Page 81 of Eternal Ruin
“Marriage. Securing Adane House.”
He stared like she was beyond comprehension. “You can’t be serious.”
“Why not?”
“Whynot?” His voice rose an octave before he let out a breathless laugh. “Because this isn’t a game. Marriage isn’t a game.”
When she said nothing, his fists opened and closed. There was some thrill in leaving him off-balance. A little taste of how confused he’d left her these past weeks.
“You’re telling me you don’t feel anything at the idea?” He bridged the gap between them, though not close enough to touch. “You will marry a stranger, bring him into your home, let him share yourbed.”
Her fingers danced along her thigh, caught between anger and fear. Only iron existed. Power.
“You want me to own the house, don’t you? By whatever means necessary?” she said. “Bring back your immortality? Get the mask?”
His brows pinched and he didn’t answer for a while, then forced out, “Yes.”
She ignored the tightness in her stomach. “Then you should be happy.”
“But this can’t be what you imagined for your future. A loveless marriage with nothing more than a deal struck.” He continued to speak in a low, urging voice. “You burn for those you love. And your marriage should be the brightest passion you know. It isnoteasy to break a marriage vow.”
Kidan’s attention drifted to the family portrait across the lounge. Of her mother and father. The many dead around them. Betrayed for objects, in the pursuit of power. If her parents had realized that maybe they’d still be alive.
“Why shouldn’t it be? It will be no more than a contract.” She turned to him, voice still too unfamiliar. “Families of Uxlay betray each other all the time, kill one another. Look at Slen’s father, and Ramyn’s brothers. My own sister. Your family is either taken from you or they leave you. Isn’t it better I choose someone I don’t love? Someone who can help me. Someone I can use and—”
“Trade at a moment’s wish?” he cut in, eyes flashing. When she said nothing, there was a set line to his lips. “Can you really make yourself so cold? Unfeeling?”
“You’ve trained me well enough for it,” she snapped without meaning to.
Instead of anger, a brightness caught in his dark gaze. It was as if her yell was the first delightful thing he’d heard. “So you feel nothing. I’m free to leave, to trade you in for a well-tempered companion?”
Her breath hitched, and the familiar panic whenever she thought of June threatened to return. She turned away, touched her wrist where she’d etched the symbol for fear.
Traced it.
Controlled it.
Only fire remained in her voice. “As long as I have the mask, you won’t leave,” she said.
Susenyos’s shadow had gone still. When she glanced back, his pupils flared. If their minds had been still connected, this room would have been drowning in fire.
That damned mask gave her control over him whether he liked it or not. And as long as she found her future husband’s pillar and stood before it, they would live well enough.
After a while, he said, “You don’t need to marry anyone.”
“I need the houses—”
“You will go to the Arcane Tower, and announce yourintentionto marry,” he cut in, brown eyes struggling with something. Kidan’s heart lurched in traitorous hope but she tempered it. She was trying to understand what he wanted.
“Each house will woo you, hoping you marry into their order. All you have to do is let them think they have a chance at that elusive middle house position.”
Kidan understood the strategy slowly. The words he was not saying.
Susenyos nodded. The curtains parted and sunlight crawled onto the carpet.
He rubbed his tired eyes. “Once you master this house, all of this will be worth it.”
It wasn’t a question. Though it sounded like one.
