Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty
I walked back up the driveway, with Kingston behind me.
He’d offered to drive, but I declined.
So, he pushed the bike, keeping his distance but making sure I wasn’t by myself. What he’d been so freaked out about, I didn’t know, and I couldn’t think about it.
As we approached Pendragon, Max and Landon pulled up in the golf cart. Landon drove while Max sat in the passenger seat with his arms crossed, looking furious about it.
Whatever happened between them hadn’t been good.
But they took one look at my face and instantly took up the guard at my side. Max wrapped his arms around me while Landon questioned Kingston about what was wrong. Whatever Kingston told him made Landon angry, and Max tensed.
“I want to go inside, Max. Just…leave it, please. For now.”
He studied my features, furious about whatever had hurt me and ready to jump at the chance to get between me and them.
But that wasn’t what I wanted.
“Please, Max.”
He nodded, towing me away from them and taking me up to my room. Without even having to ask, he hunted down my phone and handed it to me.
“Do you want me to stay, or do you need some time alone? I can be in my room, right next door, if you need anything.”
“Yeah, that would be good, I think. I need to talk to Gia. I’m sorry, I just?—”
“Hey.” He kissed my lips to silence me. “No need to explain.”
After he left, I sat on the bed and called Gia. I filled her in on everything Kingston had told me.
“Do you want me to come get you?”
I chewed my lip. “No, I don’t think so. I just…”
“It’s okay to be hurt by this but not want to leave, Quinn.”
“You don’t think I’d be stupid to forgive him for this?”
Gia thought about it, knowing better than to placate me.
“I think…you chose to stay accepting that there were secrets, things he was doing or had done that he couldn’t share.
But it sounds like, if you want more answers, he’ll give them to you.
And you said it didn’t feel like he was minimizing what happened, right? ”
“Oh, no. He definitely knows how bad this is. He’s not the jerk who always turned it around and made the fact that I was upset or hurt a me-problem.
My trust issues, my being closed off, etcetera, etcetera.
” Gia growled, as usual, and it made me smile despite myself.
“Kingston didn’t do any of that, and while it doesn’t absolve everything… ”
“It matters.”
“Yeah, and I know how awful his father is now. I’ve seen it. Heard it for myself.”
“You’re looking at the whole picture.” Gia gave me a sympathetic smile before looking at me expectantly. “And since it’s just us, you can admit it...”
I rolled my eyes. “Fine. I want the answers, too.”
“That’s fair.” She nodded, readjusting her position to get more comfortable on the couch. “So, take a minute. Focus on The Quest and what you have to do next, and then you decide when to get the answers.”
“We have a day off tomorrow to give the Knights time to set up for the second escape room, and to spend some time together. I’m weirdly looking forward to it after getting to know some of the other girls.”
Gia smiled. “Hey, that’s great! I mean, obviously, you need to tell them that the best friend spot in your lineup is taken, but we’re open to new members.”
“Of course,” I said seriously.
Pointing her finger, she pinned me with her stare. “If any bitches get overly friendly, you let me know. I’ll come pee on your leg or whatever. Mark my territory.”
“That’s so gross and yet, oddly heartwarming.”
She winked. “You love me.”
“I really, really do.”
We sat on the phone together a little longer, her sticking by my side while I got lost in my thoughts. When I yawned, she suggested I rest and call her the next day, if I needed her.
My sleep shirt was nowhere in sight, and I wanted to hunt down my Knights, but before I mustered the strength to get up, I closed my eyes and dozed off.
Waking once in the middle of the night, I went back to sleep with both my Knights at my side.
The next day, Max and Landon woke to find me already dressed and overly peppy after the night I’d had.
They watched me quietly as I bustled around the room, sorting through my clothes and distracting myself until it was time to meet the other Ladies for our day off.
Though, they said we’d all meet downstairs, neither of them explained more or pushed for information from me. We safeguarded our secrets in silence as they led me there.
When we got close to the others, Max eased away to put distance between the three of us, but Landon stayed by my side.
As we entered the living area, he pointed toward the first room on our left. He opened the door to give me a peek inside. “You’ll share this one with Izzy, if you have to move down here.”
I nodded and turned back around to explore.
The curved row of windows I’d seen when I first arrived at Pendragon, with the red fern growing under it, turned out to be the Knights’ wing. Or, row, more accurately.
