Page 154 of Kingmakers, Year One

“The Keep!” I hiss, careful not to call it out. “The Grand Hall!”

Seizing the skull in my hand, I start to run. The rest of the team chases after me.

As we pass Pippa’s team, I can see Pippa herself holding the puzzle in her hands, one single piece out of place.

She stares at me in wide-eyed disbelief as I sprint past her, her shock quickly turning to fury.

I’m not looking back at her—I’m staring straight ahead as I dash through the gates, between the greenhouses, right toward the Keep.

My team dashes inside the Grand Hall in a tangled knot, sweating and panting, hoping we’re at the right place . . .

As soon as I see Luther Hugo standing in front of the fireplace, I know that we are. He’s beneath his own black banner, the grinning golden skull floating above his head like a crown.

He smiles at us, his dark eyes glittering in his deeply-lined face. It’s the sort of smile the Devil might give you, if you managed to fiddle his tune.

“Well, well, well,” he says, softly. “Do my eyes deceive me? Or am I looking at the Freshmen?”

I take the heavy gold skull and press it into his hand.

35

DEAN

Iwatch from the common room window as Leo and his team of Freshmen run into the ground floor of the Keep. They’re followed less than five minutes later by the Seniors. I can tell from Pippa’s expression of fury, and their lack of haste, that they already know Leo won.

For me, it’s like watching a demon be resurrected for the sole purpose of torturing me all over again.

I fucking killed him. I drowned that motherfucker. How is he still alive?

I had him trapped way down deep in those caves with no air.

It’s impossible.

And yet there he is, not just alive but triumphant.

I go into my room and lock the door and sit down on my bed.

Outside I hear the ruckus as the other Freshman realize that we won theQuartum Bellumfor the first time in anyone’s memory. They’re all celebrating, loudly at first, and then the noise fades away as they leave the Octagon Tower and head out onto campus so they can hear the whole story.

I don’t care about the details. I only care what this means.

For one thing, I might be in a fuck of a lot of trouble. Leo knows I tried to kill him. If he tells the Chancellor what happened, if he has proof . . . I don’t know exactly what they’ll do to me, but it won’t be good.

That should be my primary concern. But it isn’t.

I have an entirely different realization occupying my brain.

I sit alone on my bed, reliving everything that happened this year. What I tried to accomplish, and how I failed every time.

I was wrong in thinking that there are good and evil people in the world.

There’s no good and evil.

There’s only the people blessed or cursed by fate.

Fate smiles on Leo. It gives him everything he wants. I killed him, I know I did. And yet somehow he was saved. I loved Anna . . . she loved Leo instead.

“Good people” are simply favored by fate.

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