Page 145 of Kingmakers, Year One

“That’s the sea caves.” Anna points.

I say, “How do you know that?”

She flushes. “I’ve been there.”

“Do you want to take that challenge, then?”

She hesitates. “No. I’ll take this one . . . on the cliffs.”

I take the last map. “I’ll do the caves, then.”

I mostly chose them because the caves are right next to the cliffs, and I’d rather stick close to Anna if I can. Just in case she needs my help.

“Time,” Professor Howell says, clicking his stopwatch.

I was so engrossed in dividing the maps that I didn’t pay any attention to what Pippa was doing. Maybe that was a mistake—maybe I should have tried to match up my players with hers. It won’t be good if Matteo has to face off against Liam, or Silas against Pippa.

I grit my teeth, thinking that most of Pippa’s team looks older, wiser, and more prepared than mine. It doesn’t matter who I pair up—we’re already at a disadvantage.

I shake my head hard to clear it. That’s not the way to think. We can do this, or we can’t—and we’ll find out soon enough.

“Never mind about them,” I say to my team. “We’re not competing against them. We’re competing against ourselves. Don’t hesitate, don’t second-guess yourself, and whatever else you do, don’t you fucking quit.”

“We won’t,” Ares says firmly.

Professor Howell raises his starter pistol to the sky.

“Ready . . .GO!”

I don’t even hear the pistol shot because I’m already off and running with Anna at my side. We’re sprinting east to the spot marked on the map—the place where she’ll have to ascend the steep limestone cliffs, and I’ll have to go the other way, down into the underground sea caves.

Anna looks fresh and eager, running across the field as swift as a deer. Her hair streams behind her, golden in the sunshine, and it feels like it’s only the two of us in a race against each other.

Off to our right, I see Johnny Hale and Mikhail Agapov jogging in a parallel direction, apparently having received the same maps as Anna and me.

“Which challenge do you think Pippa chose?” I pant.

“Who knows!” Anna pants. “How is she so terrifying when she’s so tiny?”

“Are you scared of her, too?” I laugh. “I thought you’d get used to her living in the same dorm.”

“Fuck no!” Anna cries. “It only gets worse. The other day she said Angelique’s perfume reeked, and she threw the bottle out the window.”

“Did it reek?” I laugh, pressing my hand against the stitch in my side.

“Well, yeah,” Anna admits. “Guess she did us all a favor. But she didn’t have to make her cry.”

Anna and I have reached the point where we have to scrabble down a steep path to the beach below. I hold out my hand to help her and Anna ignores it, laughing and sliding down on her heels faster than I can follow.

“Come on, slowpoke!” she shouts.

I skid down after her, not caring if the loose gravel tears the shit out of my gym shorts, because after all, I’ll only be using them a couple more days.

When we reach the beach, Anna and I have to part ways—her to scale the steep cliffs, and me to enter the caves.

I look up at the cliffs, which seem impossibly steep and sheer.

“I don’t see any ropes . . .”

---