Chapter 7 #2
He gripped my hands tighter. “I know it’s a lot to take in, and that’s part of why I hadn’t planned to share any of this with you.
Not yet, at least. But I told you, I need you to see—to understand—what’s at stake.
This thing we’re all doing? The challenges and The Quest?
They’re part of a much larger game. Everyone at Camelot Court is a piece on the board, and I—we are all pawns.
The petty rivalries, jealousy, and competition?
They’re nothing, really. Not compared to the opponent we need to beat. ”
“Stop talking about this like it’s a game of chess. Kingston, you have a brand on your chest!”
“But it is like chess, Quinn. And it’s more than that.
It’s— Fuck . There’s so much I want to tell you, but you don’t—No one can even think I disagree with my father, or I not only lose the chance to stop him, but he will take out everyone who might be a threat.
I can’t put you in more danger than I already have by explaining more than that, but I needed you to see what he’s capable of because…
well, eventually, he’s going to meet you. And he can’t know?—”
He ran his hands through his hair again.
Terrified.
“Please, I need you to trust me when I tell you I’m handling this the only way I know how. And I’m doing my best, but?—”
I took his hand from where he’d fisted it in his hair. “I hear you.”
He exhaled and nodded. “When he comes to Pendragon, it won’t be the way it’s been so far. He has to believe there’s nothing I value more than Camelot Court and his approval. I don’t know what that will mean, but I need you to be prepared.”
“What happens if he finds out?”
“He’ll take everything I love and destroy it. Those were his words when he told me about the engagement.”
I cursed this man, hating him more than anyone I’d ever met without laying eyes on him. But that was the point of Kingston showing me this, wasn’t it?
I’d been taught to speak up when injustice occurred. When something like this happened. Raised to stand up for myself.
It was what made me such a joy to have as a Maiden, I assumed.
And if I’d laid eyes on Kingston’s father without seeing what he was capable of, I would’ve launched myself at him. But now…
Well, I still wanted to claw at him, but I’d hesitate, at least. And, for Kingston’s sake, I’d rein in my need for blood.
But doing nothing…it felt wrong.
“I don’t like this at all.”
He hung his head. “I know. I hate even showing you this?—”
Dr. Barrow opened the door before he could finish, and I stepped aside to let her tend to his wound.
When she finished bandaging him up, she asked me to step outside for the last part of her exam.
I hoped she was driving home that Kingston should report this, but I didn’t know if she would.
If he’d been a patient of hers for so long, she knew he’d suffered abuse as a child, and he was still there, either her resources had been extremely limited, he’d made it impossible somehow, or she just hadn’t cared past mandated reporting.
My interactions with her thus far hadn’t suggested the last one, but a doctor being nice didn’t always mean they cared. What anyone presented on the surface could be so far beyond who they really were.
Fortunately, I got the answer when she left the room, right before she allowed me to go back inside.
She gripped my arm. “He needs to report this, or let me do it. I tried when he was a child, but his mother stopped bringing him to see me. The last time I tried, he came on his own, right before he turned eighteen. Deep down, I think he knew that I’d need to report it, then.
But nothing ever came of it, and now, I can’t do it without his consent. If you can convince him?—”
“I’ll get him out. I promise.”
“Sweetheart, when I met you, you’d just been drugged. By the same people who abuse him, I’d reckon. I want you both out.” She cursed under her breath. “Please come to me if either of you needs help. He won’t do that because I have a family, but I took an oath. And if you were my kids…”
I thought about what Mr. V had said to me on the phone.
“You’d want someone to do the same. I get it.”
Her grip tightened, giving my arm a quick squeeze. “Please take care of yourself.”
“I will. And I’ll ask for help when we need it. I promise.”
She wasn’t fully satisfied, but it must’ve been better than Kingston’s response because she let me go.
When I reentered the room, Kingston’s eyes were already on the door. “Did she plead her case with you?”
I nodded, unsure what to say. I understood her concern. But neither of us knew Drake D’Arthur the way Kingston did.
“Quinn, if you need help, do what Miss Alice told you and ask for Nanny. She can help more than Dr. Barrow can, and I won’t put an innocent woman or her family at risk. I almost did that…but I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to her or her children because she tried to help me.”
“Why does Dr. Barrow know so much?” My brow dipped. “Why come to her now?”
“She was friends with my mother. And, unfortunately, no one at Pendragon can prescribe antibiotics without my father finding out about it.”
“But he branded you! He didn’t think you’d need medicine?”
Kingston shrugged, his expression hard as he buttoned his shirt. “In his eyes, sickness is weakness. Meant to weed out those who can’t survive on their own. Others agree.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but he shook his head.
“Trust me, I’m not one of those people. It’s…actually why I’m studying medicine. Why I’m really studying it, since I had to tell him it was a business decision and a way to expand our reach.”
“More like a way to access drugs that would knock him on his ass” I spat. Venom laced through my humorless laugh. “At least, I hope that’s the plan. So, we can get rid of him.”
It came out as a bloodthirsty joke, a way to feel like I had some control over a situation desperately spinning out of my grasp, but he responded seriously.
“Of course, it is. If it comes to that.”
A part of me wanted to be the voice of reason, state for the sake of saying it that murder was wrong, and I hoped it wouldn’t come to that. Blah, blah, blah.
Mostly so Kingston wouldn’t have it on his conscience.
But I couldn’t bring myself to do it after seeing the mark seared into his chest. I couldn’t do it while it echoed deep within my chest, either. As if his pain was mine.
I just wanted to fight it.
In that moment, certainty coursed through me.
I’d do whatever had to be done to stop Drake D’Arthur from hurting Kingston again—from hurting anyone—however we had to do that.
Whatever the price, I’d pay it.
To get us all to the end.