Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
After my run with Landon, I went to the sitting room for Strategy with Peter. When I entered, I realizedI hadn’t lamented the walk over. While I wasn’t surprised that even a food poisoning outbreak wouldn’t save me from chess, I was weirdly looking forward to my lesson.
Peter sat at the table, so I smiled at him but I didn’t sit down right away. I went to the picture wall.
He joined me as I examined the row of photos. “Looking for something in particular?”
I held out the photo clue for him to see it. “That statue. It’s not there anymore. I’m trying to figure out when it was last pictured in the photos.”
Peter glanced up at the wall of photos. “I don’t remember the year, but it was moved to the Round Tableau.”
“It was?”
He nodded. “It’s still there, hidden in one of the alcoves. The pledges carve their names into it.”
My eyes widened. It might have the clue I needed from the pledges I’d met outside the Round Tableau. The next stop on my journey through who had seen me at Camelot Court.
“Thank you so much!”
Without thinking, I threw my arms around Peter and hugged him. He stiffened, and I instantly pulled back.
“Oh, my gosh. I’m so sorry.”
He smiled, his cheeks reddening as he cleared his throat. “It’s alright. Just unexpected.” His brow furrowed. “I honestly can’t remember the last time someone did that.”
My face fell and my heart broke a little for him. I held out my arms. “May I?”
He eyed my open arms warily before nodding.
I gave him a careful, friendly hug. “Thank you for your help through this challenge. And for teaching me to love chess a little bit. My dad—” That time, I cleared my throat and blushed. “Well, it just means a lot to me, so thank you.”
As I stepped back, Peter smiled wider. “Thank you, too.”
“For what?”
He shrugged, shuffling his feet as he stuck his hands in his pockets. “The hug.”
When I smiled, he returned it before gesturing at the table for me to take my seat.
Half-way through our first game, I picked up the Knight on the King’s right. I moved it in an L-shape, like Peter had taught me, and I cleared a pawn off the board.
As he’d also instructed, I kept my fingers on the Knight after I set it down. He’d explained once I released the piece, I couldn’t take back the move.
Except, I wasn’t second-guessing.
I got lost in thoughts as I stared between the Knight in my hand and the one on the other side of the King.
“Quinn?”
“Sorry, I—” I wrinkled my forehead, staring from his blue eyes back to the piece.
Peter’s hand touched the board beside mine, lifting my gaze. “Is everything okay?”
Tightening my grip on the Knight I held, I glanced at the one beside my Queen. “Why are there two of each piece flanking the King and Queen? Two Knights, for example?”
Peter studied my face, and then the board, before smiling.
“Balance. Having two of each helps control the center of the board, which is important for strategy. Two Knights give the game more depth. It can be more dynamic from the start. You can launch coordinated attacks from both sides, defend on both sides…Plus, the Knights can jump over other pieces. It makes them really useful in beating an opponent.”
“What about the others?”
He touched one of each. “Bishops can only move on one colored square, as you know, so they’re less flexible. Rooks, though, especially early in the game, can reach a lot of squares from their starting position because square color doesn’t restrict their movement.”
“They play both sides?”
“Not really, no. They move like they do, but they belong to one. The color of the piece itself doesn’t change. Same as all the pieces. Even the Knights.”
I lifted my head, but Peter wasn’t looking at me.
He touched a black Knight on his side of the board, bringing mine to mind. Landon had always been my White Knight, and Max, the dark one.
Before I overthought that, Peter continued. “Then there’s ‘doubling,’ when they fall in a line, but that’s above your level of expertise right now.”
I muttered, “That won’t change anytime soon.”
“Don’t be so sure. You are improving, Quinn. Growth doesn’t always occur in leaps and bounds. It’s not linear or cut and dry. You’ve stopped pulling your fingers off the piece the second you move it, haven’t you?”
Glancing at the Knight still in my hand, I huffed a laugh. “I guess you’re right. And I’ve seen that with growth in real life, but I didn’t think it applied to chess.”
“Ah.” Peter leaned back with a grin. “But you’ve spent time with our dear friend, Kingston D’Arthur, haven’t you?”
“I have…”
“Well, then you should know better than most that life is all one giant chess game.”
I smiled because, while Kingston wouldn’t phrase it like that, he subscribed to the theory. “Yeah, and Camelot Court is chess on steroids.”
Peter laughed. “Yes, but with one caveat. An important one to remember…” His expression grew as serious as his tone. “The game inside Camelot Court doesn’t play by normal rules. The opponents on both sides of the board? They’ll wipe out all the pieces to control the outcome.”
