Chapter 25
Chapter Twenty-Five
G athering all my courage, I went in search of Kingston. When he wasn’t in his office, I went upstairs and found him in his room.
After knocking on the door, I heard a loud thump before his voice called out. “Who’s there?”
“It’s me…Um, Quinn. Quinn Everly?”
I squeezed my eyes shut and shook my head at my response.
“Quinn Everly…” He rolled my name over his tongue as footsteps approached, like it was foreign and he needed to get used to it. When he opened the door, I pursed my lips and rolled my eyes at him. Forgetting for a second that I hadn’t forgiven him because…
Hard truth?
A part of me already had, even after what had happened.
And I’d wonder what his secrets were forever, if I left or never let him explain. So, if I wasn’t going anywhere, which I’d accepted I wasn’t, then I needed to give him a chance to share.
“I’m ready to listen. If you’re still offering.”
“Yes.” He glanced back inside his room before quickly returning his gaze to me, like I might disappear if he looked away for too long.
After grabbing something from inside his room, he led me down the stairs and out the front doors. Back to his motorcycle. And only the promise of his whole truth got me on the bike with him again.
He drove carefully toward our destination, even more so than he’d done the first day on the bike.
I refused to hold onto him as tightly as I had that day. Still, I appreciated how he let me maintain the illusion of putting distance between us. Though, the bar on what I’d accept had been raised too high for that to be enough.
Anxiety rolled through my gut as I thought about it. It played on a loop as we drove to wherever he was taking me.
Because a line had been crossed. One that, no matter how much I wanted to step back over, I wasn’t sure we could. Not until I had the truth. And I hated that, but I refused to let it cloud my judgment.
I needed to understand—what he’d faced, why he’d pulled me into this—or I needed to keep my distance. Maybe even accept his offer and walk away, if there really wasn’t an explanation. But the thought of doing that still tore me in two.
There had to be more to the story.
I fought like hell to hold onto that faith, and slowly tightened my grip on his waist as we drove.
When the trees cleared, he parked the bike, and we walked a short distance from the motorcycle.
Headstones came into view.
Various shapes and sizes, some simple and some ornately carved. Most contained small planters and vases filled with flowers. Others looked as though they hadn’t been visited in a long time.
I tensed and stopped walking.
It was the first time I’d been to a cemetery since my father died, and maybe Kingston couldn’t have known that, but I still froze. “Why are we here?”
“What I need to share with you…this is part of it. It’s the only place I can fully explain.” He took in my posture, my rigid spine, and understanding dawned. “But we don’t have to go in there, Quinn.”
He gripped my shoulders and blocked my view of the grounds by stepping in front of me.
“I wasn’t thinking clearly. You showed up, and I just wanted to give you the whole truth, but I should have considered—I can figure out another way, if you don’t want to go inside. It’s just…if I’m going to tell you everything, this is part of it. Letting these secrets go…I have to do this, too.”
I searched for a sign of what he meant, but I couldn’t guess what, or who, waited inside the cemetery. Torn by the pain in my heart over where things stood between us, and the desire to avoid the reminder of my dad, I stared out at the cemetery.
“You lost someone you loved, too?” I swallowed. “They’re…in there?”
He bobbed his head from side to side, as if to say yes and no, like I’d seen him do before.
“It was a long time ago. But I wasn’t ready—” His throat bobbed.
“I wasn’t ready to let go, but I think it’s finally time.
No matter what you decide, I think—I know I need to stop holding onto the past now. I need to let these secrets go, and…”
Kingston glanced over his shoulder at the cemetery, and his expression contained so much grief. It etched into every sharp edge and line, carved into the corner of his mouth. As if it had never truly left.
“I need to say goodbye.”
I drew in a deep breath.
If I wanted us to move forward, then the fear in my gut—the thought of reliving my dad’s funeral—I’d have to fight through it. And my dad wasn’t here . This place had no ties to him.
So, I believed I could handle it.
Plus, in a weird way, something about taking a step in mourning my dad like this—doing it for the hope of answers—felt oddly right.
“Okay.” And even though he still had things to share with me, I took his hand. “I’m with you. Let’s go.”
He drew in a slow, shuddering breath, and then he led me into the cemetery.
And as we walked, he explained.
