Page 22 of Vicious Knight

Levgen and Mom had the room decorated for me. As these are the rooms you get to keep for the duration of your stay at Raventhorn you’re allowed to decorate to your taste.

Last night I was so tired and freaked from meeting with Thorne that I didn’t get to appreciate the beauty until I woke this morning.

Taking in the stunning beauty, I appreciate it again now, allowing it to calm me.

I head to the ensuite to shower and get ready for bed, then I eat the cake which tastes like a slice of heaven. I make a mental note to get the same cupcake tomorrow when I’m done with Professor Bates workshop.

To wrap up the evening I call Mom and Levgen and then Millicent, my friend from high school. She went to study at Cambridge in England.

We have a circle of four friends but I haven’t heard from the others. Honestly, I was closest to Millicent, so it’s okay that I’ve only been in touch with her.

The fact that she’s in England is the only easy thing about being at Raventhorn. It would have been harder to part ways if we’d planned to go to the same college and couldn’t.

At least I didn’t have to explain the Knights to my friends because people on the outside consider Raventhorn on par with the Ivy league colleges.

I get in my bed and find I can’t sleep. I just lie there thinking for hours.

I’m tired, but I can’t seem to summon sleep.

It’s a good thing classes don’t officially begin until next week or I’d be in trouble. There’s nothing worse than having a zombified mind when you’re trying to concentrate in class.

My thoughts drift to my father and I wonder how he is. I always think of him, especially in these quiet moments.

Moments when I see his face with that smile and the wealth of love in his eyes.

He loved me so much. But now he believes I’m dead.

It’s not the first time I’ve wondered how he took that news. I know it would have broken him.

Memories of that night I will never forget drift into my mind and I allow them to come.

I see myself as the little nine-year-old girl with her teddy bear. My father took me to work that night because Mom was working late.

She was a cardiothoracic surgeon in Russia. She got called in for an emergency.

I was only too happy to go to work with my father because he was at the palace in Moscow. Because of his role he’d move around a lot and I got to see some of the wonderful places he’d work at. The palace was my favorite.

I felt like a princess then too, roaming the halls with the tapestry on the walls and the crystal chandeliers hanging from the high ornate ceilings covered in paintings.

Dad put me to rest in one of the guest rooms.

“Off to bed with you now, little one.” He spoke to me in English sometimes because he wanted me to learn the language.

That’s why he also allowed me to call him Dad or Papa.

I begged for a story but he told me it was too late.

The last thing he said to me was he’d wake me up when Mom came to pick me up.

I fell asleep but the sound of gunfire that woke me. It sounded like a war zone. There were people screaming amongst the rattle of bullets firing.

I knew to hide if ever I heard anything like that. My father drilled it into my head. So I jumped off the bed and hid behind the secret wall behind the bookcase.

It had a little frosted window, so I was able to see what was going on.

I was just in time getting myself to safety. Not a minute later the door smashed open and two men came in, throwing punches at each other.

One was Michael, another guard who worked with my father. The other man was one I’d never seen before. He had a scar entrenched so deep across his face he looked monstrous.

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