Page 73 of The King's Maiden

“This is Quinn Everly,” he announced, his voice devoid of its usual heat and ego.

“Ah! Quinn Everly!” Merle’s face lit up, and he eagerly helped me to my feet. “Kingston has told me so much about you. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, my dear girl.”

He smiled at me expectantly, squeezing my hand like an old friend. Kingston had cleared him of being involved in my coldwelcome to Camelot Court. But even though he looked harmless, I couldn’t shake the nagging doubt in my mind.

Eschewing the rules of polite society, I withdrew my hand and stepped back. Unfortunately, that sent me stumbling over a piece of armorandbrought me closer to Max, whose hand shot out to grip my arm. His fingers tightened as he held me upright, a clear warning in his eyes.

“Sorry.” I got my feet beneath me and tugged my arm free, scrambling for an explanation they hadn’t asked for yet. “I, uh…I got lost.”

Max’s eyes narrowed on my face.

I avoided his gaze and turned to his father. “Can you point me toward the kitchens? My Knight—um, Landon. He’s waiting for me.”

Merle laughed. “I’m surprised he let you out of his sight. Or his bedroom.”

I forced a half-hearted chuckle, as if that hadn’t been a totally creepy thing for him to say, but when his good-natured expression morphed into something darker, my urge to flee heightened exponentially.

“He’s not still giving you trouble, is he?”

My foot halted mid-step. “What?”

“I heard about what happened the first night.” Merle clucked like a strange mother hen, stepping toward me, and it clicked that his weird comment had been referring to Landon locking me in the room. “It’s my job to make sure the Knights behave themselves. These young men…” He flicked his gaze toward Max. “Sometimes, they can get carried away with The Quest.Andtheir Maidens. If you ever have concerns, I want you to come find me straight away.”

My eyes shot to Max.

That wasn’t even close to what he’d told me that night. He implied I was going to be kicked out for not pleasing my Knight. And I’d been so outraged I almost left on my own.

Now, as he stood there and didn’t contradict his father’s claim, I couldn’t help but feel like I’d been played.

“Thank you,” I said to Merle, keeping my eyes on Max. “But I’m not sure my Knight is the one I have to worry about.”

Max’s jaw tightened, but he didn’t say a word or even look at me. I scoffed and carefully made my way over the rest of the suit of armor. With its pieces between us, I could finally get the hell out of there.

I nodded politely at Merle this time. “If you’ll excuse me, I really do have to go.”

Taking off down the hallway, I headed to the right at the first turn and flinched when Max’s voice called out behind me.

“Wrong way, Princess.”

Huffing out my frustration, I veered left and walked straight down the hall. But I glanced back over my shoulder once I had put some distance between us. Merle hadn’t moved, but he watched me with concern as I ran away. Max, on the other hand, had decided to follow me.

“Do you even know where you’re going?”

I increased my pace, my hands tightening into fists at my side. “I’ll fucking figure it out!”

“You’ll get lost, Princess.”

Whirling around, I jabbed my finger into his stupid, rock-hard chest and threw his words from our first meeting in his face. “Why do you care,Max Dread?”

He scowled at the point where I touched him. Or maybe it was because I’d rolled his name off my tongue as he’d done with mine that first night. Either way, he showed more emotion in those two seconds than he had the entire time I’d been with him and his father.

“Don’t flatter yourself, Quinn Everly.”

“You cared enough to lie to me that night.”

He arched his brow. “Did I?”

I frowned, unsure if he referred to whether he’d cared or whether he’d lied. But deciding it didn’t matter, I squared my shoulders and lifted my chin. “I’m sorry if me being here is hard for you, Max. But you’re going to have to do more than that to get rid of me.”

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