“What I shared with you first, about the sons of my father’s business partners. How I met Landon and he became…” Kingston swallowed. “I told you when my father offered Landon a choice between me and the items my father withheld, Landon said no every time.”
I nodded, studying his profile as we walked.
“When I had to consider telling Landon the truth…” He sighed. “And, by that I mean, truly consider it, not just claim I’d do it. I faced two problems. The first being that my father had threatened him.”
“I wondered if he had. In the room that day, when you said you made a choice that hurt you but also kept you safe, you didn’t look at either of us.”
Kingston stopped and regarded me for a second, a heartbreaking smile pulling at the corner of his mouth.
“Quinn, whenever you ask why me , or how I knew I was right about you …that , right there, is a large part of it. You look past the surface and think outside the box. Naturally. It’s…part of who you are. And a gift. In this world—my world, at least—it’s rare and beautiful.”
“Thank you.” I hid my blush by glancing at the cemetery path. “I got that from my dad.”
Kingston smiled, touching my cheek.
“I’m particularly biased, but I believe he raised an incredible daughter, and for that, while I’m no expert on the subject, he must’ve been a wonderful father.”
He swiped his thumb over my skin as tears pricked my eyes.
“I’m so glad you had that—him—for the time you did, and I wish you’d never lost him.”
I forced a smile, that familiar pain leaving a hollow ache in my chest. “Even knowing I never would’ve ended up here, if it weren’t for the accident?”
“Especially knowing that, love.” He brushed a strand of hair behind my ear. “I’d face all this alone for the rest of my life, if it meant sparing you that heartbreak.”
My heart cracked further and somehow healed at his words, because I couldn’t fathom how there wouldn’t be an explanation for what he’d done—what had happened with the attack—when he said things like that.
When I knew he’d give up everything he was trying to do to give me back the one person I’d loved most in the world. Just to take that pain away from me.
I had no doubt he meant that.
So, I had to believe that when he made that call and set things in motion, there was good reason he hadn’t taken the other option. Landon’s memory—this secret—it wasn’t one I’d wanted to hear. That day Kingston offered to share it with me in the kitchen, I’d declined.
But now, I had to understand.
I blinked past the tears building in my eyes, swallowing the emotion rising in my throat, and I squeezed his hand. “Let’s keep going.”
He caught my internal struggle, and he squeezed back before lacing his fingers through mine. He led me forward a few steps before continuing.
“While the Knights don’t have rank, two families hold important seats in the Camelot Society. Seats tied to my father’s. The right hand and the left hand of the King.”
“So, it’s your dad at the head and then two families higher than all the rest?”
“Yes and no. Two families sit slightly above the other members at the Round Table, who are elevated above the larger network of families within the Camelot Society. Those families vie for seats at the table, but there are specific ways they can earn them. Everything they do is to gain that status, and the extra power, that comes from being at the top.”
Remembering what Izzy had shared, I nodded. “Okay, I think I’m following you…So, which families hold those two seats?”
“Merle holds the right and oversees Camelot Court. Landon’s family, while he’s my right hand, holds the left. They oversee Camelot Academy, our school before we came here.”
“Has it been like that since your father…took the throne or whatever?”
Kingston smiled at my phrasing, but shook his head. “No, their families had to earn those seats by proving their loyalty to my father after he was already in power. Landon’s family earned their seat when he became my right hand. But they took the left seat, because Merle already held the right.”
“It’s like its own political system…”
“Yes. Camelot Court is an echo of the real world. It exists inside a bubble, operating almost independently from the laws of society, because of the power they’ve accumulated over centuries.
People they’ve placed in important positions out in the real world, who all serve Camelot at the end of the day.
Any power or status they’ve obtained by being part of it survives only if the Camelot Society does.
So they ensure it thrives and prospers. My father, above everyone else, would stop at nothing to keep that power. He protects Camelot above all else.”
“But how does all this play into Landon’s memory and the secrets you can’t share with him?”
“Who Landon is to me and his family’s position, both give Landon…a protection of sorts. But my father hates him. He’d jump at the chance to hurt him, if he had reason to do it.”
“Why does he hate him so much?”
“Because Landon refused him.” Kingston smiled sadly, glancing at me with regret shining in his eyes. “Because he chose me .”