Page 178 of Eternal Ruin

Finally, Susenyos faced Arin, eyes cold. “And where are your girls?”

Arin’s black pupils became ringed with red, and a few Nefrasi stepped back. She was their leader as much as Susenyos was, and if she ordered them to kill him, he was sure they’d all die.

Careful, Iniko’s look seemed to say.Don’t push her too much.

But it was far too late for that.

Susenyos had walked them into a trap and had to dig them out.

“You’ve all forgotten your true purpose—to destroy Lusidio!” Susenyos projected his voice so even those in hell could quake. “Where is your revenge?”

Claws released, the sound like unsheathed knives.

Arin held a hand up, and the pause was instant. Blood flooded Susenyos’s ears. He tightened his grip on his dragon blade. He might not win against an older vampire like Arin, but he’d put up a hell of a fight. Enough for Iniko and Taj to escapewith Kidan. He caught Taj’s eyes as he had so many times before, across glorious Cossia Days, across devastating battlefields, communicating.

His friend slid a glance to Kidan, gave a slight incline of his head. He understood.

“Samson.” Arin’s heel was still on the Lusidio vampire. “Explain.”

Samson worked his neck. A thousand battles transpired between their gazes and violence swelled.

His soulless eyes were livid. “I saved you all.”

“So it’s true?” Biruk demanded, betrayal thick in his voice.

Samson didn’t answer, instead glaring at Kidan. Susenyos shifted his shoulder, directing his wretched eyes to him.

Arin’s tone sliced the silence. “So we have a coward who abandoned his people and a liar who used his people. Who should live?”

She shook her head in mock defeat, her Afro puffs dancing. They’d failed to bury Arin alive. Which meant the moment he walked through those doors Susenyos was already dead. This was just a play, a show of her power.

He glanced at Kidan, the harsh glare she directed at Arin. Her bravery made him smile. Draw out the human courage from him too.

If Susenyos was going to die regardless, he’d leave the world with a final truth.

His only regret was Kidan. He wished he had more time with her, years more. Taj and Iniko would get her to safety, but he didn’t want to leave her like this.

Sensing his intention, his friends began to frown. Taj shook his head firmly.

Susenyos inhaled deeply and took in the crowd, hundreds of familiar faces he wanted to sit with and talk with, return their clothing and jewelry from sixty years ago. Tell them he’d never forgotten them. Not for one second. He was so close.

But there was no other way out. Arin would finally have his sacrifice.

It was time to break his compulsion.

“I will tell you why I had to leave sixty years ago. Why I had to chase the mask artifact all the way into Uxlay and leave you behind,” he announced, his back burning with the claw marks. “The truth. Then you can all decide.”

Both Taj and Iniko growled, “No.”

But Susenyos had decided. No more running.

64.

JUNE

The truth.

June pushed to the front of the crowd, trying to get a closer look. Too late, she’d forgotten she’d been hiding, and Kidan’s eyes locked on her. Shock wrote itself on Kidan’s face, then a flash of relief. It was gone quickly, a mere reflex, but June clung to it selfishly. Kidan still cared about her. Worried.