Page 240 of Eternal Ruin
Taj ripped his gaze away from hers, staring at the carpet with clenched fists.
Kidan punched the wall. Her scream was a wretched thing, splitting her in two. The house cracked in half as well, echoing her pain. She sank to the floor.
“Kidan… I’m so sorry.” June was kneeling before her, face twisted in anguish.
June’s arms were around her. Kidan’s chest squeezed until no air circulated in her lungs.
“I lost him,” she told her sister, staring at nothing. “I lost him.”
83.
KIDAN
In the muddled image of the study room, Kidan stared at the fireplace, losing herself in the flames. They’d be exiled out of this house, out of Uxlay, in a few minutes.
June was packing her things because all Kidan felt was numb.
Hopeless.
She clutched Susenyos’s silver house pin tightly. He’d left it on his bed. She recalled him saying he’d always wear it. That it was a sign of his loyalty to her, to Adane House. It was still warm, smelled like him.
Kidan didn’t remember walking down the hall for the last time, nor taking the stairs down the porch to the stone path. A massive crowd gathered at the main gate to watch their humiliation. Kidan’s eyes were raw, painful like they’d been rubbed with sandpaper, and she knew they were red—suppressing anger and grief. Only June’s hand in her own kept her from screaming or collapsing right here.
Every few seconds, Kidan would squeeze her hand, wait for the firm pressure in response.
She would never forget the satisfaction on the faces in that crowd. A sick brightness sparked in their pupils at the public debasement. The upturned noses, like they’d found the source of a rotten smell and finally taken it out.
These were the people her mother wanted to help. To re-create Dranacti so their souls would be saved. She didn’t know how late it was.
“Finally,” one man from Ajtaf House spat at her. Green eyes and light brown skin.
Tamol’s brother.
Kidan’s gut flared with violent fire. If she was quick enough, she could land a few punches on his smug face, crush his nose beneath her knuckles.
She stopped walking.
“Kidan.” June squeezed and tugged. “No. Please.”
Her brown eyes appeared molten in the setting sun, safe. Kidan allowed herself to be dragged forward, focusing on her sister’s red ribbon. The field of poppies.
Once out of the main gate, Kidan looked back.
Dean Faris stood at the end of the cobblestone path, under a lion-shaped lamp, still as an owl.
Next to her, a shorter figure stood, dwarfed in a large jacket. Slen Qaros stared without emotion. It was still foolish of Kidan to expect any different. She had chosen her side.
I loved you, Kidan thought.
The golden gates began to swing shut, the swords caught in the lions’ mouths crisscrossing as they clicked closed.
Through the gleaming bars, Kidan watched Slen. Chosen to become an apprentice dean over her friend. Soon, Qaros House would move into the middle of Uxlay, occupy and claim unbelievable power.
The rats of Qaros House steal.
Aunt Silia had warned her.
Kidan bit her lip and turned away.
