Page 215 of Eternal Ruin

Reluctantly, she loosened her jaw and rested a hand on his. Sighed. “I’m sorry for what this is doing to you. But you have to vote, Yusef. Slen… and I, we will figure out the rest. Just do what you think is right.”

Either way, this had to come to an end. Thursday was two days away. And Yusef would stand with his dranaics in the Mot Zebeya Courts and decide their fate.

75.

KIDAN

Kidan woke to the sound of GK’s voice, ringing urgently.

Leave Uxlay.

Jolting upright, Kidan looked around, half expecting him to see him. But the library was void of all sound, petrified statue heads poking out from every corner.

No, she was hearing him inside her mind again. Her fingers lifted the bones from the middle of the page, the book open to “The Consequences of Resurption.”

GK?she called in her mind, feeling quite silly.

There was nothing. It was odd but their connection appeared to work at random and it was always one sided.

Susenyos had called her this morning, agitated at Samson’s escape. They hadn’t been able to find him. Kidan suspected Arin had released him, but she couldn’t figure out why.

“I’ll return tomorrow after checking one more place,” Susenyos had said, making her smile. “You won’t face the results of the votes alone.”

Unable to enter her house without her hand rotting, Kidan flipped the page, reading another line about how evil Resurption was. To use someone’s bones and delve into their memories and thoughts was a breach of all privacy, a violation of the soul. If Kidan was caught, she’d be immediately expelled from Uxlay. But that wasn’t her greatest worry. Kidan wasted hours in the library because she was afraid of inheriting her mother’s culture. But past that, her burden. Seeing the moment of her death.

You have to do this.

But even if she succeeded, something of equal value would be taken from her the moment she tried to change the law. Just then, June entered through the automatic doors, rubbing her hands together from the chill. Her eyes scanned the crowd as she slid off her red scarf. She smiled when she found Kidan, fully, like her day had become brighter simply by laying eyes on her.

It felt good, every worry worming inside Kidan dimmed, a weight she didn’t even know she was carrying lifted off her shoulders. This was her sister from the past, the one Kidan destroyed herself over, the one she sacrificed Mama Anoet for. Yet with each step her sister took, beaming at her, panic built in Kidan’s chest.

She was slipping into old habits again. She couldn’t go back to how it was. Couldn’t obsess over June, she couldn’t love her again. Not when June hadn’t even given her an explanation for why she ran away.

June crossed the smooth tiles to her desk but Kidan shot to her feet, gathered her things, and slipped into the aisles.

“Wait, Kid—”

Kidan left the words behind and hurried, twisting into books until her sister’s fallen face disappeared. Out through one of the side doors, she inhaled cold air and tried to settle her heart. She wasn’t ready to face June.

All afternoon, none of the Dirt Diggers had contacted her. It wouldn’t be so odd if they didn’t constantly check to see if she’d mastered her house. Restless, Kidan called Adjoa. There was no answer.

Yusef would cast his vote tomorrow.

Kidan was considering going to Piran House when a text came from an unknown number.

Meet me in Grand Andromeda Hall.

It could be Slen. That was where she practiced her violin while Yusef sketched. Kidan cut to the north, passing the delicious scent of sugary treats from the bakery, trying not to think of June. She bounded up the steps bracketed by Demasus’s golden lion statues, pausing to study the glistening mane. Now that she knew about the Six Manes of Blood, the symbol of the lion only stirred caution in her. Every lamppost, faucet, and door knocker featured the beast. The Six Manes of Blood were always watching them, bidding their time in the shadows.

Kidan wound down the wide halls of the building, passing multiple grand rooms until she reached the empty one in the east wing.

A soft breath left her.

It’d been entirely transformed. The covered marble statues were unveiled, polished, and positioned around high tables with beautiful centerpieces. But that wasn’t what captivated her.

There were charcoal drawings all around the square walls and they were all of… Slen. The first one near the entry featured Slen staring with smeared eyes, violin held against her leg. Yusef had drawn that last semester, erasing her eyes in frustration because he couldn’t capture the multitudes of her gaze. The next scene had Slen picking up her violin. Each drawing served as a stop-motion picture—her head angled on the bow, her right arm drawing back, the bow striking strings, until you reached the middle portrait.

Kidan drew closer, mesmerized. It was subtle but the tip of the violin bow had sharpened, almost like a spear’s tip. Kidan moved to her right, watching the bow gradually transform into a… long sword.