Page 118 of Kingmakers, Year Four

“No,” Hugo says at last. “I never told her.”

There’s no roar of rage, no warning—Hedeon runs at the Chancellor, and I have no chance to grab the letter opener. I barely catch Hedeon’s wrist as he stabs at Hugo’s throat. Hedeon and I wrestle over the knife, the blade swinging wildly back and forth between us, once almost plunging into the Chancellor’s shoulder, and once sweeping in front of my face an inch from my eye.

Now is the moment where I have to choose: my friends or my family. Mercy or loyalty.

My scramble with Hedeon is brutal and brief. I don’t want to hurt him, but I can’t let him kill the Chancellor. I hold nothing back. Perhaps Hedeon does—because I’m able to wrench the knife away from him and pin him down, both of us breathing hard,my cheek scraped and his nose bloody, but neither of us seriously hurt.

Maybe he doesn’t want to kill Hugo as much as he thought.

“Look,” I pant, “I’m really fucking sorry about this, but I don’t have a choice.”

I slash another cord from the drapes and tie his hands just like we did to the Chancellor.

“Those curtains are two hundred years old,” Hugo says, irritably.

“Time for some new ones, then,” I snap.

Hedeon isn’t fighting me anymore. He’s given up—on pretty much everything, from the look of it.

He only gives me one resentful glare as I cut Hugo free.

“And what am I supposed to do about this?” Hugo says, standing from the chair, sneering in the direction of the temporarily subdued Hedeon. “Pretend like he didn’t try to kill me?”

“Yes,” I say, testily. “I doubt you want to blow this thing up any more than I do.”

Hedeon is still watching the Chancellor mutinously.

“Try that again,” Hugo says to him, quietly, “and you won’t find me so easy to surprise.”

“You won’t see anything but oblivion,” Hedeon hisses back at him.

Not wanting the two of them to exchange any more words, or Hugo to consider more options for reprisal, I frog-march Hedeon out of the office—quietly pocketing the keys to Hugo’s cruiser on my way past the desk. I don’t want to have to come back for those tomorrow.

Hedeon is letting me lead him along, not struggling. I can tell he thinks the idea of me holding him captive is fucking ridiculous.

“What’s your plan now?” he says. “Keep me tied up the rest of the year so I don’t go blabbing about your weird secret deal with Hugo?”

I don’t have to keep Hedeon incapacitated the rest of the year—only until tomorrow night when I leave. But even that is going to be extremely difficult since I don’t have a private dorm room. I consider taking Hedeon to the library to lock him up in the archives, but my mother isn’t there to keep an eye on him.

I decide to simply take him to his own room, trusting that Kenzo is still on plague watch.

The Octagon Tower is so silent that the air seems thick and buzzing. I hustle Hedeon along, already starting to feel a sense of relief as we near his door.

Until Leo rounds the corner, heading back from the bathroom. He halts in the hallway, not sleepy enough to miss the fact that I’m marching Hedeon along with his hands tied behind his back.

“Uh . . . what the fuck are you doing?” Leo asks.

“That’s a great question,” Hedeon replies.

I shove Hedeon into his room, having no choice but to allow Leo to follow. Leo closes the door gently behind us, folding his arms over his broad chest and saying, carefully, “Is this consensual, or . . .?”

“No, it’s not fucking consensual,” Hedeon snarls.

Leo looks at me with an expression of mingled amusement and genuine concern.

“What’s going on, Ares?” he says.

I take a deep breath.

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