It was always a circle. Symbolic. A tribute to King Arthur’s Round Table.
Meaningless, really.
I brushed a hand down the front of my suit jacket as I stepped beside him. He flicked his gaze in my direction, nodded for the sake of propriety, and then faced his adoring cohort of sycophants and snakes.
Running down the line of them, I noted each person as if assessing pieces on a chessboard. The pawns on both sides, smaller families with no power aside from the seat they’d won by marriage or their son’s appointment to the Knights.
And those with more power, the ability to move in different directions across the board.
Landon stood in front of his father, at my father’s left.
Max stood next to his father, Merle Dread, at my father’s right. His right-hand man had returned to Pendragon with an axe to grind for his embarrassing removal from his station.
My lips twitched with pride. Because no advisor had been relieved of his duties in the history of The Quest.
His glare bored into me, and I swept the rest of the circle as my father made introductions.
“As you’ve all heard, a Maiden came forward requesting to invoke the statute on Ultimate Female Virtue.”
Morgan Reid’s father, a tall, thin, and balding man in a three-piece Armani suit, expressed his outrage over the statute. From his place behind his daughter’s Knight, Dax Draconis, and his family, he grew red-faced and agitated with trying to be heard over their shoulders.
“That rule is antiquated! It hasn’t been relevant in decades, Drake. This is preposterous!”
Murmurs of assent followed from several of the families. It quickly highlighted which Ladies would be eliminated if the statute was invoked and the competition whittled down to the remaining, eligible contenders.
It also signaled which would remain: Elaine Astolat and Peter Valencourt, Camille Cundrie and Ben Devereaux, Angela Bradford and Brad Angelise, Izzy Gold and Tristan Léon, and surprisingly, Vivian Valencourt and Max Dread.
I didn’t know which of the pairings surprised me most. Max Dread and Vivian had never openly stated they’d been intimate, but they’d more than implied it. A move I now suspected had been intentional, at least, on Vivian’s side.
Landon recalled finding Vivian naked in Max’s bed on day one of the Trust Challenge. Thinking of it now, it appeared purposeful. Calculated. Misdirection meant to allude to their intimacy, so no one would suspect that she was a virgin.
The question that remained waswhy.
Unless the plan had been to invoke the statute, if needed, all along. A trump card.
But why would Max Dread go along with it?
Had he known? Had he been involved at all?
Or had he simply not been interested, but assumed she’d seen to her needs elsewhere?
The latter seemed more likely, but I needed to find a way to get these answers. To more fully understand his current motivations and intentions, and finally get to the root of hers.
My eyes narrowed on Percy Valencourt, Peter and Vivian’s father, as he addressed mine. Speaking as if he owned stock in the throne, pinpointing where his superiority stemmed from proved difficult. He’d been putting pressure on my father over the statute since the news came out about Elaine to the other families, but why hadn’t they invoked it then?
They were after something. Up to something. Max Dread was involved, or he had been, but what part did he play in Percy Valencourt’s larger plan?
An allegiance between Vivian and Max would give him standing, but Max Dread wouldn’t marry for another man’s greed and power, especially not with Quinn in the picture. So, if he refused a union, what then?
“At this point, the by-laws are the by-laws. It doesn’t matter what has passed or what will come to pass. We are bound by our pledge to serve Camelot Court and uphold its by-laws, whether we like it or not. Or does our tradition not matter? Are any of the rules written in the by-laws also negotiable? Perhaps we should look closer at which ones don’talign with our waysany longer. Which no longer serve the greater good inside the Camelot Society.”
Several families, especially those behind the Knights, murmured their agreement.
Were it not for the mask I maintained, even I would’ve shown support, but the rigid posture and impassive expression I wore in the face of criticism matched my father’s for a reason. He couldn’t know.
He wouldn’t.
“Settle down, everyone.” My father held up one hand to silence the crowd, his eyes passing over each member. “Equally important to our by-laws are the promises made within them. The promise of The Quest is one that each of your families has planned for and expected. As isyour rightby pledging your loyalty. This is not a decision we will make lightly.”
