Page 16 of The Kings
“Imogen, right?” I greet her smoothly. “What’s up?”
Her eyes dart around, ensuring our privacy, as she indicates I follow her back outside. “I was impressed with your shit yesterday. I had assumptions, we all did, that you’d be some pretty little flower banking on your name to get ahead. So not the case. You kicked major butt. No one has ever run the gauntlet in the time you did.”
“Funny how everyone heard I was coming and didn’t do any research on me,” I mutter.
She snorts into her hand. “Oh, we did. We assumed it was fabricated. It happens.”
“Like David Grenville?”
She presses her lips together in an attempt not to laugh, but she can’t hold it in and erupts in a noise that sounds like a donkey dying.
I like her.
“Exactly like David Grenville. I’m impressed you got his measure and heard it was you who broke his finger. He’s telling everyone it was some thug who he beat into the ground.”
I roll my eyes. “Crybaby.”
“Totally. He thinks he’s a big shot, but we all know he’s no match for The Kings. He’s a wannabe, nothing more.”
The Kings.I’m guessing that’s my guys. Or the guys I live with, rather.
“Hmm.”
“But listen, I overheard something—you might want to know about it.”
“What is this? Forging alliances?” I ask, crossing my arms and giving her a glare.
“Yeah. You’re going to be Queen around here, and it doesn’t take a fucking genius to figure it out. You’re still being tested, so do you wanna know what I’ve got to say, or are we going to fight about it, and then I’ll end up telling you anyway?”
“Why would you do that?”
“Told you, you’re going to be Queen.”
“And you want to be my lady-in-waiting?”
“Something like that. But I like you. You’ve got grit and guts, and something tells me we would be awesome together in a fight.”
Laughing at her enthusiasm, I nod. “Something tells me the same. Okay, Imogen, you’ve got my attention.”
She inches closer, her following words low and urgent. “There’s a power shift coming. Some families are getting too comfortable, and others are planning moves.”
“Moves? What kind of moves?” I prod, intrigued.
“Big ones. Alliances are shifting, and some reckon you and those hotties you’re shacking up with might be in for a surprise.” Her gaze locks onto mine, serious as a heart attack. “Midnight, the North Castle.”
“Is that so?” My voice is steady, but my mind races. This is more than just idle gossip—it’s the currency of our world. “Thanks for the tip-off.”
“Careful though,” she adds quickly. “If they sense you’re onto them?—“
“They won’t, and they won’t hear it from me,” I cut in. “But cheers for the concern.”
“Anytime. You and me, we have each other’s back, yeah?”
“Yeah,” I murmur as she nods and hurries off. The cautious part of me screams at me that this is a set-up and that she’s baiting me, but the other part, the part that is always one step ahead, tells me she is in this with me to win. She’s not dumb. She knows I’ve got what it takes to rule this University, and she wants in. However, Dad always drummed it into me that those you consider friends are in a prime position to stab you in the back, so I’ll head to the North Castle at midnight, but I won’t be going alone.
Moving through campus like a wraith, I keep my ears open, gleaning snippets of conversation—each one a fragment of the larger puzzle that is Castle University’s secret society. It’s a tangled web, and I’m the spider expertly navigating its threads even as I keep one ear on my classes, one is listening to the chatter and hushed conversations all around me.
“Eliza.”