The Ladies’ wing sat opposite to it, with rooms closer to the lake and separated from the Knights’ row by what they officially called Camelot Courtyard.
Terracotta bricks, like the ones on the lemon tree terrace, created a central space where we’d be able to gather, and gray stones lined the walkways in front of the Ladies’ wing and wove through the terracotta center in spirals and loops before lining the walkway on the Knights’ side.
Landon’s room was right across from mine and Izzy’s, and I spotted Max across the way. His room was diagonal from mine. Gratitude for our seclusion in Kingston’s wing came swiftly, even with how I’d ended up there.
But that thought hit too close to home with everything that happened with Kingston, so I pushed it away.
When Landon had to leave, I went into my future room and called Gia. We’d barely said hello when the door reopened, and Izzy walked inside.
“Hey, Izzy.” I smiled and angled the phone in her direction. “This is Gia.”
She waved at the screen. “Hi, Gia, it’s nice to meet you.”
“Girl, your eyes are so damn green. It’s unreal. Now, tell me. What’s your stance on trying to drown people in lakes, and do you run with bitches named Vivian and Elaine?”
Izzy’s eyes widened, but she didn’t miss a beat. “Only for egregious behavior, and no. I only run if I’m being chased.”
Gia laughed. “Same, girl.”
But I suspected they meant different things.
I handed off my phone and explored the room as they chatted.
Where I kept to myself around new people, observing first before rushing in, Gia was the opposite.
We became friends at dance camp while I’d been standing like a wallflower in the corner of a room.
Gia had walked right up to me, declared us best friends, and looped our arms together to pull me into the group activity I’d been avoiding. And that was that.
Friendship had been so much simpler then.
While I peeked in the bathroom and checked out the view from our window, I trained one ear on their conversation.
Gia asked, “How much we talking for you to give us all the dirt you have on them, Izzy?”
“I’ll tell you what I know free of charge.
” She laughed, setting the phone on her dresser to grab a change of clothes from her drawer.
“We’ve been in school together since sixth grade, when we all started at Camelot Academy.
Vivian was your typical popular girl, and Elaine was boy obsessed.
I sat next to her in English. We shared a love for glitter pens, but she usually used hers to write love letters to her crush of the week. ”
“Yikes.” I chimed in from across the room. “How’d she end up so attached to Landon?”
“He was the only one who was nice to her about it.” Izzy grimaced. “Most of the other guys laughed behind her back. Or to her face. But not Landon. He thanked her for writing to him, and I think she took that and ran with it.”
Gia winked at me. “Total green flag energy.”
Izzy turned and gave me a tentative smile. She didn’t know Landon and I had done way more than kiss and make up.
“Landon has always kept to himself. Aside from Kingston, of course, but even that was more outside of school because Kingston was a year above us. Anyway, in school he was pretty aloof, but he’d go out of his way to help or be kind to people.”
Gia whooped. “See! You were right to forgive him! Just like I was right about him.”
She had planted the idea that something bigger was going on with Landon’s actions at the Knights’ Quorum than I’d originally wanted to believe. I had to give her that.
But that was also how we’d come up with our plan to use the statute at the Maiden Appeal, the source of one of my current problems, which made it hard to reciprocate her enthusiasm.
Izzy reached out, and when I didn’t flinch away at physical contact from another Lady this time, she touched my arm. “I’m not sure what happened between you two at the end of the first challenge, but if Gia meant you worked it out, I’m glad.”
At that, I smiled. “Me too.”
“Me three!” Gia added. “Now, gimme dirt on those bitches.”
Unfortunately, more dirt on those bitches had to wait. Izzy and I both got texts alerting us our day was about to begin. We said our goodbyes to Gia, and two seconds later, Max Dread knocked on our door with more details.
“You’re kidding me, right?”
He laughed, leaning against the doorway. “Oh, I wish I was, Pr—Quinn.” He glanced sharply at the bathroom, where Izzy was out of earshot of his near slip. “I’m here to escort you to Bonding Day .”
Izzy popped her head out of the bathroom. “Is everything alright with Kingston?”
“What?” I swiveled my gaze between them. “Why would something be wrong with Kingston? Is he alright?”
She shrugged. “He normally leads things today. Or, rather, the King of Camelot Court does, but if you’re here…”
Max smirked. “The King decided to shirk his duties, I guess. Gee. What a guy.”