Page 125 of Eternal Ruin

“I will snap her neck like you did mine.”

Such violent words.

Still, Kidan’s heart beat a normal rhythm. She was recalling a memory—the day Etete taught her how to make injera, telling her how food was a language she needed to learn, to feel closer to home.

Susenyos was still marking something in his book. “Threats don’t work on me, wendem.”

Etete shrieked when Samson grabbed both sides of her face, jerking her neck so she could only look at Susenyos.

“You have been scheming with Arin, haven’t you? She hasn’t visited me once in Drastfort. What poison did you tell her?” The wrath of Samson’s words made the room weaken and Kidan along with it. Another memory rose to the surface. After a fight with Susenyos, Kidan had yelled at Etete to dosomething.

To help her get rid of him. Instead, Etete had approached her slowly and enveloped her in a soft hug. Kidan had gone rigid like a pole. It was the first time in nearly two years someone had touched her like that.

Her armor cracked a fraction.

Etete’s neck started to turn like a screw. Once her neck got to its natural stopping point, Samson continued applying pressure, making her scream and her eyes bulge.

Stop, came a whisper from a corner of Kidan’s mind.Tell him to stop. Fight him.

But she couldn’t move her limbs.

How had she imprisoned herself in her own body?

Move. Move.

But Aseracti deemed her safe where she was, and it refused to let her do anything risky.

Samson’s eyes were ablaze. “Admit you care for this woman.”

Susenyos rested his book against his thigh, like a weary reader who kept getting interrupted. “It hardly matters what I say. You will kill her because you believe she means something to me.”

Kidan’s eyes darted between the two.

Save her. Save her. Save her—

The instruction drummed into her bones.

Samson’s smile was foul. “We know each other too well.”

Etete reached out gently to Susenyos. A small fracture started on the wall, a blue light splintering into a million pieces, just a tiny window into the harrowing pain engulfing him.

She blinked and it was gone.

“Remember, her pain before yours.” Etete’s voice was fragile, signaling the end of something but her lips were arching. She shut her lids.

Susenyos started to speak, as if to change his mind—

Etete’s neck swung unnaturally to one side.

The crack splintered the room’s walls. Her body wavered and fell sideways.

Kidan shot to her feet. No scream left her but a crevice deep inside her soul widened.

Susenyos stared, unblinking, mouth still parted in the movement of speaking.

A menacing smile slithered over Samson’s face. “Do you feel it now? Do you feel the pain I promised you? Let yourself show me that bored look. I know your soul, wendem, and it is screaming.”

But nothing was screaming inside Kidan.