“That’s…” I dropped my gaze to the board. “Why play? With opponents like that, where the pieces are just casualties, why even play the game?”
“Power. A thirst for victory. The spoils of winning a challenge. The list is endless.”
“I get that.” My brow furrowed as I thought of everyone else inside Camelot Court. “But I mean…”
As he picked up on my meaning, a haunted expression settled over his features, drawing a shiver down my spine. He forced a smile and a careless shrug of one shoulder. “Since when do the pieces on the board get a choice?”
I frowned, staring at all the pieces. “So…if the opponents want to play that kind of game, then so be it?”
“Pretty much. They can’t walk off the board. Sometimes, a piece is lost…” He cleared his throat, his eyes darting to the mauve couch as he adjusted his phrasing. “Under the furniture. Chewed up by the family pet, most likely. Not much better than staying on the board, if you ask me.”
“And the only way it changes is what? If someone faces the opponent with different intentions? Hoping for a clean game?”
He nodded.
“An opponent like that is hard to find when the rules have always been the same, though.”
I thought about Desi again. How similar we were in background, and how Kingston had picked her, too.
“But someone who hadn’t played their kind of game before…” I scrutinized him, aware this might be a trap, but trusting my gut. “Someone who’d grown up playing by different rules. They’d be the only one who could stop it, right?”
He dipped his chin, nodding without taking his eyes off mine. “We’ll see.”
After my lesson with Peter, I spent the next free period contemplating a way out of Elements training with Ben.
No luck there.
He walked up to where I sat on the patio, snapped his fingers, and barked over his shoulder, “Let’s go, charity.”
I didn’t move.
When he realized I hadn’t followed him, Ben spun around and gave me his best what the fuck face.
“Hello, did you hear me?” He gestured wildly with his hands. “Let’s go.”
“My name is Quinn.”
“What?”
“You called me Charity. My name is Quinn.”
With an exasperated groan, he leered at me. “I know your name, sweetheart. It was short for charity case. Now, get up. We have somewhere to be.”
He stalked away, and I took my sweet time rising from the table to follow him.
I caught up with him as he started the golf cart.
Just to be a pain, when he waved a hand over the seat beside him, I sat in the back. I earned a scoff and a creepy laugh.
“Your loss, dollface.”
“Where are you taking me?”
“Back to Winchester Hall.”
“Oh, perfect! I need to go check out something in the Round Tableau while we’re there.”
I strapped myself in, not trusting his ability to drive, and crossed my arms over my chest.
He eyed me over his shoulder, his gaze catching the seat belt. “That is perfect.”
With a cruel smile, he faced the front and took off before I had time to rethink my choices. He didn’t stop until we arrived in front of the fraternity house. And when he snapped his fingers again and demanded I get out, I didn’t budge.
“What is this, Ben? Why did you bring me here and why are you being creepy about it?”
“It’s a surprise.”
Despite how I swatted at his hands, he leaned in and unbuckled my belt for me. “Now, let’s go.”
He tapped his foot outside the golf cart while I considered my options, and the only reasonable choice was to let him think I’d go with him and take the golf cart.
It was fancier than the one I’d taken to Pendragon for the Honor challenge, with a nifty push-to-start button. All too easy to get going. Almost baiting me to try it.
With the alternative being time alone with him at a vacant Winchester Hall and taking my chances, I slid out and acted like I planned to follow him.
When he turned around, I jumped in the driver’s seat. Pushing the button and throwing it into drive, I slammed my foot on the gas pedal.
He yelled at me to stop, but I only pressed down harder.
I steered over the gravel path I’d taken on my first night to the Round Tableau, glancing over my shoulder once.
Even though he chased after me, his arms waving like a madman, he wouldn’t catch me.
I faced forward and swerved to avoid a branch, then tried to accelerate again.
But the golf cart wouldn’t go any faster.
The terrain must’ve been slowing it down, because at the next peek over my shoulder, Ben was too close for comfort.
“Go, you stupid cart!”
It slowed more as I reached the Round Tableau.
“What the fuck?” I cried, stomping on the pedal and checking the dash to figure out the problem.
When the cart slowed almost to a stop, footsteps pounded on the ground behind me.
I had to choose.
Giving up on the useless golf cart, I hopped out as soon as it slowed enough. The jolt as my feet hit the ground reverberated up my legs.
My knees wobbled, but I took off running.
Sharp, sudden pain shot through my skull.