Page 1 of The King's Maiden

Prologue

Ithought it was a joke.

Twenty-five thousand dollars to let some entitled, rich guy boss me around for a month?

Most days, I did that shit for free and called it being female. But rumor had it, a secret society on campus wanted to pay me for their privilege.

Sign. Me. Up.

“All you have to do is apply, Quinn,” my best friend explained. “Make it through a month with the guy who picks you, and you walk away with the prize money.”

From where I’d planted my head face down on the library table, I craned my neck to stare at her. Gia ignored the quirk of my eyebrow, or what she called myResting Skeptic Face,and slid a scrap of paper toward me.

Bearing a QR code over our college’s insignia, it looked like every other flier scattered around D’Arthur University. Except, where most fliers had text with the name of an event or location for a party, this one contained no other information.

“Gia, for all you know, this is a virus. Or hacking software so some creepy guy on the Internet can get into your phone and steal all your nudes.”

“I’m not ashamed of my body.” She flipped her honey-blonde hair off her shoulder, trying to lift my mood. “And besides, a girl pulled it up after class and showed it to me. It’s legit, I swear.”

I eyed the dubious slip of paper again.

Two of my classmates had been gossiping about something like this. While they’d swapped plans for Spring Break, one asked about summer. I’d caught words likesecret societyandannual competitionbefore tuning them out.

I needed a job when spring semester ended, not the fantasy plot line for a reality TV show.

Gia’s hazel eyes, and her eternal optimism, sparkled at me from across the table. “It’s called The Quest. Twenty-five thousand for the first thirty daysandeven more after that, if you keep going and win. Can you believe it?”

“I really can’t,” I deadpanned.

No, I knew all too well that life wasn’t a fairytale.

I’d learned that lesson as soon as my mom died picking up a cake for my twelfth birthday. The world didn’t run on sunshine and rainbows and good things didn’t happen to good people.

That old saying, “when life hands you lemons, make lemonade”? My dad had always loved it. Especially after Mom died, he pulled that bad boy out whenever he needed to turn his mood around.

Or, more often, mine.

And even though I thought it was ridiculous, he’d beenfucking greatat making lemonade.

But then, life took him from me, too.

Applying that optimistic lease on life by myself grew harder.

Under the constant barrage of lemons life seemed keen on handing me, where did one find the time to stop, squeeze out, and sweeten a batch?

I became more of aroll-with-the-punches-as-the-hits-keep-on-comingtype of girl, instead.

While struggling to finish my dance program, battling asthma,anddrowning in debt, I didn’t expect some Knight in Shining Armor, or his frat bros, to swoop in and save me.

So, I chalked the classroom chatter up to just that—idle gossip.

But Gia swore otherwise. “Now, I don’t know all the details, but there are a few challenges with different prizes. And the grand prize has, like, an obscene amount of cash tied to it. Allegedly, of course. No one knows for sure because the whole thing is locked up tighter than your dad’s life insurance policy.”

My eyebrows rose. “Impressive. But I thought that secret society thing was just a rumor?”

“Nope. It’s true. And get this…” Gia leaned across the table, grinning widely as she grabbed my hands. “They call themselves the Knights of Camelot Court.”

I shot her an exasperated look. “You’re totally fucking with me right now, aren’t you?”

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