The rebel

“Wow,” Perry whispers next to me. She’s staring up at the castle fortress, as is almost everyone else.

I’ve never seen anything like it.

Kingmakers protrudes directly out of the rock, carved from the same pale limestone as the cliffs. It rises in tiers like a cake, rough and ancient-looking. Dark stains run down from the windows, as if the castle is crying. I’m sure it’s only the marks of rainwater, but it gives a strange sense of foreboding that isn’t helped by the grotesque and demonic gargoyles menacing each cornice.

Waves beat ferociously against the cliffs. Zoe warned me that the journey into the harbor would be difficult, and sure enough, the ship pitches and rolls so hard that it sometimes looks as if the masts will dip down into the water.

Once we’re inside the sheltered bay, however, the sea smooths once more and I’m able to look with interest at the little village encircling the docks.

It’s a pretty little town, the weathered wooden buildings stacked right up against the water on stilts, with spaces beneath so that rowboats can take the fisherman all the way to their doors.

The island rises up behind the village—fields and farms, orchards and olive groves, and patches of thick green forest. Then, at the highest and most distant point: the spires of Kingmakers.

The air carries the familiar salt tang of the sea, but also sharper, colder scents—pine and stone. Smoke and iron.

Several open wagons wait to take us to the school. I check to see if my suitcase was safely unloaded from the ship, but there’s too many students milling around to get a good look.

“Come on!” Perry says to me. “Let’s grab a seat!”

I follow her into the closest wagon, where she squeezes us into a group of kids she apparently already knows. They’re pleasant and friendly, but a quick round of introductions reveals that they’re all Accountants or Enforcers. I haven’t met a single other Spy, which isn’t helping my nerves.

Worse still, every time I explain my division I’m greeted with a bemused expression. I really must look as incompetent as I feel.

The Accountants division is the usual catch-all for the studious and introverted children of mafia families. It’s the place we can be useful. A job intended to keep us safe.

As a Spy, I’ll be nothing but a liability.

I’m scared I won’t even survive the classes. Nobody’s pulling any punches in Combat. We’ll use live ammunition in Marksmanship. Worst of all is Torture Techniques.

“They hook you up to a car battery,” a stocky Enforcer says. “You do it in pairs, and you take turns. One of you has to pull the switch, and the other has to take the shock. It’s to desensitize you. If you can electrocute your friend, you’ll have no problem doing it to an enemy . . .”

Perry’s friends are sharing the most outlandish and terrifying stories they’ve heard about Kingmakers.

“I heard at least five students die every year,” a slim Asian girl says.

“Bollocks,” a plump blond boy retorts. “It can’t be that many, or nobody would send their kids.”

“People do die,” a red-haired girl with a French accent says. “The year my oldest brother was here, a Senior hung himself in the cathedral.”

“Well that’s suicide,” the blond boy says stubbornly. “That could happen anywhere.”

“He only did it because they drove him to it with all the assignments and exams,” the redhead says, lifting her chin.

“I hate exams,” Perry says, letting out a dismal sigh.

I don’t mind tests. In fact, sometimes I take them for fun, if it’s something interesting like an IQ test or a personality quiz. But that’s a nerdy thing to say, so I keep it to myself.

“Who has siblings here?” Perry asks.

About half the kids raise their hands, including me.

“It’s so stupid that they don’t let us bring our phones,” a short, stocky boy grumbles.

“It wouldn’t do you any good anyway,” the red-haired girl says. “There’s no internet, no cell service.”

“No toilets either,” a ski

The Asian girl stares at him in horror.

“He’s fucking with you,” Perry laughs. “They have normal bathrooms.”

I force myself to laugh along with the other kids. Honestly, nothing would surprise me when it comes to Kingmakers.

At least the island is beautiful. Visine Dvorca is not unlike Barcelona in that it’s su

Thinking of the winter reminds me that I won’t be going home for almost an entire year. For the first time I feel a slight frisson of anticipation—the relief that I won’t have Daniela’s sharp eyes constantly fixed on me, or my father’s hot temper applied to me.

Several of our cousins attend Kingmakers. Zoe cautioned me that two in particular—the hateful Martin Romero and the arrogant Santiago Cruz—have been spying on her and reporting back to our father. That’s still less oppressive than living under his roof.

That infinitesimal glimmer of hope is immediately extinguished as we pass through the forbidding stone gates into Kingmakers. I swear the temperature drops twenty degrees within the towering walls, as the sheer size and scope of the castle becomes apparent. I see dozens of grandiose buildings, towers, greenhouses, balustraded terraces, and structures I can’t even name. I feel like I’ve been shrunk down to the size of an ant, dwarfed by the monumental architecture.

The friendly chatter ceases amongst the Freshmen in my wagon as we gaze awestruck all around us.

If I thought my fellow Freshmen were intimidating, it’s nothing to how the upperclassmen strike me. They’re tall and powerfully built, striding across the grounds with confidence I could never dream of possessing. They don’t look like students at all—more like royalty. They’re haughty and powerful, with an edge of ferocity that quite frankly terrifies me.

I’ve been around the children of mafia before. But never like this, never en masse. Every single person here is a born killer.

Except for me.

I don’t know why I didn’t get that particular gene. There’s none of my father in me.

I crane my neck, looking for Zoe. She’s nowhere to be seen. Her classes started a week ago, so she’s probably inside one of the many buildings, diligently taking notes on some professor’s lecture.

The wagons jerk to a stop and the Freshmen unload. There’s a scramble as we try to dig our suitcases out of the wagon full of luggage. Once we’ve all secured our bags, we’re greeted by a handful of disdainful-looking Seniors who split us up according to our divisions.

The Enforcers are the most numerous, and almost entirely composed of male students. At Kingmakers, boys outnumber girls four to one. Not all mafia families care to send their daughters to be trained. My father had no intention of sending either Zoe or me, before Zoe refused to marry Rocco Prince unless she could attend college first.

She thought he’d send her to a normal university. Instead he ordered her to join Rocco at Kingmakers.

Now I’ve been thrust into that devil’s bargain right alongside her.

The Accountants are the second-largest group, and the only division with an almost equal split of girls and boys. Most of the kids in from my wagon happily head off together, taking Perry along with them. She gives me a little wave as they depart.

Now only the Heirs and Spies are left.