Page 4 of Kingmakers, Year Two

I’m like those maidens the Incas used to sacrifice to the gods: the Virgins of the Sun. All year they were fed delicacies—maize and llama meat. They were bathed and beautified with feathered headdresses and exotic shell necklaces. And then they were carried to the mountaintop tombs, to be sealed inside as an offering to a god that craved their death.

Catalina comes into my room, likewise dressed for the night ahead.

Cat perfectly suits her name. She’s small and lithe, and she moves as silently as a little black cat. She has a pretty heart-shaped face, large, dark eyes, and a dusting of freckles across her nose. She’s dressed in a pale lavender gown.

Even though we’re only a year apart, she looks much younger.

She’s always been timid.

I can see how nervous she is for the party, for everyone staring at us. Lucky for her most of the attention will be pointed in my direction. And she doesn’t have to worry about being roped into some hateful marriage contract, at least not yet. That was part of my agreement with my father: Cat doesn’t have to get married until she graduates college, and neither do I.

My father and stepmother are allowing me to attend Kingmakers for all four years, as long as I agree to marry Rocco directly after graduation.

It was a last, desperate ploy on my part to delay the inevitable.

They only agreed because Rocco is also at Kingmakers, as are plenty of his cousins and mine, always around to spy on me, to make sure I’m not drinking or dating or breaching any of the rules of the betrothal.

Kingmakers is no normal school.

It’s a private college for the children of mafia families from around the globe, located on Visine Dvorca, a tiny island in the Adriatic Sea.

You couldn’t imagine a more lonely or isolated place.

And yet, I almost enjoyed my Freshman year.

It was my first time living away from my father. The relief I felt, alone in my tiny dorm room, was like nothing I’d ever experienced. When I attended my classes I was free to study and learn, and even make friends without constant judgment, constant criticism.

Kingmakers is a castle fortress, a city unto itself. So vast and sprawling that I could easily avoid Rocco most of the time. Since he’s a year older than me, we don’t share classes together.

The relief I felt was painful. Because I knew it couldn’t last.

Tasting freedom might only hurt me more in the end.

I felt guilty leaving Cat here alone. I know it was a hard year for her. I can see it as she sits down on the edge of my bed. She has a flinching reaction to noise that has worsened since I was gone.

But she should experience the same freedom soon enough—she’s been accepted to Pintamonas and will be leaving in the fall, the same as me.

Cat is a talented artist. She loves drawing, painting, and graphic design. She’ll flourish at school.

The further away from our world she goes, the better off she’ll be. Maybe she’ll escape it entirely, someway, somehow.

“You look stunning,” she says to me, wide-eyed and impressed.

Cat is so innocent. I’ve always tried to protect her from the uglier things in our lives. Like how much I loathe Rocco.

She knows I’m not thrilled about being pushed into the marriage. But I’ve never told her how much he terrifies me. It would devastate her. There’s nothing she can do to help me.

“The Princes will be so impressed by you,” Cat says sincerely.

“You look lovely, too,” I tell her.

She smiles at me, pleased, twisting back and forth a little so I can admire her new dress. Then she says, “I made this for you.”

Gently, she lays a bracelet in my open palm. It’s delicate and intricate, a net of tiny golden beads strung on woven wires. I can’t imagine the hours of painstaking work to braid those fragile strands.

It makes me want to cry.

Knowing you’re loved, truly loved, by at least one person makes all the difference in the world.

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