“But it is like chess, Quinn. And it’s more than that. It’s—Fuck. There’s so much I want to tell you, but you don’t—No one can eventhinkI disagree with my father, or I not only lose the chance to stop him, buthewill take out everyone who might be a threat. I can’t put you in more danger than I already have by explaining more than that, but I needed you to see what he’s capable of because…well, eventually, he’s going to meet you. And he can’t know?—”
He ran his hands through his hair again.
Terrified.
“Please, I need you to trust me when I tell you I’m handling this the only way I know how. And I’m doing my best, but?—”
I took his hand from where he’d fisted it in his hair. “I hear you.”
He exhaled and nodded. “When he comes to Pendragon, it won’t be the way it’s been so far. He has to believe there’s nothing I value more than Camelot Court and his approval. I don’t know what that will mean, but I need you to be prepared.”
“What happens if he finds out?”
“He’ll take everything I love and destroy it. Those were his words when he told me about the engagement.”
I cursed this man, hating him more than anyone I’d ever met without laying eyes on him. But that was the point of Kingston showing me this, wasn’t it?
I’d been taught to speak up when injustice occurred. When something like this happened. Raised to stand up for myself.
It was what made me such a joy to have as a Maiden, I assumed.
And if I’d laid eyes on Kingston’s father without seeing what he was capable of, I would’ve launched myself at him. But now…
Well, I still wanted to claw at him, but I’d hesitate, at least. And, for Kingston’s sake, I’d rein in my need for blood.
But doing nothing…it felt wrong.
“I don’t like this at all.”
He hung his head. “I know. I hate even showing you this?—”
Dr. Barrow opened the door before he could finish, and I stepped aside to let her tend to his wound.
When she finished bandaging him up, she asked me to step outside for the last part of her exam.
I hoped she was driving home that Kingston should report this, but I didn’t know if she would.
If he’d been a patient of hers for so long, she knew he’d suffered abuse as a child, and he was still there, either her resources had been extremely limited, he’d made it impossible somehow, or she just hadn’t cared past mandated reporting.
My interactions with her thus far hadn’t suggested the last one, but a doctor being nice didn’t always mean they cared. What anyone presented on the surface could be so far beyond who they really were.
Fortunately, I got the answer when she left the room, right before she allowed me to go back inside.
She gripped my arm. “He needs to report this, or let me do it. I tried when he was a child, but his mother stopped bringing him to see me. The last time I tried, he came on his own, right before he turned eighteen. Deep down, I think he knew that I’d need to report it, then. But nothing ever came of it, and now, I can’t do it without his consent. If you can convince him?—”
“I’ll get him out. I promise.”
“Sweetheart, when I met you, you’d just been drugged. By the same people who abuse him, I’d reckon. I want youbothout.” She cursed under her breath. “Please come to me if either of you needs help. He won’t do that because I have a family, but I took an oath. And if you were my kids…”
I thought about what Mr. V had said to me on the phone.
“You’d want someone to do the same. I get it.”
Her grip tightened, giving my arm a quick squeeze. “Please take care of yourself.”
“I will. And I’ll ask for help when we need it. I promise.”
She wasn’t fully satisfied, but it must’ve been better than Kingston’s response because she let me go.
