Page 146 of Prince of Masks
“That’s the thing about Dray. He used to see you as his. We all knew that, even as kids that Dray was territorial of you. But he never lost that. He chose your fate at Bluestone. If Dray hadn’t turned his back on you, no one else would have taken their shots. Mildred… she hates you for what you are. That is sincere,at least. Dray couldn’t decide between hating you and keeping you.”
“Keeping me,” I echo, soft, numb.
My mind whirls through all the things that Eric told me. It’s been months, so long since we had that conversation in the tower, but my mind chugs through the wispy memory all the same.
‘A lot of people around here expected that Dray would chase your contract.’
‘Dray slammed Teddy into the barrier and broke his arm—a lot of the guys think he was retaliating for what Teddy said before the game…’That my ass is nice in breeches.
‘When Eli asked you out to VeVille, then went missing for a while before he was found in a broom closet.’
My breath is balled in my chest.
It struggles to loosen, and so my mouth borders a choppy, grated exhale.
“Dray made sure no one else could reach you,” Landon goes on, and it’s almost as though his voice is an echo, one I struggle to focus on, until it grows louder, stronger, and I look at him, blank.
“If he didn’t want it to happen, it didn’t.” He shrugs. “So I was doused in flammable potion, just for inquiring about your contract. If you ask me, Dray is responsible for no other aristos making an offer on you. I would bet my print on it.”
The look I give him is a blend of stunned slackness and outright doubt.
The words are choked in my throat.
“Come on, Olivia. You’re cute, you’re funny—and you’re a Craven. There are some serious prints in your bloodline. I even considered you for my beard.”
My mouth tilts into a flat line.
“You come with too many advantages, and you’re an easy wife to keep if your husband is wealthy enough, so you can’t tell me you really believe that no one in aristos considered you.”
“I’m a deadblood.”
“And I’m gay,” he says with a crooked grin. “We would have been one of the happiest aristos couples.”
The laugh that strikes me is wet and scoffed. “So… Dray stopped you from…” I swallow on the wetness of my throat, slick with the same tears streaking my cheeks. I don’t know which is wetter, my dress or my face.
“Yeah, Dray’s like that,” Landon says with a sigh. “But time was closing in on him. He was bound to do it.”
“Do what?” I ask, a whisper.
“Dray can only be territorial for so long, before he understands that you’ll be married to someone else, very soon. The walls were closing in on him. He had to make a choice, and I didn’t bet on the right one.”
My question is a frown on my mouth.
“Dray either had to let you go,” he says and lifts his stark gaze to mine, “or acquire you and be territorial for the rest of his life.”
My face twists, slow and ugly.
I turn my cheek to him.
“I need to ask you a favour,” he says.
I hum in answer, my watery gaze on the stone statue. I run my hands down my damp dress front. “I’ll keep your secret.”
Landon scoffs, “No. You are keeping my secret in exchange for my help getting you out of the fountain and risking my own ass for doing it. No, I need another favour from you.”
The niggle of Dray’s name haunts me.
I endure it, shoulders tense against the intrusion of him in my mind, a fear that is ice cold in my belly.
