Chapter 21
Chapter Twenty-One
T hree hours later, I was primped, polished, and pissed the fuck off.
Why Camelot Court believed the only way for girls to bond involved makeovers was beyond me. But the nice man who’d done my hair, while another woman painted my nails, assured me I’d be pleased when he finished.
He was a goddamned liar.
Izzy tried to smother her laugh, but it burst out of her sealed lips, which were painted with a horrifying shade of orange. I tore my eyes from the mirror, and the wreck formerly known as my hair, to inspect hers.
I laughed despite myself. “Oh my god, your hair.”
Her normally perfect curls had been crimped of all things.
“This has to be a joke.” She blinked about a dozen times, squinting and scrunching her features as if trying to battle the weight of her fake eyelashes.
When she finally stopped, she spotted my makeup and burst out laughing again.
Tears filled her eyes, bleeding her mascara.
She wiped at the makeup and winced as it stung her eyeball. “Oh, shit.”
I searched for a makeup wipe. Or bleach. Anything that might get the caked-on foundation and lacquer off my face.
A loud laugh came from the entrance of the salon, followed by the most outrageous wolf-whistle I’d ever heard.
I pivoted to glare at Max, and he had tears in his eyes. Actual tears. I glared harder.
“So worth it,” he wheezed through his laughter.
“Oh, you think this is funny, do you?” I stomped over. “I take it this was your idea, then.”
Still laughing, he shook his head and bent at the waist to catch his breath.
“You. Totally. Suck.” I whirled around and went back to Izzy, tugging at the tiny braids in my hair.
There were several.
She pressed her lips together as I approached. “You look so pretty.”
“Don’t even, Spice Girl. We’re in this together.” I finally spotted a makeup wipe on the counter, noting that it was the only one while the rest had mysteriously disappeared. “Here.” I tore it in half and handed a piece to her.
“Where’d you find that?” Vivian’s shrill voice snapped my head to the left.
And suddenly, it was all worth it.
I cackled. “Oh my god. Are those butterfly clips?”
Vivian narrowed her eyes before her head practically spun around on her neck. Her sleek, jet-black hair flew over her shoulder. Except it lacked her usual dramatic flair.
Rainbow-colored butterfly clips had been clamped in neat rows from her hairline to the crown of her head. Spaced about every two inches apart, they shackled most of her hair, flattening it to her skull.
And calling it beauty.
When Vivian spotted Max in the mirror, she glared harder at the doorway, where he was still laughing. “Max, what the fuck is this?”
He wheezed again and cleared his throat, jerking upright.
“Bonding Day.” His eyes met mine, and he smirked before he turned to the group. “Alright, Besties! Follow me.”
Vivian shrieked in outrage. “I am not going out there!”
“You can’t be serious!”
“But someone might see us!”
A chorus of angry female voices mobbed Max, and if they’d had pitchforks, he would’ve been in serious trouble. They didn’t stop even when he put his hands up in front of him, like he might ward off the evil of hairspray and glitter eyeshadow.
“Hey, I don’t make the rules, and if you think this is bad, just wait until the next one.
” He caught my eye. “When you decorate your very own pledge paddles.” When my eyes widened, Max winked before proving he was the worst kind of tease.
“Now, you can thank the King when you see him later. Grab your stuff and meet me in the limo. We have shit to do.”
He left the salon without another word.
Frowning, I lifted the makeup wipe to my face. But when I spotted something on it, I wrinkled my nose, thinking it was used. I almost tossed it away, but as I looked closer, I saw something written in the corner.
Tears pricked my eyes as I read the three tiny words.
Forgive me, love.
I walked out of the salon, clutching the wipe in my hand. Unable to use it, since it might risk destroying the message.
Even as my eyes burned, I held onto that secret note from Kingston. And the reminder that once before, my faith hadn’t been misplaced and an explanation awaited.
Maybe it wasn’t meant to send that message.
Maybe he hadn’t left it because of our conversation, and after planning our day at the salon, he’d always intended to leave it for me. A reprieve from the worst of it, before the truth came out.
As I climbed into the limo, my mind wouldn’t rest. I hated not knowing the reason behind it.
But either way, he’d still done it for me .
One limo ride filled with bitching and moaning later, we arrived at a thrift store.
A bougie thrift store, but a thrift store nonetheless. My excitement rose as soon as the limo pulled up, but most of the other girls had never strayed from fancy boutique shopping.
Elaine made sounds of disgust in the back of her throat the entire walk inside. That actually opened the minds of some of the other girls to the experience.
In true Camelot Court fashion, we’d been given vague instructions, at best. Find an outfit that went with our hair and makeup, and it couldn’t be something from our generation.
Since my braids didn’t give me much to go on, I used butterfly clips as a marker for the decade I needed to aim for and searched the racks.
Izzy joined me, randomly holding up items to get my opinion. “How are you doing with everything?” she asked once most of the girls had disappeared to the dressing rooms.
“Fine, I guess.” I shrugged. “It’s weird. Carrying on like nothing. Like the girls I’m supposed to work with didn’t—You know, hold my arms while another pushed me under water.”
I caught myself right before I let our big secret slip, infusing my voice with false brightness. It assured Izzy I wasn’t overly concerned by the girls, but she still touched my arm gently before pulling away.
“It is weird. Not entirely surprising with the way our parents handle issues, but still. Did you hear about Tara?”
I shook my head, placing Tara as the very vocal Maiden who’d prompted my decision to let Landon train me for The Quest. The one who saw stars on her Knight’s tongue before phase one began. “What happened with her?”
“Her parents pulled her. They said The Quest this year wasn’t what they signed up for, and unless Drake could fix some big problem, they’d bring their issue against him at the next Round Table meeting.”
