18 Years Later
When I get home from the grocery store, there’s a letter laying on the table in the hall.
That’s where Seb and I keep all our mail—or at least, the mail that the other person will want to see. Fliers and ads go in the trash. Actual correspondence is placed here.
Of course, we don’t get much of that these days. It’s almost always a birthday or thank-you card. Sometimes a formal invitation to a party, or a charity event.
That’s what I’m expecting when I pick up the heavy envelope, with its expensive slate-gray stationary. It’s only when I turn it over that I see the seal.
It’s an old-fashioned crown, set inside the arch of twin olive branches. The image has been pressed into melted wax, deep crimson, the color of dried blood.
It startles me so badly that I almost drop the envelope right back down on the table. But I force myself to break the seal by sliding my thumbnail beneath the flap, lifting it open and pulling out the two sheets of paper within.
The letter is handwritten, in neat cursive.
Leo Gallo,
I am writing to inform you that you have been accepted to Kingmakers Academy. You have furthermore been granted automatic admission to the Heirs division, as is your right as the undisputed heir of the Gallo empire.
School will commence on the first of September. You are expected to report to the Grand Villa in Dubrovnik, no later than August thirtieth. From there, you will be taken to our secure campus.
As you are probably aware, admission to our campus is singular and irrevocable. If you decide to leave for any reason, you will not be permitted to return.
For that reason, please be sure to bring all items you will require for the duration of your program.
Enclosed is a list of our rules and regulations. Sign and return your acknowledgment of the contract, including your willingness to abide by our arbitration and punishment system. Your parents’ signatures and imprints are likewise required.
We look forward to meeting you. You will be joining an elite institution with a long and storied history. Perhaps someday your name will be inscribed on the wall of Dominus Scelestos.
For now, please convey my regards to your parents.
Sincerely,
Luther Hugo
Necessitas Non Habet Legem—Necessity Has No Law
Enclosed with the letter is the mentioned list of rules and regulations. These are likewise handwritten in ornate but highly legible script.
1. Violence against fellow students is not permitted. All violence shall be answered in kind—Blow for blow. Injury for injury. And death for death.
2. Students are not to leave the campus for any reason, except to visit the city of Dubrovnik on permitted days.
3. Students cannot transfer between divisions. Once you have been assigned a division, you must . . .
I throw down the letter, not wanting to read any more.
Thank god Leo is at school, and probably hasn’t seen it yet.
I storm into Seb’s office, shoving open his door without knocking. He looks up from his computer, pleased to see me, and not particularly bothered by how aggressively I arrived.
It’s very inconvenient how attractive my husband has stayed, all these years. It makes it hard to rage at him, when the sight of him still fills me with butterflies every single time.
There’s a little gray in his hair now, and he wears black-rimmed reading glasses, but those things only give him an air of intelligence and gravitas to replace his former boyishness. He’s still as tall and fit as ever, with a lean, handsome face, and those intent brown eyes beneath brows as straight and dark as ever.
“There you are,” he says, smiling at me.
“Why is there an acceptance letter from Kingmakers in the hall?” I demand.
“I assume because Leo has been accepted,” Seb says, calmly.
“Why did he apply in the first place?” I cry. “Why does he even know it exists?”
Seb takes off his glasses and folds them, standing up from his desk. He comes around next to me, towering over me as only he can do.
He doesn’t do it to intimidate me. He wants to comfort me. But there’s no smoothing this over.
“He’s not going,” I say.
Sebastian sighs. He doesn’t want to argue with me. He never does. But he also never lies to me. It’s a promise we’ve kept to each other, all these years—to tell the truth, always. Even when it’s hard. Even when it hurts.
“He turns eighteen next week,” Sebastian says. “It’s not our choice, Yelena.”
I turn my face up to his, so he can see the anguish in my eyes.
“It’s not safe,” I tell him. “That place is stuffed with the children of the worst criminals from every corner of the globe . . .”
”Yes,” Sebastian agrees. “But that doesn’t mean it’s not safe. It’s the only place he will be safe, Yelena. The only place with Sanctuary.”
What he’s saying is true, though I don’t want to admit it. If Leo went to a normal school, he could be attacked or killed by any one of our enemies. Only at Kingmakers is there a sacrosanct rule against attacking any of the students for the duration of their program.
But rule or no rule . . . Leo will be attending classes with the people who hate us most. Or at least, one very specific person.
“Dean is going, too . . .” I whisper.
Sebastian sighs. “I know,” he says.
Dean is Adrian’s son. Only six months younger than Leo. They’ll be in the same year at Kingmaker’s. The same division, too. Both Heirs.
“I can only imagine what Adrian has told him,” I say.
I never reconciled with my brother. He never let me. He’s hated me for eighteen years. He’s hated Sebastian more. His son will loathe and despise Leo, I’m sure of it. I can’t imagine how they could live side by side without killing each other.
Adrian moved back to Moscow shortly after his son was born. It’s the only reason the resentment between us has persisted as a low-level Cold War, and not an all-out battle.
“Anna will be attending,” Sebastian says.
Anna is Mikolaj and Nessa’s daughter, and Leo’s best friend. They’ve been inseparable since they were toddlers. I wonder if that’s why Leo wanted to go to Kingmakers in the first place—to stay close to her.
“I’m surprised Nessa’s okay with that. Wasn’t Anna admitted to Julliard?”
“She chose Kingmakers,” Sebastian says, simply.
The implication is clear. Nessa and Mikolaj allowed Anna to make her own choice—we should do the same.
“It’s so far . . .” I say to Sebastian. “And they’re not allowed to come home . . .”
“Only three years,” Seb says. “They can visit in the summer—just not the school year.”
The anxiety I’m feeling is unbearable. Leo is our only child. He’s the center of our world. If anything happened to him . . .
“He’ll be fine,” Sebastian says, reading my mind. He pulls me against his chest, so I can feel the strength of his arms wrapped around me, and the steady beating of his heart. “You know how smart he is. And how talented.”
“Too smart for his own good,” I say.
I feel Sebastian’s chest shake as he laughs quietly.
“Yes, he is,” he says. “But at the end of the day . . . when have we ever been able to stop him from doing what he wants?”
“Never,” I say.
“He’s a fighter like you. Brilliant like you. If I wanted an ordinary son with an ordinary life . . .” Sebastian grins. “I would have married all those other girls who wanted me.”
I snort, shaking my head at him. “Remembering your glory days, huh?”
He kisses me softly on the lips. “There was only one glory day. The day I met you.”
I came in here determined not to be comforted. And yet I am comforted, against my will. I can’t feel anything but peace when Sebastian holds me.
“I wish life were always easy,” I say.
Sebastian kisses me again.
“If it was, then it wouldn’t be our life,” he says.
