Page 13 of Eternal Ruin

6.

KIDAN

Kidan woke up in the hallway.

She’d been dreaming about GK again, his bone chain clinking all around. She dreamed of him often these days. He was trying to speak, but she could never make out what he was saying.

All that remained were his cold, betrayed eyes. Soft brown pupils sharpened to golden mahogany. Claws emerging from his fingers. She didn’t linger too long on it, memories of his bleeding body and transformation had the tendency to make her ill.

Throughout the night, June’s soft sounds of distress echoed, a sound Kidan had been familiar with her entire life. It was why she’d changed clothes and returned to the hallway. To stay close just in case. June’s nightmares hadn’t stopped. Those terrors gripping her body and making her writhe until Kidan woke her each night… it was like nothing had changed. Only this time Kidan didn’t go to her. Instead, she gritted her teeth and read her book under the flickering bulb until June quieted and Kidan could sleep again.

She kept wondering, how the fuck had they gotten here? Even living it, Kidan couldn’t believe it. June wanted to take over this house. How long before Dranacti encouraged her to take Kidan’s life?

Kidan stretched, yawning. It was all quiet now. Faint rays danced on the carpet, warming Kidan’s curled frame. That was when she noticed it. A blanket had been draped over her.

She frowned, wondering who had put it there, and reached for the worn book she’d been obsessively reading.

Traditional Myths of Abyssi.

Kidan traced GK’s circled note—around the name Nefari, singular form of Nefrasi. He’d led her to uncover Susenyos’s secret with this book and there was more buried in its withered pages. She flipped to the section titled “The Three Binds and the Three Artifacts.” She needed to know how, exactly, the binds would break. Why the hell June and Samson were so desperate to get the mask artifact.

But the sections barely spoke about them before moving on to the next myth. There was a slight zigzag between the pages as if some had been torn out. No page numbers to know for sure, though.

According to Slen, there were once many copies of this book. Then they started to disappear. Adane House had the last original.Traditional Myths of Abyssiwas a simplified version ofYe Abyssi Tarik. And Abyssi, a mysterious place between two eclipsing mountains, was said to have birthed the first Sage and the first vampire. No one truly knew the full myth inYe Abyssi Tarik, as each page was written in a different African language.

Kidan traced the jagged line in the book, nearly smooth if you didn’t know to look for it. Susenyos had been hesitant to give her this book. She’d assumed it was because it exposed the origin of the Nefrasi. But there was something else he apparently didn’t want her to know.

Enough to tear it out before he gave her the book.

Instinctively, her fingers reached for her wrist. But her butterfly bracelet and the blue pill inside it were gone. Susenyos had made her give it to him. Some days, Kidan wanted to die again. It was a passing thought like the color of the sky or her favorite quote fromThe Mad Lovers, but the house would catch it and magnify it. When this happened, she reached into her pocket and pulled out a folded paper, like now.

She traced the perfect cursive writing, the care and warmth fitted to each sentence.

The first few lines always made her heart seize.

My dearest Kidan,

There are many grotesque evils in this world. Trust me, I’ve encountered them all. But the cruelest of all is the one of the mind.

This was her most shameful secret. She read his letter every time she needed the reminder, for moments when the world pressed heavily from all sides.

That he wanted her to live.

So you can get him the artifact, a cruel voice whispered.

She pushed the letter down, pressing fists to her eyes. No, that wasn’t true. Was it?

“Still drowning in the hallways I see,” a low and earthy voice said, parting the quiet morning.

Kidan jerked back, her heart jumping to her throat. Susenyos came up the stairs and leaned by the rail, eyes shining. “I thought you conquered it?”

She tensed, looking to his old room—now Samson’s. Waiting for him to come out any minute.

Susenyos followed her gaze. “He’s not here. He took my room, didn’t he? How very predictable.”

Kidan still had his letter in her hand, which she quickly slipped inside the blankets.

“We can talk freely now,” he said. “Your sister has left too.”