Page 6 of Kings & Corruption

“What?” I said, trying to focus on her face and not the fact that I was moments away from being abandoned in the last place Emma had been seen.

“That it’s pretty!” Her green eyes were falsely bright, like she had a fever or something.

“Oh… uh, yeah. It’s super pretty.” I wasn’t sure she bought my forced smile, but it didn’t really matter. The whole charade was about appearances anyway.

“I’ve told Neo to keep an eye on you,” Roberto said, meeting my eyes in the rearview mirror.

Maybe it was meant to sound nice, protective even, but it sounded ominous coming from him. The last thing I wanted was Neo Alinari and his two mountainous minions all up in my business, and I was glad they’d driven up on their own.

Which, of course they would, because whatever would they do without their expensive cars on campus?

“I’m sure I’ll be fine,” I said.

I wasn’t sure, but I would have to be, wouldn’t I? For Emma and myself.

I looked through the front seats at the stone and brick buildings rising from pristine lawns in the distance. As we got closer to the heart of the Aventine campus, students walked alone and in groups, carrying books and bedding and plastic bins.

There were very few parents, which was no surprise. Surviving in our world meant demonstrating you could handle yourself, and everything about Aventine was a proving ground for the lives that awaited us. Having Mommy set up your dorm room wouldn’t do you any favors in the street cred department.

Plus, most of the kids at Aventine had taken at least one gap year to work in the family business, something that was seen as critical context for our formal education. I doubted there were many terrified freshmen here.

We passed a road leading to several brick buildings — dorms, I assumed — and circled around a fountain with a statue of some old white guy in front of an imposing stone building with wide front steps.

“I’ll check you in,” Roberto said.

“It’s fine. I can — ”

“Nonsense.” His voice was crisp. “I’d like to say hello to Dean Giordana, and you have a long few days ahead of you.”

Right. Welcome Week.

Dumb, right? And not just because it was, well, dumb, but because it wasn’t a whole week. Just four fun-filled days of orientations, meet and greets, and awkward encounters with people who would probably treat me like a leper as soon as they learned my name.

“Thanks,” I said weakly, sinking back into the seat.

“You’re just the best,” my mom gushed, squeezing Roberto’s arm. “Thank you.”

He leaned over and kissed her full on the lips, long enough to make me squirm. “You and Willa deserve to be taken care of properly.”

The way he said it, I wasn’t sure if he meant pampered or dumped at the bottom of Long Island Sound.

With Roberto, either was possible.

He got out of the car and started for the steps leading to the stone building. My mom watched him go, then turned around to glare at me.

“You could try being grateful, you know.”

“For being forced to go to the school where Emma went missing?” I asked.

My mom set her jaw in a tight line, the way she did when she’d made her mind up about something. “She didn’t go missing here.”

“It’s the last place she was seen,” I said.

She sighed. “Did it ever occur to you that Emma ran away? That maybe she wanted something else?”

Like your father.

The words were left unsaid but I could almost hear them. They hurt because somewhere deep inside, when I was all alone at night with the worst of my demons, I’d asked myself the same question.

---