones who crush others under their boots and don’t look back at the damage. He’s one of the kings who leave chaos and heartbreak