Page 59 of Wicked Knight

Soon.

The word is bittersweet in my mind, like acid mixed with honey.

Mackenzie Domachenkov may just be the one thing in this world I want that I can’t have. But that’s not going to stop me from trying.

She’s still mine.

Chapter Twelve

Mackenzie

The sharp autumn air wraps around me from the sidelines, mingling with the waning sun. It bites at my cheeks, but I barely feel it. All my focus is onhim.

Dmitri is standing in the center of the football field looking like a god amongst mortals. His dark jersey clings to his frame, stretched over those broad shoulders and a chest carved from defiance.

Watching him is the only thing keeping me tethered to reality. Watching him and seeing he’s really there. Not a figment of my imagination like the fantasies I’ve conjured over the last few days.

Everything that’s not him—my surroundings, the noise of the crowd, the cold—fades into nothing.

Today is Thursday. Tomorrow will be a week since we last saw each other. It’s hard to believe so much time has gone by.

I didn’t know that day in the locker room was going to be one of those pivotal moments where I should have taken what I could from him instead of trying to convince him to free me from the contract.

The next morning, I woke to a folded note slipped under my door with the wordsoonwritten in the centre.

I knew it was from him and that I wouldn’t see him anytime soon.

That single word has haunted me ever since.

It’s another cruel joke. There I was, spending the summer going through all sorts of emotions and finally settling on the decision to be free of him.

Now I’ve done a full one-eighty in my head and my heart.

I want nothing more than to turn back the clock and put us right back in that shower cubicle where we devoured each other.

If I’d known a week was going to fly by where I wouldn’t see him, speak to him, or hear him call me Spider, I wouldn’t have wasted time with words.

This situation here, where I’m standing with the cheerleaders and he’s out there with his team—and we’re acting like strangers—is how we were before the contract.

This was what I was asking for when I asked him to release me. Returning to a world where we can’t touch.

It sucks, and I hate it.

Something must have happened between Dmitri and his father last week. Something that’s made him stay away.

It must have had something to do with his father almost catching us and perhaps the dinner he went to.

He said he’d find me next time.

I wish I knew when that was going to be. And how long is soon?

I’ve never been more conflicted in my life.

I’ve had little to no sleep over the last few nights. I was either thinking about Dmitri or waking in a sweat from the crazy nightmares—the same nightmares that haunted me after Tommy died.

It’s probably because I’m so stressed out. Or because of this new thing with Dmitri.

After the incident, my therapists thought the nightmares came because my mind tried to unlock itself. But to this day, whatever is hiding there doesn’t want to be found.

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