Broken Knight (All Saints High, #2)

by L.J. Shen

“Nah. It’s cool. My fault. You need to be a special type of stupid to allow yourself to feel for your best friend what I felt for you.”

“You’re killing me, Luna Rexroth.”

“I’m killing you, Knight? Have you ever stopped to wonder that maybe, just maybe, you killed me a long time ago?”

“Every day at school, your arm slung over a different girl’s shoulder? Every time you smirked at your phone, texting someone else? Tenth grade, Jamie Percy yelled in the cafeteria that you took her virginity in the back of your car. Eleventh grade, your parents were called into school because there was a rumor going around that you’d initiated a threesome with two seniors. I died a thousand deaths before I inflicted the slightest of pain on your beautiful, tarnished heart.”

“You slept with so many girls, Knight. Arabella. Shay. Belle. Dana. Fiona. Ren. Janet. Staci. Dozens of them. Or was it hundreds? Wait, there was also Hannah. Kristen. Sarah. Kayla—” “Enough!” he roared.

“Funny story time, Luna. You may want to sit down for this one. There were, as it happens, no other girls. None. I actually waited for you. I’m. A. Goddamn. Fucking. Virgin! Let that sink in for a second.”

“Those stories you’ve heard? That was all they are. Stories. I saved myself for you like a goddamn Jonas brother. Forgive me for not wearing a purity ring and shitting all over my reputation just to appease your never-ending, silent demands that I need somehow, miraculously, to predict.”

“The only reason I even associated myself with girls was so I wouldn’t get shit from my friends, and to take some of the pressure off of you—so you didn’t think you were holding me back or something. Because, as a matter of fact, you were. I’ve been holding back for so long, you feel like a chain. A heavy, metal chain. I want to rip you apart, Luna Rexroth. I’ve been wanting to break away from you for a long fucking time, but you’re stronger than me. Than this.” He motioned between us, finally collapsing on the tattered couch, exhausted.

“I appreciate that you saved yourself for me, but how was I supposed to know this? By the power of telepathy? The rumors were relentless, and you made out with Arabella in front of my face. Hell, you had Poppy’s tongue shoved so far down your throat I was afraid she’d scoop out your tonsils in one picture. She posted it on Instagram. And what about all the girls I smelled on you when you came to sleep at my place? I had no reason to believe you were anything less than a walking, talking, sexually transmitted disease.”

I didn’t even know her until two weeks ago, and I’m definitely, definitely not dating her.”

I wanted to fall down to my knees and beg for his forgiveness, tell him Josh was great, but he wasn’t him. That he was the one. That he’d brought his point home. And, for the first time in seventeen years, I could tell him all those things. I could speak to Knight, even if to no one else. If I was being honest with myself, there was no one else I’d rather speak to than him. He was the center of my world.

“Do you love him?” Knight asked. I shook my head. “No. ...

You were never the safe option. You are so risky, the idea of you makes my heart squeeze in my chest.

“The first words she ever speaks to me in her life, and she decides to break my heart with them. For the longest time, I wished I could unthink you. Unlove you. Unbreathe you. I think I finally can.”

“Please,” I whispered. “Please, Knight.” “You have a beautiful voice.”

He pressed his lips to my hair. “Remember when I told you I always get even?” I blinked. When had he said that? The treehouse. Yes. I nodded, defeated. “Well, Moonshine, it’s payback time.”

Not talking felt like living inside a snow globe, with a thick layer of protection against the world. I knew I could, but at this point, it felt almost redundant to do so. No one expected me to talk. In a way, every day I didn’t utter a word felt like an accomplishment. A competition between me and myself. But with Knight, I broke all the rules. I wanted his attention, his forgiveness, his everything.

“How have you been?” I asked at the same time he said, “You need to stop calling me, Luna.”

“Moonshine,” he pushed through the fog in my head, pulling me back to reality. “Give it a rest. You’re poking the bear.” “You didn’t even say anything about my talking,” I sulked, feeling the anger clogging my throat.

“I always knew you’d talk, and not just to me. To everyone. I watched you crawl out of your shell, and it was slow, but by fucking God, it was beautiful.

It just happened that the only boy I cared about was finally taking a step back, and now I knew how much he’d meant to me.

