Page 120 of Eternal Ruin

“I heard you’re declaring for the Panther Order.” Susenyos tilted his head, his face half in shadow.

“They’ll vote my way.” Kidan’s eyes roved over the kitchen, taking it all in. How quiet it was without visions. Clear.

“Piran House murdered your parents.” An edge lined his voice, but it didn’t cut at her. How could it? She was nothing but steel.

“It doesn’t matter,” she said. “Adjoa wants to support me. We’ll work well together.”

Clouds gathered in his features. “You don’tworkwith people that hurt someone you love. You kill them. Hell, you tried to kill me a hundred times because you thought I took June. Yet you’re working with someone who murdered your parents?”

His voice was rising, and a nervous look danced in Etete’s eyes.

But Kidan wasn’t worried.

“I’ll work with anyone if I can secure my position,” Kidan told him. There was no pounding in her heart, no nerves.

Something like surprise carved his brow. He turned to Etete as if he didn’t believe what he was hearing, then back toward Kidan. “When will you see Adjoa Piran again? I’ll come with you.”

“I’m afraid she doesn’t like you very much.”

From inside her pocket, Kidan retrieved a rolled-up red band. “Professor Andreyas says I have to spend half a day with my companion. Accept any order given to me.”

Susenyos glanced at the rope, then a spark lit in his gaze. “Obey every command I give you? The Red String task?”

She sensed he was trying to rile her up, but Kidan’s response was neutral. “Yes. For half a day.”

He took the band from her, running a hand over the contraption before putting it in his pocket. “Not in this house.”

She didn’t care where it happened. It was just an assignment.

After a moment, he lifted his head, his eyes searching.

“Why can’t I feel your fire?” he asked. “This isn’t how house armor is supposed to work. How did you separate our psyches?”

Etete gave her a pointed look, as if urging her to tell him about Aseracti. Like she understood this had to do with the book.

But Kidan ignored them both, walking into the lounge room. The fireplace was lit. Susenyos must have done it. Kidan sat before it, unable to feel the warmth. Her fingers drew close, and closer still, testing the limits of house armor.

Until her hand was completely in the fire.

And still, she felt nothing.

She smiled.

The Adane law skittered onto the brick by the fireplace. Golden and shimmering. In her mind, Kidan revised her own culture questions, made sure each was different from her mother’s with the help of the Dirt Diggers and all she’d discovered.

Dream in the language of: English.

Faith in the Last Sage or Demasus the Fanged Lion: Demasus.

Political view: Power should rest in individuals.

Values: Revenge.

She had erased all traces of her mother’s influence from this house, shattered any connection. Had severed herself well from her ancestors like a rotten limb.

It was time.

Kidan touched a fingertip to the law, remembering the professor’s words about Absorption—the house law will be written onto your palms. The letters began to crawl up her fingers, reaching the center of her palm. Her heart thudded, reading the law inching along her skin: