Landon watched him go with a heart-wrenching expression on his face. After the door shut, he turned to me. “I need to tell him.”
Nodding, I turned everything over in my head. Especially what passed between them before Kingston left.
That was the first time I’d felt like an outsider to their bond—what they’d shared long before I came here—despite knowing it existed and nothing else being said. I hadn’t witnessed much of the roles they filled for each other, before now.
My interactions with them together had been limited to one mind-blowing but tension-filled dance and a few moments surrounded by other Knights and Maidens.
And I didn’t know them as best friends.
After hearing them speak about each other, I’d figured their dynamic was more than just a King and his Knight, but it was different toseeit. While Kingston had discussed his father with me, Landon stood beside him the way a trusted hand might.
And it was more than that, too.
Most of what Kingston said feltmeantfor both of us.
With the Knights’ Quorum, he hadn’t looked at either of us when he spoke about the pain that decision caused, but Kingston knew that choice had hurt us both.
Had he also done it to keep Landon safe?
I twisted my hands in my lap, the unknown threat of Drake D’Arthur looming like an axe over our heads. When I lifted mine, Landon was putting on his clothes.
“Landon, why haven’t you told him yet?”
“Because it’s not just up to me. Sharing that. I know we talked about it before the Knights’ Quorum, but that night changed things. I—” He tugged his shirt down and picked up his running shoes. “I wanted to discuss it with you first.”
My heart warmed at how he’d considered that. “Thank you, Buns. But I do think he needs to know.”
He nodded. “I can talk to him as soon as I get back, before I come up here.”
As he slipped on his sneakers, my legs shifted restlessly. I didn’t love the thought of him leaving at all, even if Kingston’s father might not show up right away. Or at all.
Landon sat next to me on the mattress, his palm running over my thigh to ease the bouncing. “When I told Kingston about the memories returning, he mentioned running. I hadn’t been doing it as much after the Knights’ Quorum. He thought it might help to keep the memories at bay. If I wanted that.”
I gave him my best attempt at a reassuring smile.
“I hope it does help.” I shook out my hands and straightened my spine. “I’ll be fine until you get back.”
Landon stroked my cheek, easily seeing through me. “You’ve had a lot of information thrown at you. Unsettling things about something—someone—you don’t know how to face yet. It’s understandable if you’re nervous or scared, you know?”
“I know that.” The words left my mouth far too quickly to be believable. “I’m not scared.”
“I don’t have to run today, Quinn. It won’t change anything.”
“No.” I shook my head. “No, you go. I want you to do whatever you can to help with the flashes. If that’s what you still want. It’s important. This is just anxiety over something that hasn’t happened yet. It’s?—”
“Also important,” he said firmly.
I smiled, soothed by that. “It’s also something I can manage while you do what you need to do.” I leaned forward and kissed him. “Hop to it, Buns. The sooner you go, the sooner you get back and we can shower.”
His eyebrow quirked, but he shot me a pointed look and didn’t take the bait.
“Fine,” I groaned, feigning annoyance although I really felt seen. “The sooner we can talk about my feelings, you quack.”
“Good girl,” he murmured, weaving his hands through my hair and pulling me in for a deeper kiss.
By the time he was done, I planned to force the issue on a pre-exercise shower. It just made sense. For lots of reasons.
Reasons I couldn’t think of at that moment, but surely, they existed.
