Chapter Thirty-Four
QUINN
L andon and I spent the whole day together, until that evening when he had to leave again. All the Knights had to help set up for the next day. The Knights’ Quorum.
I couldn’t believe twenty days had passed already, and that this part of The Quest was finally coming to an end.
Everything felt different.
I felt different.
Deciding to walk around the campus grounds one more time before we left for Pendragon Estate, I packed my clutch with my essentials. I put the inhaler in there out of habit. But I hadn’t needed it all day. At least, not more than once this morning like I was supposed to use it.
A part of me believed Landon was right. That, while I had asthma, the attacks I’d had since my dad died where I felt like I couldn’t breathe had stemmed from panic.
But still, I felt better with it close by.
Hearing something and trusting it were too completely separate things.
Leaving the house through the front doors, I took the path going in the opposite direction from the Round Tableau building. The way I’d run from Brutus. Thankfully, the giant dog was still nowhere in sight.
I walked past my lemon tree. Not realizing I’d claimed it as my own until I called it that in my head. Heading down the sloping hill toward the lake, I gazed out over the water.
The moon reflected across the surface, calling to me and pulling my body forward.
Voices to my left distracted me.
Rushed whispers and hissing remarks as whoever was over there argued.
“We need to do it now.” Recognition tugged at my senses.
“This doesn’t feel right.”
A shaky voice responded. “Yeah, I’m with Inez.”
“What the fuck is this?”
At that louder, shriller reply, I distinctly recognized the voice and stepped forward—like an idiot who’d never seen a suspenseful movie and yelled at the actors on the screen for doing the same thing. Wondering what the hell Vivian was up to, though, I had to get closer.
“You two idiots are acting like you don’t understand the stakes here. We were given a job to do. If she?—”
My foot crunched on a stray branch.
A loud, hissing shush sounded from the trees. My head scanned my surroundings, trying to find a place to hide. As their footsteps approached, I jumped between the rows of kayaks and paddle boards, crouching down and out of sight.
“What was that?” one of the girls—Inez, maybe—asked. “I don’t see anyone.”
Silence followed.
But if I listened hard enough, I picked up the soft brush of light footsteps as they crept toward my hiding place. I wasn’t sure why I was hiding to begin with, but at this point, I’d committed. Plus, the things they said before I gave myself away hadn’t sounded like plans for friendship-bracelet-making time.
Whatever they planned to do, it wasn’t right. And I couldn’t bring myself to walk away and do nothing. At least, that had been the thought before I stepped on the twig and alerted them to my presence. Now, I just didn’t like being outnumbered.
Peeking through the lake equipment, I could see the lights of the Round Tableau building blinking across the way and the main house illuminated on the top of the small hill. But no one was around. No one would be able to help me if these girls decided to gang up on me.
Could I take them all? Probably not.
Could I outrun them? Maybe.
Was I spiraling in anxiety? Yes.
“Let’s go,” Vivian’s cold, high voice rang out in the silence. “No one’s out here. It was probably a squirrel or something, you big babies.”
“But—”
“I said, let’s go. We have things to do, and you’ve wasted enough of my time.”
Footsteps retreated up the hill, but I didn’t leave my hiding place until at least ten minutes had passed once they fell quiet. Sliding out from between the racks, I stayed low to the ground and hunted for a sign they remained nearby.
When I didn’t see them, I breathed a sigh of relief.
Having seen more than enough on my last walk around campus, I decided to head back inside before I wound up in trouble.
But before I could even stand up, arms grabbed me from behind.
“Hel—” I tried to scream, but a large hand covered my face.
“Knock her out,” Vivian ordered.
The hand over my mouth and nose disappeared. I gasped for breath right before it cut off my air again.
A sharp and familiar scent filling my nose, it lingered with a hint of spice.
When a cloth covered my face, the scent was gone. But I held my breath just in case. Breathing in that cloth could leave me helpless.
And I refused to be helpless.
I fought harder against my attacker. Digging my nails into the arms around me. Stomping on their feet. A high-pitched voice shrieked. Someone else screamed. And the grip on my body slackened.
So, I rammed my elbow back as hard as I could.
They released me
I pitched forward and fell on the grass. Barely getting my arms out in time to brace my fall, I landed hard. My knees hit the ground and pain reverberated up my wrists.
But before I could turn over to face my attackers, a hand seized hold of my hair. It yanked hard and sent me flying backward.
I cried out, crashing into the ground with a thud.
Vivian glared down at me.
“Fuck!” I shouted. “What the fuck, you psycho bitch?”
When she leaned down to get in my face, I took the opportunity she presented as quickly as I could. My hand swiped across her face. And I sent thanks to a black credit card for the nails digging deep into her skin.
She screamed and covered her cheek.
Breathing hard, I rolled over and pushed to my feet.
“Stop her!” Vivian shrieked.
Before I could see who they were, her minions grabbed my arms and wrenched them behind my back. Vivian tore toward me, grabbing my hair again and yanking me forward. Dragging her friends with me, she dodged my attempts to bite her arm—the only way I saw to get free—and nearly ripped my hair out.
My scar burned. And although my teeth finally sank into her forearm, it was too late.
We reached the water’s edge.
Vivian shoved me down to my knees. “Hold her fucking still!”
“You’re going to pay for this, Vivian! He’s not?—”
She plunged my face into the water. Holding me down as I writhed and flailed and tried everything I could to get away. A heel digging into my back made me cry out.
And a rush of water flooded my throat.
Pulling me up, Vivian’s palm struck my face.
I choked and spluttered, coughing until I cleared the water from my lungs. Gasping for air, fighting for another breath, Vivian’s cruel smile shone in the moonlight before she commanded her friends.
