Page 198 of Eternal Ruin

“Is Varos truly that powerful?”

It was the first time Kidan said the name aloud, and it felt wrong, a curse more than a name.

Susenyos stiffened and made no move to answer her. A cage around the tongue. He didn’t hide the worry that crowded him, the dread of what this could mean for them all.

Something he said floated to her mind from last semester, when she had a gun aimed at him.I physically cannot speak of it.

The hairs on the back of her neck stood.

She gave him a question he could answer. “Is Lusidio powerful?”

Slowly, he nodded.

When her fingers began to draw a square on his arm, he inhaled deeply, almost shuddering.

Hunger slowly darkened in his expression. The fight with Samson must have made his thirst worse.

“You can drink from me,” she whispered.

Susenyos shut his eyes, his breath moving into the width of his shoulders. After a moment, he pressed his forehead against hers. The contact sent a spasm through her.

“Just a taste, love.” His voice was strained, full of need.

She shrugged her sleeve up, lifting her wrist to him. “I want it here. To know more about her… if you’re ready.”

Susenyos swallowed, understanding whom she meant. “Samson showed you what happened?”

Kidan nodded. “After she died, he buried Talaa. That’s how he got the infection on his hand.”

“Talaa Asefa was a princess from our neighboring province.” The name caught in Susenyos’s throat, but he continued, taking Kidan’s hand slowly. “We were promised to each other when we were eleven. She visited my court every summer after that, and we were forced to play together. Although she was a notorious cheater.”

Kidan cracked a smile.

“Her company marked most of my childhood,” he said sadly.

He traced her veins and elongated his fangs, white enough to darken everything else. When he pricked the skin, Kidan didn’t hiss, she rested her fingers in his twists and held him as the memory wrapped around them.

“What are you doing?” Susenyos’s voice was breathy, standing in front of a wild-faced Talaa before the forest. Their faces were both flushed because they’d raced from the castle to the woods.

The dappled trees washed them in brilliant strokes of the sun.

“We can’t be out here without our guards. Samson—”

Talaa spun around at once. “Is on an errand. This can’t wait.” She leaned in to whisper, eyes twinkling. “Sava told me she saw a demon out here.”

Susenyos gave a disbelieving laugh, then grabbed her wrist, heading back to the castle. “You need to stop believing everything those servants tell you.”

Talaa tugged on his hand and dug her heels in, jerking them to a stop. “You either come with me or I’ll go alone.”

She pouted, making her lip stick out as she did when they were younger. Then she ran into the woods. Susenyos, as always, chased after her.

They’d played in these woods before, and he knew every tree and shrub here. It was why he stopped to examine the oddly burned land around a collection of flowers. He poked the black substance with a stick and found no ash.

Black yeast? Or was it some sort of plague? He stood up.

“Talaa, come look at this.”

He was alone in the woods. Susenyos called again, walking to where she’d been standing.