“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 thathurt 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 askwhy 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 Iknewhe’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 fatherafterhe 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…”
