1. Elyssa
ELYSSA
Present day, Longfield Island.
T he thick, tall and worn out walls of the castle would seem eerie and intimidating to anyone, but I always got a nostalgic, soft feeling in my stomach whenever I came back here.
After all, the Seamus Longfield Academy was the closest thing to home for me.
These past two years, ever since I first joined the ranks of the most prestigious school in the country, had been a reprieve from the chaotic and disastrous life that awaited me back at the Bianchi estate. I hated it there. Being the daughter of an immigrant taxi driver and a runaway mafia princess made me the perfect target for the bullying of my supposed family.
The fact that we all lived together made matters worse. All of my cousins had unlimited access to me, even though I was banished to the very end of the estate, away from prying eyes.
The ugly fucking duckling of the Bianchi Family. The granddaughter everybody was ashamed of. The cousin they loved to torment and the niece they loved to ignore.
Even my own mother spent her days in the main house, when I didn’t have a right to. She was more of a hostage, though. There to keep up appearances of a unified family, when in reality, her father and brothers treated her like a pariah and a whore.
These days, she was just a shell of what she once had been and the vacant look in her eyes that settled in after baba’s death never left her. She barely spoke and spent all day locked in her room just staring out the window. It broke my heart every time uncle Ignacio, her eldest brother, allowed me to see her, which wasn’t a lot as it was.
That’s why the ancient castle felt like home. Here, I found peace. My professors appreciated and respected me, and I even made a few friends over the years.
Lost in thought, I didn’t realize I had stopped in front of the building until someone violently checked me with their shoulders, sending me flying to the ground.
Fall was making itself known on Longfield Island and maroon leaves were dressing the ground. It had rained all night, which explained why it was still damp and caused dirt to stick to my hands.
“You’re in my way, freak,” my cousin Batista spat without even sparing me a glance.
He strutted confidently towards the open gates followed by his snickering younger sister, Viola.
Batista and Viola were the only dark spots of my experience at the Academy. They were vain, stupid and incredibly vindictive little bitches. They made sure to make my life difficult both in and out of the house.
Thankfully, I had mastered the art of avoiding them over the years, and we rarely ever crossed paths at school—unless they purposely tried to fuck with me, of course.
I glared at their retreating forms until, eventually, they disappeared amid the trees and bushes leading to the castle.
That’s when a soft hand fell upon my shoulder. “Are you okay?”
Mia’s voice sounded almost sorry.
“Yeah. Don’t worry.” I got up and dusted myself off, despite my left knee throbbing. It would bruise for sure.
My eyes fell on my favorite cousin.
Her blond hair came down to her shoulders, much like our mothers’. It was smooth and straight, softly swaying with the light breeze overtaking the island. She wore one of her signature headbands; this one was a deep shade of red, matching our uniforms. Her hazel eyes shone bright as she gave me a little smile.
“Don’t pay attention to those morons,” another voice echoed next to us, where Lorenzo, her twin brother, stood staring at the gates. “In a few years, he will probably get shot in one of his father’s clubs while snorting coke from a stripper’s ass crack, and that spoiled bitch will be forced to marry some eighty-year-old pervert. Being a mafia princess is only fun for so long.”
I snickered, “Is that how you put up with the fact that they’re family and we’ll probably never get rid of them?”
“Basically.” He shrugged.
A smile tugged at my lips as I rolled my eyes at him. We didn’t talk more as we each grabbed our bags from the SUV that had driven us here and made our way towards the castle.
This was our third year at the Academy and after that we only had one more before graduating. Then adult life began.
Despite meaning well, Lorenzo’s words left somewhat of a sour taste in my mouth. Because as much as they were true for Viola and Batista, they also were for us.
Lorenzo would end up taking over his father’s side of the business as enforcer, and Mia would be getting engaged as soon as her diploma was in her hands.
There was no doubt in my mind that my grandfather would use me to forge alliances as soon as my studies were over, too. That’s all I was to him, a means to an end. He’d given me the finest tutors and all the materialistic comforts life had to offer, he would for sure expect to get something in exchange.
I tried being grateful; getting to study wasn’t something all girls born to a crime family could brag about. Most were married by eighteen and popping out kids within a year.
I shuddered at the thought.
“Everybody decided to come back early this year,” I remarked as we walked.
The closer we got to the great entrance, the eerier the atmosphere got. I loved it.
The sound of leaves crunching beneath my feet, the smell of earth and rain, the shadow cast by the clouds over us.
People were gathered on the stone steps leading up to the building, talking and laughing among friends, recounting their summer vacation and just mingling.
The weather was cold, but I was used to it from years spent in New York.
“Yeah, we’re probably not the only ones trying to escape home as much as we can.”
“Poor little rich kids,” Mia added under her breath, self-deprecatingly.
I kept quiet as we entered the great hall. People greeted her with a nod or a smile and she answered in kind.
Everybody loved Mia. She had the sweetest soul and the kindest heart and didn’t let how powerful and rich her father was get to her head. Lorenzo wasn’t as appreciated as she was by our peers, though; he was mostly a nerd and a little bit of a snob, too. He hated our world with a passion, the mere idea that he would have to take part in the family business someday was enough to give him a panic attack.
We stopped briefly at Lorenzo’s locker so he could retrieve something he forgot last year and I took that opportunity to check my phone for a text back from mom. Nothing.
“Oh my God, he’s here!” Mia hissed, grabbing my forearm and causing me to yelp when her nails dug into my skin.
