Page 222 of Eternal Ruin

“You knew it was dangerous!”

“Yes, but we didn’t plan to kill him, only discredit him,” Adjoa insisted, her jaw moving. “Yusef would have been exposed as the person who caused the collapse and stripped of his title. Yusra would return as the master of Umil House.”

Kidan’s head spun, a tornado building inside her. She wanted to scream and rage.

“He died!” She pointed in the direction of his grave, her voice breaking. “None of this matters because he’s dead!”

Adjoa glanced toward the distant mound. Her grief showed in her hesitating voice.

“We would never kill him. Yusef was meant to get out. It’s the 13th. They must have discovered our plans and locked him inside.”

Kidan couldn’t stand any more of this. She dragged her fingers through her braids, everything spinning. “You were supposed to help me. You were supposed to be on my side.”

“I have helped you.” Adjoa’s tone tightened, a slash of fury in her black eyes. “More than you know. I helped you discover the very key to house ownership.”

“Key…” A strained scoff came out of her. “When…”

“Aseracti,” Adjoa said fiercely.

Kidan took a step back from the woman, disoriented. “You?”

Adjoa sighed as if this wasn’t how she wanted this to go. “You would have wasted months if not years without it.”

The world was still spinning off its axis. “Why would you give it to me knowing who wrote it?”

Adjoa’s mouth hardened. “Because we cannot change Uxlay doing the same things we’ve been doing. Your mother understood that. And because I want the truth.”

“Truth?”

“My Daric didn’t kill your parents. He would never.” Decades of pain swam in her eyes. “I wanted you to use Resurption and learn the truth.”

Kidan did a double take. “But my mother’s bones were all destroyed.”

“I thought so too. Until Silia wrote me, a few days before she died, and told me three pieces of Mahlet’s bones weren’t destroyed. Silia scoured all of Uxlay trying to find them but when her illness progressed, she left the task to me.” Her jaw hardened. “But I’ve failed too. I hoped you would succeed.”

“Why not tell me all this instead of leaving that book?” Kidan face was hot despite the stinging wind.

“Because I’m a stranger to you. Because Daric was my companion, my closest friend, and Uxlay claims he murdered your parents. Why would you trust me?” Adjoa’s voice wavered, and she resembled the young girl in the photograph, smilingin the courtyard. “I know what a friend’s death does to you. The questions it leaves inside you. I’m still trying to understand.”

Adjoa’s eyes drifted to a few gravestones, more distant than others. An angel stone wrapped long feathered wings over one gravestone.

Mahlet Adane.

Kidan froze. And next to it was her father’s name, Aman Yisak. Their epitaphs were the same:

Find us where the abyss meets the light.

A cold blade pierced Kidan’s heart. This was the first time she’d seen their graves. Up until now, she’d almost deluded herself into thinking they were out in the world, alive and well, not interested in June or her. Careless, useless parents. Even the polished bones inside her pocket hadn’t convinced her of her mother’s death. But this… seeing the gravestones drove the truth home with a gut punch. She shut her eyes, wondering how many times she could handle mourning them. Her birthdays always called up memories of them, but now she was thinking of silly things, like her wedding. How she wouldn’t see their smiles on her happiest day. Tiny fractured moments all around her.

Kidan didn’t know how long she stayed there, playing with her mother’s bones in her pocket. Someone approached from her left—Slen. Her eyes locked on Adjoa. The rich shade of her dark skin had faded, and so had all the light from Slen’s pupils.

Slen spoke with her hands in her pockets. “It was the 13th. They made sure Yusef was trapped inside.”

Kidan staggered back, wounded yet again. She cried out. “Why?”

Slen’s gaze dropped for a moment. “He was an uncertain vote. They couldn’t risk him voting for you.”

Horror settled in her ribs. The Dirt Diggers had set up the dominoes and the 13th had pushed them over. This was their own doing. Kidan’s and Slen’s.