Page 238 of Eternal Ruin
“Like I’m yours.”
Her mouth parted, inhaling his scalding breath, a sharp contrast to the ice spreading inside her. Without his striking eyes open, his face was peaceful, soft as sunlight on the surface of water. She inclined her head without control and brushed his bottom lip with hers. The lightest of touches. Whispers of a dizzying current shot to her core.
He jerked awake. All fury. “I’m not yours.”
Then he shoved her.
Kidan tipped backward as gravity pulled her center, mouth soundlessly wide. Her fingers brushed his chest, but he stepped out of reach, expression cruel, and she fell.
She fell like she had done so many times before, off a tower. And waited for him to catch her. Susenyos only stared down with hatred.
Kidan’s scream didn’t come.
Perhaps if it had, someone would have saved her. She used her split second, perhaps her last moment on earth, to whisper his name again. To bring him back to her. To watch his blazing eyes and know something had long been taken from her.
Kidan didn’t hear the crack of her spine, but it must have been loud. Loud enough to bring her friends to her side. She couldn’t move, hair spilling around, looking up to him as pain roared around her.
“Oh my God,Kidan!” June screamed.
“Christ!” Taj shouted.
It was Taj who appeared out of nowhere and pressed warm liquid to her mouth.
Blood.
His blood trickled down her throat, healing, his face dark with concern.
“No, don’t move your neck. Drink, drink.”
Taj whipped his head up to find Susenyos staring down. “What the hell happened?”
With each swallow, pain broke in Kidan’s body, but it remained trapped in her chest. She felt her fingers move, all healed. Then her spine stopped stinging. Her toes wiggled. She could move. She jolted upright, startling Taj. “Wait. You’re still healing—”
Susenyos jumped over the rail, landing soundlessly, green veins splitting his arms.
Kidan’s voice shook along with the bulb overhead. Swaying but holding firm. “Not you. Not you.”
He tilted his face, smile wicked.
When she dared to touch him again, he grabbed her wrist and twisted it, making her cry out.
“Yos, it’s me!”
He shoved her away, this time to the sound of protests and screams all around.
Taj’s strong arms pulled her free.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Taj spat.
“Excuse me?” Susenyos’s tone was lethal, a dark edge slipping into his words.
Kidan moved forward. “Who am I?”
Her words shook so much, afraid of the answer.
Had the house made him forget her?
He cocked his head. “Kidan Adane.”