I didn’t have to ask who she meant because only one person could ever cause her to react that way.
“Fucking scum of the earth,” her brother spat, unimpressed as he too caught sight of who emerged from the end of the corridor, before diving back into his locker and ignoring them.
They looked like a pack of deadly wolves. Their tall, dark figures advancing towards us without a care in the world. I don’t even think they noticed people staring at them, that’s how unbothered they truly were.
The Korolov family always had been.
They represented everything people like my family hated: loose cannons with loyalty only to their own. No rules, no alliances, no care for mob-life etiquette.
The Korolov family was royalty in the mercenary world, they were ruthless and heartless killers who made it their life mission to piss off any crime organization they ever met. The Italians hated them, obviously; whether it was the Cosa Nostra or the Outfit, both wanted their heads on a silver platter. The Irish hated their guts. Even the Bratva, whom I heard the Korolovs had been affiliated to at some point, wanted them dead.
But none of them could take them out. The Korolovs were too crazy, too powerful. They had amassed a fortune that rivaled, if not surpassed, that of my family through legitimate and not-so-legitimate ways.
They had built a literal empire.
And their kids never ceased to act like the royalty they supposedly were. Especially their sons.
As the four of them made their way down the corridor, people stopped and stared, whispering among themselves with looks of awe or disgust. When it came to the Korolovs, you either hated them or wanted to be them; there was no in between.
Against my will, I understood why people stared. It was rare seeing them all together, and if I were being honest, it was quite a sight.
Dressed in all black since classes hadn’t started yet, their hair varying from brown to blond, similar in build and height, they looked dangerous but oh so fucking attractive.
The eldest was Dominik, the Heir. In the last year of his master’s in finance and business with a minor in art history.
He was by far the most serious of the bunch, with a charming aura that, I was sure, opened quite a few doors to him. He never really spoke to anyone except his family and professors, not like he was too good for the rest of us, but like he simply couldn’t care less. He was polite but antisocial and somehow my cousin was into it.
Oh yes, because Mia was head over heels in love with Dominik Korolov, even when he had no idea she existed.
It was sad, really, but I couldn’t bring myself to tell her that. He never looked at her, not even when she stared at him for hours at the library.
At twenty-six, he had that older guy vibe that many guys our age still lacked at twenty-one. I understood her, really, I did.
But I knew she would only end up with her heart broken, which in turn broke mine.
Next to him was Roman, the Enforcer. He was the youngest, that I knew of, at nineteen. He looked nothing like his siblings, his hair was the darkest of the bunch, and his skin was a little tanner—or, at least, what I could see of it, considering it was covered in tattoos. He also didn’t have the signature Korolov grey eyes, since his were green.
Roman didn’t talk, like, at all. He communicated via sign language, and even that was reserved to his siblings only. I remember seeing a professor trying to communicate with him using ASL last year, but Roman only ignored him. Just like his eldest brother, he was antisocial, but unlike him, he didn’t even try to be polite about it.
I’d only ever seen him smile once, and it was to Devina, one of their sisters.
Then, there was Mikhail, the Jokester. You wouldn’t believe this guy was related to the Korolov clan at first glance, because he put on such a good front. From the outside eye, he was funny and charming, a little bit of a manwhore, but friendly and accessible. Until you stumbled upon him outside your dorm at night beating some dude up to a pulp because he dared ask his twin sister, Katarina, out.
By the time he was done, the guy was unrecognizable and never set foot on the island again.
But even then, Mikhail wasn’t the worst Korolov man…
Not by a long shot.
When my eyes met icy pools of blue, I tensed. It was such a deadly gaze, that sucked you in and never let you come back up for air.
The funny thing with the Korolovs was that when Mia fell in love with Dominik in our first year, I fell too.
I fell in hate with his younger brother, Konstantin.
Konstantin was the worst out of all his siblings. There was no soul in those bottomless eyes, just anger and darkness.
He fell in hate with me first, for something as petty as academics.
He couldn’t handle the fact that he wasn’t the best in class, that no matter what he did, we always tied. It drove him crazy, not being able to beat me.
I took pleasure in that too, being his forever rival, making him angry when he was usually so controlled… but then I fucked up.
Two months ago, before summer break and during finals, I fucked up.
And he caught me.
My stomach wavered but I kept on holding his gaze, not letting him see the tension that grew within me. Showing just the slightest bit of fear to a Korolov was like swimming in a tank full of sharks after cutting yourself bloody.
They could smell it a mile away, and Konstantin, more than any of his siblings, had a weird affliction for fear.
I knew it from experience.
His gaze didn’t waver from mine either; he sunk his eyes into mine and I noticed a satisfied glint in them. My heart was threatening to come out of my ribcage from the way it violently beat against it. His eyes held a promise.
He remembered what happened last year and I would be paying for it now.
My hands clenched as I willed them to stop shaking.
This stupid rivalry had taken on a new turn, to my disadvantage.
He kept looking at me silently until he and his brothers walked right past us and he went back to acting like he didn’t notice anyone.
“He’s so dreamy,” Mia sighed, looking at Dominik’s retreating form down the hallway.
Lorenzo made a sound at the back of his throat. “They’re nothing but a bunch of psychos.”
“His brothers, maybe, but not Dom. He’s got some kindness to him. I feel it.”
I bit my tongue and tried hard not to roll my eyes. The last thing I wanted was to hurt my soft cousin’s feelings, but the truth was, Dominik wasn’t any different from his siblings.
All Korolovs were the same.