Page 91 of Kingmakers, Year Three

I put the leather collar around my neck as usual.

It’s a lot more noticeable with the low cut of my gown. I see Chay eyeing it, but for once she doesn’t demand an explanation.

There’s a knock at the door. Anna answers, stretching up on tiptoe to kiss Leo.

“You’re too gorgeous,” he says. “I’m not gonna make it through the night.”

“I’ll resuscitate you,” Anna laughs.

Ares stands just outside the doorframe, darkly handsome despite the fact that his suit is neither as expensive nor as well-fitting as Leo’s. He holds out an elbow to Chay, who links her hand through.

Chay had a crush on Ares once upon a time, but it’s clear from the platonic tone of their greeting that no lingering romantic interest remains. I don’t think it was ever there on Ares’ side. Actually, I thought he might have feelings for Zoe before Miles came along, but Zoe swore up and down that was never the case.

“He never flirted with me one time,” Zoe told me.

“Yeah, but he was at the library with you constantly . . .”

“Well,” Zoe had said, giving me a mysterious look, “if you want to know my secret theory . . .”

“Always,” I laughed.

“Once we were climbing the stairs of the Library Tower and my shoelace came undone. I stopped to tie it, and Miss Robin thought Ares came in alone . . .”

“And?” I said, giddy with the thrill that always comes over me when I learn a piece of information I’m not supposed to know.

“Well . . . she didn’t say anything strange. But it was thewayshe talked to him.”

“What do you mean?”

“Just so . . . familiar.”

“Oh.” I had shrugged, disappointed. “He’s in there all the time, just like you.”

“I suppose,” Zoe said stubbornly. “It just seemed so . . . intimate.”

“You think they have a thing for each other?”

“I don’t know,” Zoe was losing confidence in her theory, realizing the flimsiness of her evidence.

“She’s a lot older than him,” I said.

“But she’s so beautiful . . .”

I had shaken my head, dismissing Zoe’s idea.

But I’ve thought of it plenty of times since—almost every time I’ve seen Ares or Miss Robin. They’re both so reclusive, and so carefully contained. Just the sort of people who could hide a secret affair. It does seem impossible that someone as handsome as Ares would resist so much willing female attention from his fellow students without a very good reason . . .

“I told Joss I’d meet him in the Grand Hall,” Rakel says, snapping me out of my speculation. “You want to walk over with me?”

“Sure.” I nod. “I’m meeting Dean there, too.”

We cross the long expanse of crunching, frosty grass separating the Solar from the Grand Hall. Dozens of students in their dress clothes likewise hurry in the same direction, some paired up as couples, and other bunches of males left without a date in our gender-imbalanced school.

I spot Dean waiting outside the doors, instantly recognizable with his pale skin and hair ghostly white against his ink-black tux.

“Go on ahead,” I say to Rakel.

She passes through the doors into the hall, while Dean pulls me to the side so we can speak in relative privacy.

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