“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I say coldly.
“He’s got a lot of nerve sending you here,” Estas sneers, his nose so close to mine that his spit hits my cheeks. He bumps me with his chest, pushing me backward. “Does he think the Rule of Recompense is gonna protect you? We can make your life a living hell without ever putting a finger on you . . .”
“Get the fuck out of my face,” I snarl back at him. “And don’t you say a word about my father or I’ll twist your head around like a fuckin’ dandelion!”
“I’ll say whatever I like about that lying, murderous piece of—”
I haul off and punch Estas right in the nose, hard as I can.
I do it without thought or any kind of plan. I know we’re not supposed to fight at Kingmakers, but technically we’re not at Kingmakers yet, and also, fuck this lying sack of shit trying to start something with me on the first day of school!
Disloyalty to family is the worst accusation you can make in the mafia world. This motherfucker’s gonna learn real quick the consequences of slandering my father.
His skinny friend tries to grab me and put me in a headlock, which turns into a tussle on the deck, me punching and kicking every piece of him I can reach, while the skinny guy hangs on like a spider monkey. Estas, snarling with blood all over his teeth, tries to jump on me too. To my surprise, the lovely Sabrina Gallo punches him in almost exactly the same place that I did, turning his bloody nose into a spurting fountain.
Caleb grabs her arms and hauls her back, shouting, “Dude! How am I the responsible one here?”
The rest of the fight is swiftly broken up by several burly deckhands who rip Estas and me apart, tie our hands in front of us, and dump us down on opposite ends of the deck.
Unfortunately, Sabrina gets the same treatment, deposited right next to me with Estas’ blood still on her knuckles.
“NO FIGHTING!” the first mate howls at us, pointing his thick finger right in our faces. “You fucking sit there and don’t move an inch, any of you!”
Estas and his skinny friend glower at us from the stern, but under the first mate’s glare, they keep their mouths shut.
Caleb, at least, isn’t in trouble because he only tried to hold Sabrina back. He watches us from several feet away, frowning and worried, held back by the prowling first mate. Cara Wilk gives us a sympathetic shrug.
“I’m sorry,” I say to Sabrina guiltily.
“Ah, it’s fine,” she says. “He started it.”
“I don’t even know him!” I cry. “I don’t know what the fuck his problem is.”
“Hm,” Sabrina says noncommittally.
“What?” I demand, turning to face her.
“Nothing.” She shrugs.
“No, it’s not nothing,” I say. “Everybody’s looking at me weird. You know something about it—go on and spit it out.”
Sabrina cocks one soot-black eyebrow, looking at me with her cool gray eyes.
“You didn’t seem too open to constructive criticism from our friend Estas over there,” she says.
My face goes hot. I swallow back the retort that immediately springs to mind. I’m in fight mode right now, and I don’t want to turn that on Sabrina. She was trying to help me.
“I want to know what’s going on,” I tell her.
Sabrina holds up her bound hands, in a silent, Well, if that’s what you really want . . .
“Your dad’s got a bad reputation,” she says.
I frown.
“Everybody has a bad reputation. We’re a bunch of criminals.”
“Even in a school full of bad guys . . . he’s known as a pretty bad guy,” Sabrina says.
I want to tell Sabrina to fuck off. That’s my father she’s talking about—the man who adored me and raised me and taught me everything I know. My dad’s brilliant and ambitious. Yes he has a temper, and yes we fight like hell sometimes, but I admire him wholeheartedly.
On the other hand . . . Sabrina’s not really the person saying this. The message is screamed at me in the cold disdain of every student I meet.
Sabrina Gallo’s the only person who doesn’t seem to hate my guts on sight. So it would be pretty stupid to bite her head off as the bearer of bad news.
“I’ve never heard that before,” I say stiffly. “Obviously I think he’s great.”
“Of course you do,” Sabrina says.
I sit there fuming for a minute, pissed that all these kids think they have the right to judge my family, when they’re from thieving, murdering stock, just the same as me.
“Why’d you help me, then?” I demand. “If you think Estas is right?”
“I didn’t say I thought he was right,” Sabrina says. “I don’t know your dad; I’ve never met him. You seem cool, and Estas seems like an asshole. And quite honestly, I didn’t put that much thought into it before I decked him. It just felt right in the moment.”
That’s about the same amount of forethought I was using.
Our eyes meet, and I can’t help snorting. Sabrina starts laughing, too.
It’s embarrassing as hell arriving in the port of Visine Dvorca tied up like prisoners. But it’s also kind of funny how badly I managed to fuck up the first day of school.
Caleb Griffin sees us laughing. He shakes his head at us like we’ve lost our damned minds. Cara Wilk watches us solemnly.
“She’s definitely gonna write a short story about this later,” I whisper to Sabrina.
Sabrina hides her face in the cave formed by her arms and her drawn-up knees, shoulders shaking with laughter.
“Thank god my parents won’t care if we get expelled before we’ve even started,” she says.
“My dad will throw a party,” I say. “He never wanted me to come in the first place.”
That thought wipes the smile off my face.
“What’s wrong?” Sabrina says. “Isn’t that a good thing?”
“Yeah . . .” I say. “I just don’t want to give him the satisfaction of thinking he was right.”
That’s not it, though.
What actually disturbs me is the realization that there’s more than one reason my father didn’t want me coming to Kingmakers.
4
Nix
The ship has to change directions several times to shoot the gap into the protected harbor of Visine Dvorca. This is the lowest point of the island, encircled by the small village that students are permitted to visit if they don’t mind the long walk down from the school.
We’ll be riding in wagons on the way up.
I had hoped that the crew would untie us, and the whole first-day fistfight could be forgotten. No such luck—it appears that the punishment will be following us up to Kingmakers.
Sabrina and I are marched onto the luggage wagon, ignominiously seated apart from the other students like convicted criminals.
To my utter outrage, Estas Lomachenko is released and allowed to join the rest of the Freshmen like nothing happened.
“What the hell?” I demand of the first mate. “How come he’s not in trouble?”
“ ‘Cause you fuckin’ started it,” the first mate says. “And ‘cause he’s the one bleedin’ all over himself while you don’t have a scratch on you.”