Page 19 of Eternal Ruin

“Koril Qaros awaits his formal hearing. Slen has graduated Dranacti and is rightfully next in line to inherit. Yusra requested for Yusef to be here.” Dean Faris spoke calmly yet with a tone that didn’t allow any further challenge.

Slen stared coolly ahead, and Kidan felt a spike of satisfaction when the amber-eyed man looked away.

The dean continued. “And Kidan Adane remains the sole graduate of her house. For now.”

The urge to hide was indescribable as their penetrating gazes thoroughly searched Kidan, clearly finding her lacking. Some instantly turned away with a scoff. A few continued to study her carefully—a sharp-faced woman from Piran House and a muscular man from Temo House. Mikhail Temo was known to be the fastest athlete at Uxlay, his serious face plastered on the banners along Uxlay’s track field. He couldn’t be more than fifty years old, just like the woman sitting next to him, Adjoa Piran. Kidan knew only one thing about the head of Piran House, whispered here and there. She was unmarried and childless, making her position as inheritor weak.

Adjoa sat with straight posture, hands neatly folded on her lap, her thick curls sitting on her head like a crown. Her gaze focused solely on Susenyos, a trace of anger in her black eyes before they flicked to Kidan.

There was pity there, even sorrow.

“I have heard whispers for years.” Dean Faris made Kidan break her concentration. The dean’s hawklike eyes were sharp. “Plots to shatter Uxlay’s universal law, selfish ambitions that threaten to break the safety and peace we’ve enjoyed for generations. Today, the 13th have finally decided to speak. I hold in my hands their official proposal.”

Kidan’s brows shot up. Her eyes roved around the room quickly. Tamol Ajtaf’s ghost appeared at the end of the table, smiling cruelly. Ice spread in her blood. Kidan had hoped putting Tamol in a coma would disband the 13th, but the grouphad recouped, chosen a new leader. Susenyos stilled behind her. This wasn’t going to be anything good.

“The 13th?” Adjoa Piran leaned forward, her curls bouncing across her brown forehead. “They plot to shatter Uxlay! And we are entertaining their proposal?”

Kidan was glad someone was smart enough to point out exactly what she was thinking. Before Kidan had crashed her car with Tamol in the passenger seat, his hatred for Adane and Faris Houses—the two Founding Houses—had been overwhelming.

A new structure of inheritance and rights to ownership, he had said, green eyes flashing.The ability to set our own laws inside our houses, like the Founding Houses.

That was the dream of the Border Houses. They no longer wanted to uphold the universal law that made Uxlay indiscoverable.

“That’s not what their leader proposes,” the dean said.

“Who?” Mikhail Temo demanded. “Who is their leader?”

Kidan wanted to know too.

“They prefer to remain anonymous.”

Outrage broke over one side of the table, a collection of shouts and slamming fists while Ajtaf, Makary, and Delarus sat with eager, smug eyes. It was no secret they were proud members of the 13th.

“Let’s hear it, then?” Yusra Umil motioned with her wrinkled hand.

The dean lifted the proposal.

Kidan held her breath, nervous for some reason. Once, a stack of papers like those had changed her life. Outside Kidan’s old apartment, Dean Faris had given her the will left behind by her parents, naming Susenyos as inheritor. That nauseating taste of betrayal had been sharp. And Kidan could feel it again now, climbing up her throat like rot.

Dean Faris began to read.

8.

KIDAN

The 13th don’t wish to shatter Uxlay’s universal law and leave it defenseless. We want to strip the Founding Houses of unchecked and rampant power.’” The dean’s voice carried, remarkably unaffected. “‘Faris and Adane Houses have been allowed to cast any law from their middle house position while Border Houses remained restricted. This is grossly unjust. The 13th demand deanship be opened to all houses, and in that, all houses are awarded an opportunity at obtaining a middle position. We believe only a dean should have access to such power. And the 13th demand the immediate removal of Adane House from Uxlay’s middle position. It currently does not house a dean or a master and so should become a Border House.’”

The words landed like a fist to Kidan’s gut, swift and merciless.

There was a sharp intake of breath. It took Kidan a second to realize she’d made the sound. Her body had reacted before her mind could wrap around the consequences of such words.

A gentle hand rested on her shoulder, shocking a jolt of warmth into her. It parted the roar of the ocean and made her feel the desk beneath her, the chair.

Susenyos. His immortality. GK. June. Her four laws. It was all unraveling.

He removed his hand just as quickly, but it was enough to center her. Yusef’s eyes were dark and wide. Slen was focused on the dean, listening intently, eyes almost shining. Kidan’s gut coiled. Slen’s ambition was a caged beast, salivating for a temptation it couldn’t refuse. But she’d chosen Kidan before. Chosen torevive GK after killing him. Slen would side with her again. The problem was the others.

The delight in Ajtaf’s wide face was too much to bear. He looked like his son, light brown skin and muted green eyes with none of the warmth Ramyn Ajtaf had.