Page 16 of Eternal Ruin

Discomfort carved over his features as though her touching him like this was a sinful thing when he’d done so much more countless times. She didn’t understand the rules of their relationship.

Kidan steeled herself, trying to hide the burning in her cheeks. The silence swallowing them was unbearable, thicker than smoke.

Susenyos worked his jaw and turned. “Dean Faris wants to talk to us. Get dressed.”

He was already moving toward the stairs.

Kidan blinked. It wasn’t like him to avoid confrontation. Why wasn’t he mentioning her advance? She searched her mind on how to keep him here a little longer and found it.

“What about Lusidio?” Kidan said angrily. “Are you going to tell me about that?”

Susenyos froze and turned slowly like she knew he would. What was it about this name?

The sweet-smelling cloud fled from the hallway. Instead, the floor shifted, streaked with twisting black vines. Susenyos glanced at it and looked frustrated. This buckling terror was visceral, solid instead of drowning water. It unsettled her.

“Who is Lusidio?” she repeated.

The unnerving stillness of Susenyos’s eyes wavered. Then he did something Kidan had never seen him do.

He blinked twice. In rapid succession.

She’d seen him shut his eyes, yes. To clear an emotion, his long lashes resting in peaceful moments. But never something so involuntary, so human. A traitorous sign of fear.

“He’s a rogue vampire.” His answer was clipped, a conversation ended before it began. “A soul you pray to never meet.”

“And?”

“That’s all.”

No, there was more lingering in his eyes. Too much of his past he still concealed.

“Was he the one who did something to your court?” She searched his face. “Was he the one you ran away from?”

Like the last time she’d asked him about the danger the Nefrasi had fallen into, he gave her nothing. Even held at gunpoint he’d refused to speak.

As if there was another law he was a servant to.

A look of cold indifference crossed over him. “Judging again, little bird?”

“If you tell me the truth, I won’t.”

“I doubt that. Judgment is in your bones. It turned you against me once, let’s not rush to do so again.” He gave her his back. “Get dressed. We will be late.”

As Kidan watched his tall frame walk away, she thought of one more law she would set.

4. Make Susenyos tell her the truth—about everything.

7.

KIDAN

Ever since Kidan took Susenyos’s crown, he had been slowly undressing her, taking pieces of her—a new game between them. Kidan thought of this as she changed into a pair of brown pants and a gray sweater, fastening an Uxlay University tie around her collar. Susenyos had never returned the tie he took from her last semester. Or the emerald hairpin from the Acti Gala. And the ultimate winner would be the one who possessed the mask.

Kidan made her way to the end of the front yard, where Susenyos waited, golden flask in hand. When he saw her, his eyes slid to her tie and a brief smile came over him. Kidan fought the urge to adjust it and walked on. His gaze always seemed to burn into her, and she didn’t know what to make of it.

Wind ruffled their clothes as they took the path to Faris House, the smell of rain-soaked leaves and dirt in the air. His burning-wood scent drifted over to her.

When they brushed shoulders, Susenyos took in sudden air, face twisted like he was in pain, and stepped aside. Kidan tried not to let it bother her. He wasn’t her enemy but that did not mean he wanted something more.