They had no idea what they’d done.
They’d fucked everything up.
And I’d be the one to pay for it.
“You just couldn’t help yourself, could you, Golden Boy?”
Landon spat blood. “She deserved a choice, Max. She’s not a goddamn pawn in this game. I won’t treat her like one.”
I sneered. “Yeah. It’s not a good look two years in a row.”
“Oh, fuck off!” Landon shouted. “I went into the tunnels after her. I tried to save her, but it was too late!”
Kingston decided to open his big mouth, too. “Max, you’ve believed we did nothing. But Landon came straight to me after you went to him. While I tried to find a way around the failsafe mechanism, he went in after her.”
“I’ve told you I tried.” Landon raked his hands through his hair. “I’ve told you?—”
“Landon…” Kingston warned.
My chest heaved as I dragged air in through my nose. If I opened my mouth, I’d say something I’d regret, and I couldn’t do that once Quinn stepped outside with Morty.
Fucking prick.
I stepped forward, holding steady when he let her go.
Unable to stop himself from being a perpetual thorn in my side, Morty, the fucking heckler, called out from the sidelines, “You just need to tell her the truth. She’s a big girl, guys.”
“You know we can’t do that, Morty,” Landon snapped. “There are consequences.”
“Which you clearly don’t care about.” Slipping his old but familiar silver pocketknife out of his back pocket, Morty’s eyes narrowed on the White Knight. He used the blade to pick at his nails. “Since you keep calling me Morty.”
Landon rolled his eyes, which only annoyed me further as I did the same. Even my blasé reaction to Morty’s threat bothered me. Despite what he’d done to make me regret laughing about it when we were young, his disdain for his given name usually pleased me.
But it was a reminder I didn’t need.
“We’re not sayinganything,” I growled, ignoring the way Quinn’s head whipped in my direction. “What we need to do is stop playing games and get her the hell out of here.”
“Max, I’m not leaving!”
I ignored that, but she knew damn well I’d heard her.
She let out a growl. Fierce and determined as ever, but too damn stubborn for her own good.
She was going to get herself killed.
I turned away from where she stood, but the heat of her indignant stare still burned my neck.
She muttered under her breath, probably about howIwas stubborn, as I focused my anger on Kingston.
“It was your idea to pick her asThe King’s Maiden, right? All before your bestie fucked her, knowing the consequences?”
“Max!”
I didn’t look at her. “If anything happens to her, it’s on you,” I spat at the bogus King.
Unsurprisingly, Landon lunged.
His arms locked around my middle, and he shoved me to the ground.