“What, like, he’d actually face judgment for something?”
Izzy’s mouth twisted as she thought about it. “Yeah, I guess. I don’t really know much about how it works. Just what I’ve picked up over the years listening to my parents. There’s a lot you catch if you’re paying attention. Most of us just…don’t.”
I tilted my head. “What do you mean?”
She kept searching through the clothes racks. “Remember when you asked me if I spent more time thinking about guys here than usual? And I mentioned how my mom gives terrible relationship advice?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, most of us, the girls at least, have grown up kind of… prepared for a certain lifestyle. We go to school, we marry a Knight, if possible, or a match our parents arrange. Eventually, we have babies, and our job is to be good wives and mothers for our families. To keep all this going.”
“To make sure the Camelot Society thrives and prospers…” I stared at her. “Landon said something like that to me on my first day here. But what if you wanted to do something else? You know, besides being a baby making factory and saddled with a husband you didn’t choose.”
She eyed a pink crop top before adding it to her pile to try on.
“Our parents don’t really give us that option.
My mom has been drilling it into my head since I was little.
And the others…Elaine being boy obsessed and how she thought she’d end up with Landon?
It’s not really that odd in context. Her mom gives mine a run for her money. The only one who’s worse is Vivian’s.”
I tried to wrap my head around it. I mean, women with these kinds of expectations on their shoulders wasn’t anything new. My mom used to say her family had been like that, but she chalked it up to Hispanic culture and traditions she didn’t bring into her life with my dad.
Or put on me.
But I hadn’t considered it for the girls here.
When I first arrived, they seemed as rich and spoiled as I assumed the guys were. Having the world at their feet and their pick of D’Arthur University’s elite, the idea of some poor girl coming in and taking one of their men had been preposterous.
How dare I think I deserved that?
Now, I wasn’t sure it was like that at all.
I remembered things Elaine told me throughout the first challenge, and what Vivian had said the night of my attack. They’d grown up preparing for this— being prepared for it —and I didn’t know what they faced if they failed.
Or if they even had a choice.
“What if you loved someone else?” I asked. “You can’t choose a different path if this isn’t the one meant for you?”
To my surprise, Izzy’s emerald eyes filled up with tears.
She buried her face in her hands, the clothes hangers on her arm jangling, and I froze, unsure of what to do. I pictured Gia in my head, mouthing at me to go to her instead of just standing there awkwardly like I’d never had more than one girlfriend.
So, I walked up beside Izzy and patted her on the back.
“I’m sorry!” She swiped at her face. “It’s just…
to answer your question, I don’t know. But we’re definitely not allowed to choose.
My dad set up my match with Mark when I was twelve.
Our families have been best friends since they were at Camelot Court.
Mark, we’ve been friends and he’s a good guy, but there’s never been—It’s not like what I feel for Tristan. Not even close.”
Remembering what I’d initially heard about Izzy and her betrothed confused me. “Elaine said Mark picked another Maiden when it was his turn for The Quest. Is that true?”
She nodded, sniffling and righting the clothes on her arm.
“The King before Kingston—Morty, he asked Mark to pick her. It was a favor to him. Not a betrayal to me.” She scoffed. “I know that’s what everyone says, because most of the people in our world can’t help but talk about everyone’s business like it’s their own. And they rarely get it right.”
“Oh. So, then, what Elaine said about you joining The Quest because of it…That’s not the reason, is it?”
“I applied hoping Tristan would pick me.” She blushed, tucking one of her curls behind her ear. “But it wasn’t to get back at Mark. He doesn’t even care. He?—”
Her eyes went wide, and she clamped her mouth shut. She scanned the area around us, but the other girls were split between the fitting rooms and register.
“It’s just never been like that for either of us. When his extended family moved here last year, Mark introduced me to Tristan. His cousin .”
This time, my eyes widened. “So, I don’t get it. If Tristan is also from a Camelot Society family, and you and Mark don’t feel that way about each other, why won’t your parents just…switch the engagement to Tristan?”
Izzy shook her head. “Because it doesn’t work like that here.
Mark’s family has a seat at the Round Table.
Not the Round Tableau here, but the one at the top of the Camelot Society hierarchy.
There are a lot of families, but only a small number have a seat at the table.
And there aren’t a lot of ways to get there.
The only way to be eligible to even get voted in is to have a son who joins the Knights.
..” She sighed, twisting her hands in her lap.
“Or a daughter who marries someone at the table.”
“So your families basically trade you like chattel? What the actual fuck, Izzy?”
When she shrugged like it just was what it was, I gaped at her. “Seriously, how has no one rioted?”
Izzy responded with a half-hearted smile. “What can we really do? We’re barely adults by the time we realize how messed up it all is, and for a lot of the others, everything that comes with being a part of this…They don’t all see it the way I see it. They accept it. Fuck .”
She covered her mouth as the word left it, then shook her head as she weaved through the rows toward the fitting rooms.
“Even I had accepted it. Until I met Tristan, it just…was. You know? Mark is a good guy, really. I—He would’ve made sure I was taken care of. Happy, even. But now…”
“You want more.”
She met my eyes, tears brimming again, and nodded.
“Hopefully, you can have that one day.” I took her hand. “Hopefully, we all can.”
“I’m hoping if I win The Quest, they’ll let me choose. But I don’t know if that will change anything.”
“I’m so sorry, Izzy.”
Izzy did her best to smile at me. “I guess I don’t have to worry about it, for now. There’s still a chance, right?”
“Yeah.” I tried my best to smile at her, too, but the way her dreams tangled with mine sank like lead in my gut. “There’s still a chance.”