Court Kept (Court High 3)

“What the fuck is this?” I asked him, stunned to hell. Like seriously, half the lunch room was at our table.

He leaned in. “Frickin’ craziness. Watch this shit.” He waved and the crowd at the table hooted, pointing at him, and he pointed back. He hunkered down again. “I don’t know. I just sat down and they all came over. This is wild.”

But was it? Was it really? He’d gotten in a fight with who was the king of the school, a king whose own table was looking a little worse for wear. I noticed it quickly, panning to the place Royal, LJ, Knight, and Jax normally sat at. LJ, Knight, and Jax were still there, but their table was noticeably absent of people, both guys and girls.

I guess we picked up the slack.

There was seriously a circus going on at our table, and after Ramses waved at them again, he faced me.

“Play along,” he said, taking my hand. Before all the drama of the fight and everything else, I’d been more than game to do that.

But now?

Now it felt weird, foreign, and the only reason I didn’t let go was for appearances. I let Ramses guide me over to the table, everyone swarming me just like they had him. Through the chaos, I noticed LJ and Jax looking at me, us.

Knight hadn’t even bothered to look.

He ate his sandwich to himself, doing his own thing as I was forced to sit down between Ramses and another Court-kept girl. Kiki had joined us at this point, and she, Shakira, and even Birdie were chatting it up with some Court guys across the table. The girls were getting cozy, getting used to this.

I settled in while conversation happened around me, smiling when nodded to and talking when prompted to do the same. My gaze fell on Ramses quite a few times during all of it, the storyteller, the mage everyone sat on the edge of their seats for just to hear his next words. It seemed Windsor Preparatory had a new kingpin.

It seemed they had a new Royal Prinze.

Nineteen

Royal

“I’ll be right back.” I paid the ride share driver in cash to wait, easier and unable to be tracked. The last thing I needed was my dad to know I hopped a plane.

Let alone I was on the other side of the country.

None of that was his business, and how I spent the duration of my suspension he couldn’t give two shits about anyway. I’d already embarrassed him by getting kicked out of school, and he handed me my ass for it.

Those bruises finally starting to fade, I slid a dozen red roses off the seat. Shutting the door, I tucked them under my arm as I walked. I hadn’t been here before, but I felt like I knew the area well. The guys had described it in detail, the pictures they showed me only helped. I easily navigated the cemetery.

I easily found my best friend.

A sock in the chest hurt less, the pain of everything coming to fruition. Standing here, I had to face reality. I had to face her and all my failures.

I couldn’t do it…

My thoughts consumed me as my knees hit the ground, Paige’s headstone right in front of me. They buried her next to her mom, her mom like it was her time to be buried. Neither of them should have been, all of it too fucking soon.

I put my hand on the stone, the rock hot from the California heat. I hadn’t been out here for the internment of the ashes, telling myself it was for her. I’d been fighting and still was for her but I knew the truth now. I was weak. I failed her in every way, and I knew that just as well as I was on my knees now.

“I can’t find it…” I retched over her stone, shaking. I pressed the roses into the dirt, touching my head against the stone. “I tried, Paige. I tried, but I can’t fucking find it!”

I couldn’t do it… The one thing I needed to do to justify everything I’d done and had been willing to do. I’d been all in, fighting from my core to bring about some fucking justice in this world, to bring some fucking justice to my friend…

To find out her truth.

But I couldn’t even do that, weak and letting go of the roses, I reached into my pocket. I pulled out that dingy old handkerchief. One I’d let get dirty, one I’d let suffer through time to the point it was now. A quick tie and I had it around the roses, giving it back to her when I put the roses in front of her headstone. It belonged with her. It wasn’t good enough for me and never had been.

“Are… Are you all right, young man?”

Words from my side, I wiped my eyes, getting my shit together when I faced a woman. She came up herself with a bundle of flowers in her hands, daisies, and I recognized her. I’d never met her before, but she’d been at Paige’s reception.

I got to my feet before the middle-aged woman, one with dark hair and deep dark eyes that reminded me not of my friend but someone else.