Now
Good
27
Ares
I have to track Hedeon everywhere he goes.
I can barely let him out of my sight, in case he decides that’s the perfect moment to enact his revenge on Luther Hugo.
The Chancellor thought he covered up his little indiscretion so cleanly.
He seduced Evalina Markov. Impregnated her—accidentally I would assume. When she could no longer hide her belly under baggy school pullovers, he ferried her off the island on his private boat and sequestered her in a hospital in Dubrovnik. Shortly after the birth, he carried the baby away, never to be seen by its mother again.
Evalina Markov flew home to St. Petersburg, surprising her father, brother, and fiancé with her unexpected arrival. She told them she no longer cared to finish her schooling. Donovan Dryagin was only too happy to move up the long-awaited wedding date.
None of the men seemed to notice the difference in her figure or demeanor. Only my mother, having just gone through the same process of pregnancy herself, noted the tell-tale signs: the darker pigment on Evalina’s face, the bulge of her slowly shrinking uterus, and the aching breasts that likely were still producing milk the night of my parents’ party.
My mother liked Evalina Markov. She had no interest in exposing the girl’s secret.
However, she couldn’t resist tracking a piece of potentially valuable information. Knowing that Evalina could not have hidden a baby all on her own, she began to search for recent adoptions in mafia families.
It only took her a matter of months to find the Grays. She was surprised to discover that Kenneth and Margaret Gray had adopted not one but two baby boys that same year. The timing made obvious which one belonged to Evalina.
From there, it was no difficult task to confirm the father.
My mother kept that secret for eighteen years.
She keeps entire ledgers full of such leverage. It’s her nature to maintain blackmail and contingency plans on everyone. Most of it will never be used.
But in this case, three and a half years ago, we needed a favor . . .
Luther Hugo was just the man to provide it.
My mother arrived on the doorstep of his private compound in Monaco, informing him that he now had a long-lost niece . . .
He railed against the idea of allowing her on campus. For all his wealth and experience, nothing is more valuable to Luther Hugo than Kingmakers. His father was Chancellor before him, and his grandfather before him. The Hugos’ sigil of the golden skull is found on the university’s seal. By ruling the school, Luther rules the rising generation of every powerful mafia family across the globe.
I’m sure that’s why he went to such great pains to hide his illegitimate son.
If the Markovs discovered that he impregnated their daughter, he would have lost his position as Chancellor. To say nothing of the physical reprisal her family and the Dryagins would have sought.
So he hid the baby carefully, counting on Evalina’s shame and misery to keep her quiet.
He thought he got away with it.
Until my mother and Luther’s son came back into his life in the same year.
I’m not sure why he allowed Hedeon admission. My mother asked him that question once—he said it would have looked more suspicious if he denied the application. But hearing Hedeon’s story of how the Chancellor placed him in the Heirs division over Silas Gray, I think it was nothing more or less than pride. The Chancellor couldn’t resist seeing his son face-to-face, and he couldn’t bear the idea of his blood in a subordinate position.
Still, his fear of scandal is as powerful as ever. If Hedeon makes public what he knows, the Chancellor will surely expose my mother as well.
So I stalk Hedeon, trying to guess whether he truly intends to follow through on his quest for revenge.
It’s the worst possible task, because I am going through literal physical withdrawal for Nix. Not just for sex, though I’m dying to fuck her again. It’s her scent, her throaty laugh, and even the incendiary reaction that occurs in my brain when I catch sight of the particular shade of red in her brilliant hair. I need it all.
While I’m following Hedeon, I instruct Kade to do the same with Danyl Kuznetsov and his minions, by way of Dean Yenin.
We have to watch Danyl even closer than Hedeon.
The meeting of the high table did not go well. The Pakhans didn’t bother to hide their displeasure that once again my father sent Uncle Dom in his place. Danyl whipped them into a frenzy, demanding a video conference with Ivan at the very least. Dominik shut them down, departing Moscow under a cloud of barely-veiled threats.
As an additional bad omen, Bodashka Kushnir dropped out of Kingmakers, taking the supply ship back to Dubrovnik right after the dance.
I can’t help but think his father must have summoned him home. Which can only mean that the Foma Kushnir and Danyl Kuznetsov have plans they intend to execute before summer.
Meanwhile, my mother intercepts me on the way to Advanced Interrogation Techniques, my first class of the week.
She almost never speaks to me outside the library so I know at once this is no simple social call.
“Adrik says the mine looks good,” she says. “He’s seen military Hummers going in and out of the tunnels. The mine’s supposed to be decommissioned. But it’s definitely in use.”
“Kazakh military?” I say. “Or Malina?”
“He thinks both,” my mother says, eyes glinting. “I’m going there myself to check it out.”
“I’ll come with you,” I say at once.
“No—I’m leaving this afternoon. You stay here and keep an eye on Hedeon—if he blows this whole thing up, then Luther will fuck us over out of spite. We can’t have anyone raising an alarm while we’re still making arrangements.”
I stare at her hard.
“Don’t even think of doing it without me,” I say.
She holds my eyes, unblinking.
“I would never do that,” she says. “He’s your father and my husband. We’ll bring him home together.”
“Keep me updated,” I say.
I have a contraband cellphone, though not from Miles Griffin—I never trusted that he wasn’t monitoring the calls and texts on his clandestine network. Like my mother, Miles never misses an angle.
My mom and I have been in contact with Dom and Freya via our own phones. Because it’s difficult for me to find privacy on campus, Freya sends the complex or non-time-sensitive information via letters.
I can speak to my mom the same way. But as she turns to leave, already wearing a pair of trousers and a light coat, much more streamlined than Miss Robin’s usual cardigans, I feel a stab of fear for her.
As awful as the last few years have been, I knew my mother was secure on Visine Dvorca. Now she’s venturing out in the world again, with more fire in her eyes than I’ve seen in a long time. I’m worried what might happen to her.
The week passes achingly slow.
We’re in the doldrums of January, thick in some of the most dense and convoluted classes I’ve taken in my entire time at Kingmakers.
Worse, a flu is sweeping through the students, something that seems to happen every year despite our isolation.
Almost everybody in the Octagon Tower catches it, including Leo and me.