Enchant the Night - Amanda Ashley Page 0,88

in front of the entrance was a single Knight clad in a long, gray cloak and armed with a heavy, silver, double-bladed sword and a shield painted red and black.

And sitting at his feet, a black feline with golden-yellow eyes.

Callie stared at the cat, then shook her head. It couldn’t be.

Could it?

Chapter 37

Quill swore under his breath as he met Callie’s gaze. “What the hell is your grandmother doing here?”

“Are you sure it’s her? I know she was secretly married to a Knight once. But she said he died a long time ago. Why would she be here now?”

“I’m an idiot,” he muttered. “I should have put two and two together when I read her letter to you. Dammit, she knew where this place was the whole time.”

Callie stared at the cat. Was it really Ava? And if so, why hadn’t she recognized her grandmother’s magic?

Callie felt a moment of shock as she realized that her magic had overpowered Ava’s. How was that possible? She was still trying to make sense of it when the Knight in the gray cloak took a step forward.

“He must be the Elder Knight,” Quill murmured. “Be careful.”

“How dare you violate our Sanctuary!” The Elder Knight’s voice, low and deep, rumbled like thunder. “Why have you come?”

“I came seeking a truce,” Quill replied, his voice equally powerful.

“A truce?” the Elder Knight scoffed. “Impossible.”

“There is no reason for your people to hunt mine. My kind are no threat to humanity, as well you know. The feud between us should have ended centuries ago. It is only your hatred keeping it alive.”

“You and your kind are an abomination!”

Quill’s eyes narrowed ominously. “Then it will be war. I’m tired of being hunted. I’m tired of killing your Knights, like the two I dispatched earlier tonight. So, let us end it here and now. Just you and me, one on one. If I win, your people will stop hunting us.”

“And if I win?”

“You won’t.”

The Elder Knight snorted. “If you think your witch can defeat me, you are sorely mistaken. I have an enchantress of my own.”

Callie stared at the cat. Ava was the black witch of the Dark Wood? How could that be? Ava had never practiced black magic. Had she? Callie shook her head. Was that why she hadn’t recognized Ava’s magic when they’d approached the cave? And if Ava was the Elder Knight’s witch, whose side would she be on if Quill and the Elder Knight decided to fight?

Callie looked up at Quill and knew his thoughts were traveling along the same path as her own. “Do you really think you can defeat him?” she whispered.

“If he plays fair. Which he won’t.”

“Why do the Knights hate your people?”

“I told you, it’s because we can mate with humans. But I suspect the real reason has been lost in antiquity.”

“The reason matters not,” the Elder Knight exclaimed, his face growing dark with rage. “We have sworn an oath to destroy your kind from the face of the earth, and we will do it or perish in the attempt!”

And so saying, he launched himself at Quill, his double-bladed sword slashing through the air.

Quill pushed Callie out of the way, narrowly ducking aside in time to avoid the Elder Knight’s blade.

Callie gasped as a number of other Knights emerged from the bowels of the cave. With a cry, she lifted her wand as she uttered the words of an incantation that, to her surprise, stopped the Knights in their tracks. She stared at them, surprised that the spell had worked since they were all wearing medallions.

Why had it worked?

She glanced at the cat, still sitting quietly at the cave’s entrance. Was it really Ava? And if so, had she revoked the protective spell on the medallions? Whether she had or not, it didn’t matter now. Nothing mattered but Quill.

She bit down on her lower lip as he effortlessly avoided the Elder Knight’s blade, and then, in a move almost too swift to follow, he darted toward one of the other Knights and wrenched the man’s sword from his hand.

And suddenly the fight was on even ground.

Callie watched in quiet amazement as vampire and Knight engaged in a lethal battle that was silent save for the ringing of metal against metal as their blades came together time and again. It was a beautiful, deadly dance. Minutes passed, and neither man seemed to tire. Focused solely on each other, they might have been the only two people on the face of the earth.

It