A red car comes out, slow at first, then it gains speed on the exit. Their garage door hisses open and I freeze.

I hate it when he chooses the boys over me. Maybe he doesn’t want to play with me today. It’s the afternoon, so maybe he’s with Aiden and Cole. Still sucking on my gelato, I rise to my feet and take slow but determined steps until I’m out of our garden’s gate. The boy with golden hair and magical blue eyes, like the stories in Nana’s books. He always tickles me and tells me jokes until I break down in giggles. Silver doesn’t care when I’m upset, but he does. I even blessed him with a bamboo stick as the queen does. We agreed on that last week – that from now on, he’s my knight. I want to go there, knock on the door, and ask him to come out. It has an ancient feeling, like those castles from Nana’s stories – the ones where knights and princes live. My gaze strays ahead to the huge mansion across from ours. If I weren’t so upset, I would’ve gone to her house and played with her Barbie dolls, but I don’t want to go anywhere. Silver says all gelato tastes the same, but Silver is stupid sometimes. I flop down on the step and lick on the pistachio gelato stick Dad bought me earlier. No one can hear them now, not the staff, not the neighbours. The sound of Mum and Dad’s fighting follows me until I close the door behind me. The sun is so bright today, casting a bright hue all over the garden and the fence. I trot down the house’s stairs until I’m outside. Worlds filled with so much magic, I dream of them. There’s no one to take me away from here or tell me stories that transport me to other worlds. At least back then, I could stay away from Mummy and how she looked at me.

Nana used to tell me that when I spent summers with her in Newcastle. Sometimes, stories end the moment they start.

Black knight royal elite