“Do it again.”
They hesitated. And Vivian shoved my head back under the water herself.
I screamed before I hit the surface, but no one would hear me.
We were too far away. They were inside.
But still, I cried out.
All it did was send water rushing down my throat.
I clamped my mouth shut as I tried to fight my way out of their hold.
Coughing and choking when they pulled me up again, I tried to scream, but I couldn’t get the water out of my lungs fast enough. I retched and heaved, and a heavy hand smacked my back. Forcing the water out, I was finally able to breathe in.
“He isn’t going to do anything, Princess.”
Vivian sneered as blood dripped down her cheek. She got so close I couldn’t help myself.
I spit in her face.
She recoiled. Slapping her hand across my cheek so hard, pain ricocheted across my skull. “You fucking bitch!”
Her knee connected with my stomach, hitting my diaphragm and seizing my lungs in an iron grip.
I slumped forward. Her friends barely held my arms, but it didn’t matter. I was too worn out to stand. My lungs were too weak. There was no way I could run and get away.
“You’re fucking pathetic,” Vivian snarled. “What the fuck these idiots see in you, I have no idea. Like being a loser with her virginity intact is so goddamn special. It makes me fucking sick!” she shrieked, pacing in front of me and darting her gaze between her two friends and my limp body. “We need to get rid of her.”
“V, I don’t know,” the friend on my left spoke, her grip tightening on my arm out of fear—not force. “We didn’t sign up for this.”
That voice. I recognized it, too. But I couldn’t place it. My head pounded and my brain felt like it had been waterlogged. Blinking up at the girl, my eyes blurred with water and tears. I couldn’t see her.
“Oh, shut the fuck up, Elaine.”
Pain and shock cut through me.
But Vivian didn’t stop there.
“This was what you wanted, right? She’s standing between you and Landon, and she doesn’t belong here. That’s what you said, right?”
Elaine’s grip on my arm squeezed tighter. “I wasn’t expecting this. I wasn’t talking about anything like this, Vivian!”
“Oh, make up your mind, you big baby.” Vivian stepped closer to me, her hand clenching at the neck of my shirt. “Not that I even get what you’re worried about in the first place. You know Landon won’t sleep with her. No one shirks an order from the King. Not even his best friend. And she’s the prize he decided he wants at the end.”
Vivian sneered down at me, twisting her grip to tighten my shirt around my throat. I choked, and she twisted harder.
“Landon only picked her because he wasn’t given a choice. You know if he takes The King’s Maiden for himself, he ruins them both.”
My head throbbed. I groaned, unable to stifle the sound as what she said boomeranged in my head. Squinting up at her, the smug, satisfied smile that crept over her face sent a chill down my spine.
“Did you know that, Princess?” she spat Max’s nickname for me like it tasted vile on her tongue. “Did you know Landon won’t fuck you because he would never choose you over Kingston? He can have his way with you however he pleases. Tie you up. Explore your limits. Even put those pretty marks on your neck. But did you know that’s where it ends?”
I glared up at her.
“Oh…Of course, you didn’t. You’re probably so desperate for love you believed he wanted you.”
She patted my cheek softly before giving me a harder slap, keeping one hand on my shirt and using the other to grip my chin.
“Thought you’d waltz in here and take what belongs to one of us—what we’ve waited for since we were old enough to learn about The Quest? A poor little girl with no parents, no family? Please.”
Her nails dug into my cheeks as she pulled my head up, forcing it back until my neck throbbed.
I cried out when it finally became too much.
“He was never yours,” she hissed. “And in the end, none of them will be. Because all of this will all be mine.”
Throwing my head back, she let go of my face and grabbed me by the shoulders. She dragged me forward, down to the ground.
My head hit the shore. Black spots burst behind my eyelids as I landed on wet sand.
“Leave her.” Vivian’s steps retreated, but her voice snapped through the cold, quiet night. “Let’s go. Now, Elaine!”
Their footsteps faded. Their whispered voices disappeared as they argued over what they’d done. Slowly, the world fell silent. The only sounds around me were the lapping of the lake and the breeze through the trees.
And the pounding rush of blood past my ears.
I struggled to catch my breath. Water rushed into my face, and I almost inhaled more before it ebbed. Pushing up onto shaking arms, I used my legs to drag my body away from the shore.
When I reached the grass, I sank into the damp earth and waited. My head throbbed with pain and the weight of everything she’d said.
But eventually, I could breathe again.
Pushing past the pain, I got to my feet. I wrapped my arms around my body to keep from shivering. Soaked through to the bone, I couldn’t stop it.
My mind raced through my options.
Who I could go to after what had just happened.
Who had told me I could come to them.
I wanted to confront Kingston about what Vivian had said. I wanted to demand to know Landon’s secrets. But they’d already fooled me once and in that moment, I didn’t trust myself to face them and not be blinded by their lies again.
And I wanted them to pay for that.
Revenge made me think of Max, knowing he could help me hurt them back. I could hit them all with one move. And maybe that would ease the stabbing pain in my chest.
Their deceit uncoiled something poisonous inside me.
I needed to get the fuck out of there. I needed to leave before I couldn’t turn back.
But I decided to make that one stop first.
Raising my fist over the heavy wooden door, I barely tapped before it swung open.
As expected, he wasn’t with the others.
His eyes widened as soon as he opened the door, burning with anger and concern as he opened his mouth to speak. But I didn’t give him the chance to do it.
I walked forward into the room, forcing him back inside.
“You said I could come to you. If he—” I drew in a shaky breath. “You were right.”
And I let the door shut behind me.