Year Two (Kingmakers, #2)

by Sophie Lark

“What are you thinking?” Miles murmurs in my ear. “I’m thinking this is the best day of my life,” I say. “All the best days have been with you. They just keep getting better.” “My mother told me that once,” Miles says quietly. “When you find your soulmate . . . every day is the best day.” He tilts my head back so he can kiss me. “I didn’t understand it then,” he says. “I’m starting to now.”

“You’re the most beautiful sight I’ve ever seen, Zoe,” he growls, his voice low and thick. “No sunset, no painting, no creation of god or man is more stunning than you.” He laughs. “Not even in Tasmania.”

Many rules at Kingmakers can be bent. Some can even be broken. The one irreversible decree is the Rule of Recompense. An eye for an eye. Tooth for a tooth. Death for a death. Ozzy has already been sentenced. Tomorrow he dies.

I can’t even apologize to Ozzy because he took his mother’s body back to Tasmania, and he won’t be returning to Kingmakers. I write him letters, letters to his father, too. He hasn’t responded. I don’t expect him to. He already said what he wanted to say, in a note left on Miles’ bed, addressed to both of us: It’s not your fault. Be safe and be well. Neither Miles nor I believe it. It is our fault. We wanted what we were forbidden to have.

He’s beautiful when he’s sad and when he’s scared. When he’s happy or when he’s angry. He’s a diamond with a hundred facets. Each one is pure and perfect to me. But he doesn’t belong to me and he never did. I was never meant to have such a treasure.

I had a long time to think in the Prison Tower. Even longer in the weeks that followed, when Ozzy was gone and I was alone in the dorm room. What I realized is this: If not for Zoe, it would have been my mother who was executed. I was in a rage that night. I wanted to kill Wade, Jasper, Dax, and most of all Rocco. They pushed us and pushed us, crossing every fucking line. In that fight—with Zoe in danger, and Chay and Ozzy hurt—I lost control. I could have killed any one of them. It was Zoe who screamed for me to stop. She was the one who dragged me back. The only person who could have brought me to my senses in that moment. Ozzy struck the killing blow. But it could just as easily have been me. Then it would have been my mother who traded her life, who took the punishment, who paid the debt. I know she would have done it, unhesitatingly. Just like Ozzy’s mom. It would have killed me. It would have poisoned my soul.

“What did she say to you?” I ask. I have no right to ask, but I want to know all the same. “She said, ‘I love you, bub. No more violence from this. Go on happy and strong.’ ” Ozzy pauses to swallow. “She didn’t want me to try to get revenge. But I don’t know if I can do that. In five years, ten . . . when it seems unrelated, when nobody remembers but me . . . I want to kill them. Rocco, Jasper, Dax.” “If you want that, I’ll help you,” I promise him. “Whatever you feel is just . . . I’m there.” “I hoped you’d say that,” Ozzy says, quietly.

“I’m on a very tight schedule, and I don’t have time to barter. So here is an unprecedented opportunity for generosity. A level of largess I may never match again in my life. Tell me what it is, Ares. Name your price.” Ares looks at me steadily, making some silent calculation I can only begin to guess. I wait and wait, knowing better than to stomp on a blossoming answer. Finally he replies. “A favor,” he says. “What favor?” “That’s the rub. A favor of my choosing, to be determined at a time of my choosing. In the future. But the promise comes now.” “Is there any limit on this favor? You’re not gonna ask for my firstborn with Zoe?” Ares allows a very small smile. “No,” he says. “Nothing that would upset Zoe.” “Then I agree. Any fucking favor at any time, I promise you.” “Alright then,” he holds out his hands to shake, to seal the deal now and forever. “I’ll do it.”

“That was fucking insane!” I shout, clapping him on the back. “We have to do the same thing on the way back,” Ares reminds me, “with the waves pushing us forward instead of holding us back, which might be even worse.” “Don’t worry,” I tell him. “If the Malina kill us, we won’t have to come back at all.” Ares turns to glare at me. “Don’t joke. Don’t even think about trying to be fucking funny with these people. The only thing that would make them laugh is cutting your throat.” “Hey,” I tell Ares, serious now. “You don’t have to worry about that. I’m not going to let Zoe down.” Ares looks at me, reading the truth in my face. “I know,” he says. “That’s why I agreed to this.”

The biggest fucking deal of my life. For the greatest prize imaginable.

I’m ten minutes past the three hours Ares and I agreed upon. Yet the sleek black boat waits at the end of its berth. “You were supposed to leave without me,” I tell Ares. “I know,” he sighs. “I kinda need you to get back through those rocks.” “And you were mildly concerned that I might be dead.” “Concerned, or hopeful?” “Definitely concerned.” “Only ‘cause I thought I might miss out on my cut of this super important deal.” I laugh. “There is no cut. I’m broke as fuck now. Spent it all.” Ares shakes his head at me. “That doesn’t sound like a very good deal.” I picture Zoe’s face when I tell her what I’ve done. The way her disbelief will melt into a smile brighter than the dawn. “It’s a fucking fantastic deal,” I tell him. “The best I’ll ever get.”

The only way for Zoe to be safe . . . is for Rocco to die.

Leo is, of course, hoping to lead us to victory for the second year in a row. If we’re champions four years running, he’ll beat the record previously set by Adrik Petrov, the St. Petersburg Enforcer whose name has gone down in legend as the only Captain to win three years in a row. Adrik graduated right before I came to Kingmakers, so I never laid eyes on him, but Miles assures me that his exploits are not exaggerated.

Rocco has to die, and I’m the only one who can do it. It can’t be Zoe or Miles. They’re the obvious suspects. If they kill Rocco, the Chancellor will find out, or the Princes. Their new life together will be destroyed before it even starts. In fact, I have to make sure that when Rocco dies, it’s glaringly obvious that Zoe and Miles had nothing to do with it.

Only a very few people were out of my sight when Rocco was killed. One of those people was Cat.

“You want me to keep your secret?” Dean asks me, his voice as soft as a caress. I nod. I would fall on my knees before him to beg, if I were capable of moving. “I won’t tell,” Dean promises. “But understand this . . . I own you now. When we come back to school, you’re mine. My servant. My slave. For as long as I want you.”

“You make me so happy,” he says, pressing his forehead against mine. “You’ve changed my whole life,” I tell him in return.