I heard a dark chuckle coming from the other end of the line. “Have a good night, Moonshine.” Knight’s voice turned metallic before the line went dead.

“I know you said Knight is the one, and I respect that,” he signed. “But would you ever give me a chance to try to be that other one? The second big love? The one you end up marrying? Because I’d like to apply.”

“If you disrespect my daughter again, in public or in private, I will spear your fucking head to my fence and feed the rest of you to the coyotes.”

I’d lied. I didn’t want to get even. I didn’t want to hurt her. But I was done letting her hurt me, and that was something.

“Yeah. Heroin is made out of Poppy. Coincidently, you bore me to death.”

She giggled. Her throat bobbed, and all I could think was, it’s just a throat. I didn’t want to kiss it. I didn’t want to trace it with my fingers. To strangle it. To cover every inch of it with my tongue and lips and teeth, like I’d imagined whenever I’d looked at Luna.

But don’t you dare show Knight that you care about this bitch. That’s exactly what he wants—a reaction out of you.”

Was this him getting even? Did he still want to hurt me? I liked it better back when Knight would have chopped his own leg off before inflicting pain on me.

Hunter squeezed my shoulder and whistled low. “I have to say—every girl at this party is wearing a gown more expensive than the other, but you, Rexroth, look like an enchanting Lolita, even in your pajamas.”

I flipped him the finger, instead.

“It’s not pajamas, you wasted pile of scum. Don’t you dare patronize her,” Knight hissed through gritted teeth, heat radiating from his body.

“So, are you kids bumping uglies?” She pointed between Lenny and Hunter, obviously adding fuel to the fire.

“I can get a place in heaven, can’t I, Sunshine?” Sunshine. I was Moonshine, and she was Sunshine.

“You seem to be taking Knight’s antics in stride. I’m proud of you. I thought you’d cower and break. You proved to be more resilient than I gave you credit for.”

My heart quickened. I wanted to step away. To turn my back on him and leave. To run back to my house. But running away from problems was getting old, and had proved to be destructive.

“The sacrifices we have to make to put things back in order,” he explained. “You wanted me gone,” I reminded him. “I wanted you strong,” he amended. “You were no match for Knight, which was why you didn’t have the balls to go after him.” “And now?”

“Now the jury’s out, and it’s your job to prove it.”

“Besides, this is about you, not me.” “Knight doesn’t want me anymore,” I signed.

“You know, Luna, people dislike me because I fight mean. With no mercy. But what they don’t get is that terror and arousal are very similar. Same adrenaline. Same incentive. Same reaction. What do you say, Rexroth? Are you ready to fight back?”

Before the meaning of his words could register, Vaughn leaned down and pressed his lips to mine ever so softly. We hovered between a kiss and breathing each other in, our eyes still open, but I didn’t pull back. Didn’t push him away.

Vaughn kissed the corner of my lips, murmuring, “You are delectable, Luna Rexroth. I could devour you an...

“Careful, Cole. You’re a taken man now. I wonder what your girlfriend is going to think about your little outburst. I was just kissing a perfectly single, shit-hot girl.”

“Traitor!” Knight screamed in his face. Vaughn straightened. “Traitor, as in I hooked up with the girl you love and now you’re salty?” Vaughn asked conversationally. Oh, God.

“Yeah.” Knight flashed a wolfish grin. “Exactly like that. You made Luna go to Boon.” His entire body shook with rage, a stark contrast to his schooled features. “Po...

“You babied her. You weren’t equals, and therefore couldn’t be together. I sent her on her way, and look at her now. All grown up and ready to face you. Where’s my thank you?”

“I’m going to kill you,” Knight whispered.

I didn’t want to move on with Josh, but that didn’t mean I didn’t have the right to. Knight and I had never been together, and he was now seeing someone else. He had no right to be mad. I grabbed Knight’s bicep, trying to pull him away from Vaughn.

“Stop being a hypocrite,” I yelled in his face, unable to take it anymore. “You have a girlfriend now. You moved on. You don’t have the right to get mad when I kiss other people. You don’t own me.”

“Say something,” Vaughn ordered, clamping a hand on my shoulder. “To me, Luna.”