Page 234 of Eternal Ruin
The dean would take possession of the artifact, and Adane House would lose its status as a Founding House, no longer able to cast its own laws.
A public stripping.
It would quell the protests and restore some semblance of order.
Kidan’s teeth rang when she saw the eagerness of Ajtaf and Makary Houses. They’d always wanted Adane to fall.
Susenyos stood crowded by Sicions. He’d been cleaned up as well, but she could see the lingering effects of prolonged assault in the way he swayed. Black ink was all over his fingers. He’d been writing something. He caught her eye and nodded softly.
Iniko and Taj had arrived. Alert in the crowd, waiting for instruction. But whatever they could do, inside Uxlay, the dean was the most powerful.
Finally, her sister was brought forward. The curl in June’s braids had become lifeless, falling limp around her frightened brown face. Their eyes met, June’s filled with grief, Kidan’s whirling with anger.
The dean had promised to revive June as a vampire and allow them to leave Uxlay peacefully. But Kidan would rather eat glass than stay in this place for another second anyway.
Taking June and Susenyos and going somewhere far, far away was the only thing she wanted.
“You will have one minute before this agreement expires,” Dean Faris said, studying Adane House’s crumbling state.
Kidan turned her attention to the uncleaned gutters. The two of them were positioned the same way they’d been the first day the dean had brought her here.
“Do you ever wonder,” Kidan said under her breath, making sure only the dean heard, “how I was finally able to inherit my mother’s will? I saw what you did. I know everything.”
Dean Faris knitted her fingers, the only sign of anger betrayed in how tightly they squeezed. A small victory that doused her fury.
“Proceed, Kidan.”
Kidan gave a humorless, bitter smile.
She crossed the short porch and eased the giant door aside, walking inside her house for the last time. She held her breath out of fear, waiting for her hand to cramp with pain, but there was no black rot. The law affecting Susenyos was no longer in effect. It targeted Kidan now. Down the straight hallway the fireplace was dead, taking the warmth of the house with it.
“Show me the house law,” she ordered.
Golden thread formed in the palm of her hand.
If Kidan Adane endangers Adane House, the house shall in turn steal something of equal value to her.
She swallowed the lump lodged in her throat. Every instinct in her bones was telling her to leave it as is—her ancestors, her parents, the very house.
But she had no choice. She had to break the law. The term “Adane House” referred to the mask artifact, which meant that endangering the artifact would endanger the bloodline of Adane House, Kidan and June.
Maybe her mother knew this would happen one day. Foresaw her daughters being held hostage in the quest for these artifacts.
Kidan inhaled. Then, as Susenyos once did, she endangered the house.
“I wish to give the mask artifact inside this house to Dean Faris.”
With each step Dean Faris took inside the house, the law convulsed in on itself, breaking apart like a puzzle before disappearing entirely. Kidan felt the wave wash over her, over the dean and her Sicions, and ripple outward, hunting for the thing Kidan valued most to extinguish it from this world. A price to pay.
Her tear-filled eyes shot to the hallway, to look outside where June was. Had she collapsed? Kidan tried to run to her, but the Sicions stopped her.
“Don’t lose focus,” the dean ordered roughly. “Set the law that will reveal the artifact.”
A tornado of flames roared to life around Kidan, the house magnifying her emotions once again.
She recited the three criteria of lawmaking in her mind.
A house law can only magnify, duplicate, or destroy what already exists within its given boundaries.
