Page 187 of Eternal Ruin

GK continued his reading, unaware of her distress.

“So you’re going to predict my death?” she asked in a small voice.

He didn’t answer but it was clear that was what he was doing.

Though a part of her still wanted to refuse, she could no longer avoid this. Kidan had survived so many things, and she’d survive whatever they found out. Maybe this was what they always had to do to figure out their connection.

A shadow took to his expression, a different hunger for the truth, plain in his swift movements. “Do you know how Mot Zebeyas receive their bone chain? From every soul that dies in Uxlay, a collection of their bones is taken to the monastery. They are tied on the edge of the cliffs, crinkling against rocks, almost singing. Some days, they speak louder. Since they’ve died, the bones know death, and theycan warn us of when it’ll come. That is what the Last Sage teaches.” He moved the circle inside the square, then into the triangle. Kidan held her breath, mesmerized by these shapes again. The secrets they held. “When we turn five, we’re taken to the edge of that cliff to select our chain. I was so afraid, I cried all the way. But there was a single sound, a woman’s voice that spoke to me, leading me to these bones. The moment I touched them, I wasn’t afraid anymore. I knew my purpose, and my faith.”

His eyes swept upward to meet hers. Red and black swirling into a new color. The Mot Zebeyas held a deep and at times beautiful faith, but she could never forgive them for taking infants away from their families. The Last Sage claimed it was to teach them objectivity, free them from selfish bonds. But Kidan only saw it as cruel. She had been the same age as GK, barely five, when she lost both her parents, and it only left her with an unending want for family.

GK extended his hands, claws flicking in and out, waiting. Kidan inhaled sharply, and placed her shaking hands in his. He was still burning hot, but his hunger was kept at bay.

He spoke in Aarac, a prayer she’d heard him mutter during their study sessions before. Looking at him with his eyes closed, she could almost imagine they were back in the Philosophy Tower, Slen and Yusef around them, laughing about nothing.

One day, she promised herself.We’ll go back to how it was.

A whisper traveled in the dark room, and Kidan waited for GK to open his eyes, but he kept praying, his brows meeting. When he stopped, the teetering bones did as well.

His hand fell from hers.

GK’s brown face was grim, haunted.

Nerves danced along her spine. “So?”

“Twenty-one,” he said, sounding confused. “The bones predict you will die when you’re twenty-one. So… specific.”

Kidan’s mouth parted, then shut. A numbing sensation was making its way through her. She wanted to laugh, to break the tension but her throat was tight.

“It’s just a prediction, right?”

GK picked up the bones and weaved them through the chain.

His expression was severe, rain caught in his lashes. “I heard her name this time. I heard whose bones these are.”

Kidan held her breath, afraid of the answer.

GK thumbed the chains again. “They belonged to your mother, Kidan. Mahlet… Adane.”

UXLAY’SHOUSE VOTE

GORO HOUSE

33 DRANAICS

GORO HOUSE HAS DELIBERATED AND DECIDED THE FOUNDING HOUSES SHOULD REMAIN THE SOLE SUCCESSORS OF DEANSHIP. ADANE HOUSE SHOULDNOTBE REMOVED FROM THE MIDDLE POSITION.

Declared at the Mot Zebeya Courts on Thursday the 4th.

67.

JUNE

You saved my life.” The voice came from the night, warm and without danger. “Consider me utterly charmed.”

June froze in the garden. She’d just been throwing up into the shrubs and prayed no one had seen. It was her fault. She shouldn’t have gone back to the fight, witnessed Susenyos rip out Samson’s tongue.

June turned around slowly, wiping her mouth. Taj had placed his headband back on, tightening it. “I knew you were hiding secrets, but this is something else.”