But we hadn’t expected this.
Kingston stood between me and an intruder who had just burst into his bedroom. Seconds after I’d pieced together one of many secrets about Camelot Court. We’d been watched on cameras, believing we were one step ahead.
Now, believing his father had returned to Pendragon to make us pay, we assumed our luck had run out.
With one hand reaching for me on the bed behind him, Kingston pinned me to his back. He held me there out of sight as he faced the threat head-on.
My heart thundered in my chest.
Then a cold, cruel laugh shattered the illusion of peace we’d wrapped around ourselves.
“Well, well, well…I finally get to meetThe King’s Maiden.”
I tightened my grip on Kingston’s arm while he faced down the monster who’d finally shown his face in the dark. But something nagged at the back of my brain. His voice…
“Our very ownGuinevere…foolish enough to think she could simply waltz in and destroy Camelot Court.”
The bedroom door swung on its hinges and slammed shut, trapping us inside the room.
“Let’s have a little chat about that, shall we?”
I wasn’t the best at keeping my head down and my mouth shut—two rather glowing attributes that had made my time at Camelot Court interesting, to say the least—but I’d accepted that I’d need to take Kingston’s lead at times.
So, despite my suspicions, I stayed put.
His grip on my arm loosened slightly, but he didn’t release me. “What—? Morty, what in god’s name?—?”
My brow furrowed. “Wait, who—? Who the hell is Morty?”
Poking my head around Kingston’s body, I searched for the intruder he’d dubbedMorty.
As soon as I laid eyes on his silhouette in the darkness, lit only by the moonlight streaming in through the window, my mouth dropped open in surprise.
“What the?—?”
Head spinning, my grip slipped from Kingston’s arm. I scrambled backward on the bed, heels digging into the comforter to put some space between me and the looming figure that screamedMax Dreadin my head.
Because it wasn’t him. I was certain of it.
But the similarities…
Once I released his arm, Kingston turned his back on the intruder and faced me. “Quinn, it’s not what you’re thinking.”
I gaped at him and the six-foot-three doppelgänger skulking closer to the bed, unsure how he knew what I was thinking when I hadn’t the foggiest idea.
“It’s not Max, Quinn.”
I hissed back, “I figured that much, Kingston.”
The figure stepped farther into the room, and the light of the moon from the open window streaked across his features, adding illumination to the dim lighting.
It brought one thing into plain sight.
“You’re bald!”
He huffed a laugh, and a shudder ran through me. “And you’re observant.”
As I scrutinized his face, he turned his back to us.
