“What’s up with you?” She sat up straight and scrutinized me. “Why are you all jittery and weird right now? Normally, after we fool around, you’re like a marshmallow smooshed between two graham crackers. What gives?”
“It’s nothing.”
My eyes darted between the front lawn and the photos on the wall again, as if my body was actively trying to point out I was a fucking liar. Not that Quinn needed the clues. She’d figure it out in a minute or two, at least, the reason for my restlessnessinthe room.
She didn’t know about the one coming.
And I planned to keep it that way. That secret?—
It had to stay in the dark.
Her eyes snagged on the photos before I tore mine away. “Max, I wish you would talk to me about what happened.”
“I can’t.”
She threw up her hands like she had no idea what to do, which made two of us, before her shoulders sagged with defeat. And I felt like an asshole.
“The three of you wear guilt and secrets like armor. Thinking it’ll protect you when all it does is weigh you down.”
I forced myself to sit beside her, the effort of being still nearly overwhelming me, and I took her hand.
“At the end of The Quest, the winner is tested to make sure she didn’t have help getting to the end. I’m not supposed to tell you that, but…since you’re so fucking stubborn,” I teased, softening the words because I loved that about her.
Fuck. I was pretty sure I was falling in love with her.
And since the only thing I’d ever seen oflovewas how it destroyed the people it claimed to cherish, the last thing I wanted was to bring her into all that with me.
But my example had been spoiled. Rotten to its core. And it wasn’t always like that. Bill and Diane had shown me it could be different.
Sometimes love made us stronger. Braver.
It pushed us to new heights, places we’d been afraid to reach. And it pulled us back from the darkness.
Something worth every sacrifice.
The second Quinn Everly crossed the threshold at Camelot Court and entered the Round Tableau, I realized it. She had what none of us did, because she came from anun-charmedlife.
Because she’d been loved.
And I’d wanted to know what that felt like.
When I thought she hadn’t been meant for me, I’d hated it. Denied she meant anything. Sworn she’d be a pawn, but I’d stopped lying to myself. And I’d be a damn hypocrite if I pushed her to face her truth without doing the same with mine.
Which meant I had to do the hard thing. The brave thing. The one that scared me. Maybe not with everything yet, and hopefully never with one secret.
But with this, I had to give hersomething.
I thumbed her bottom lip. The one she’d pushed out when I called her stubborn, while her wheels turned over what I said. When her eyes met mine, old fears about me haunted their depths, and I wanted them gone.
So, I gave her the truth I’d been trying not to accept.
The bitter pill I’d been slowly forcing myself to swallow.
“Last year, I knew something bad was going to happen before it did.” When her eyes widened, I released a heavy breath. “I didn’t—I should’ve saved her myself, but I didn’t.”
Her expression softened, sympathy extending her free hand toward me.
“At the end of the day, whatever your Golden Boy did or didn’t do, yeah, I hate him for that. But I hate myself more. For not believingIcould do something about it.”
