Page 25 of Kingmakers, Year Four

The professor dismisses us.

Sabrina chuckles as she snatches up her school bag.

“What?” I say.

“He almost makes us sound altruistic,” she says. “I do intend to be a benevolent queen. Unless somebody fucks with me.”

She slings her bag over her shoulder, heading down the deep stone staircase of the Keep.

The hallways are crowded with students. That was the last class of the day—now everybody’s heading to the dining hall.

I’ve got no complaint about the food at Kingmakers. My dad likes to eat, but he has no taste, so none of the chefs at our compound have ever been good.

Also, I’m fucking starving all the time so I’m hardly picky.

I follow Sabrina out into the late-afternoon sunshine. The light turns her skin from tan to gold. It makes every male head in a half-mile radius twist toward us. Only five seconds pass before we’re joined by Hedeon Gray, Leo Gallo, and Leo’s tall friend who I’ve seen at a distance but not yet met. The boys are lured in to Sabrina like bees to honey.

“How’s class, kiddo?” Leo says, reaching out a long-fingered hand to ruffle Sabrina’s hair.

She nimbly slips his grasp, falling into pace next to Hedeon instead. Hedeon pretends not to notice, but pulls his shoulders back all of a sudden, standing taller.

“Class is great,” Sabrina replies. “I knew you guys were exaggerating when you said Kingmakers was hard.”

“Or you’re just smarter than us, is that what you’re saying?” Leo laughs, shaking a finger at her.

“I dunno.” Sabrina grins at him wickedly, “Can the same cousin be the smartest ANDthe best looking?”

“No fucking way are you the best-looking cousin!” Leo scoffs, genuinely offended.

“You don’t care if I’m the smartest, though,” Sabrina snorts.

“Fuck no,” Leo says. “That’s why I’ve got Anna here, in case I need to fill out a crossword puzzle.”

Anna Wilk has just caught up with us, her fair hair twisted up in a knot on top of her head, and her tights artfully shredded beneath the hem of her black plaid skirt.

Leo grabs her hand and pulls her close so he can kiss her.

They make a striking couple: Leo tall and tan, with a dazzling smile and the easy grace of an athlete, Anna stark and pale, her ice-blue eyes cutting straight to the soul.

This is the other reason I’ve been nervous to join Sabrina’s table in the dining hall—every damn person she associates with is gorgeous. They all have this glamor around them, even Hedeon with his perpetual scowl, and Leo’s tall friend in his shabby uniforms and cheap shoes—Ares, I think he’s called.

I fall into step by Ares, noticing that our strides are almost exactly the same length. I look up at his face—it’s nice to look up to someone again. Makes me miss my dad.

He’s got a lean, tanned face. A dark thatch of hair with streaks of sun in it. His eyes are mostly blue with a little green in them. I think Sabrina said he was Greek—he must be, with that name.

“I’m Ares,” he confirms.

“Nix,” I hold out my hand.

I’d stopped doing that, with the reception I’d been getting from my fellow students. But I forgot, and now I have to watch the shudder of repulsion that crosses his features before he forces himself to take my hand and give it a brief shake.

His hand is warm. I can feel the bones shifting beneath the muscle and skin, like deep tectonic plates.

“You’re Sabrina’s roommate?” he asks.

“That’s right.”

“I room with Leo.” He nods toward Leo Gallo, who’s now whispering something in Anna Wilk’s ear, to which Anna grins and agrees.

---