Page 226 of Eternal Ruin

Her mother clenched her jaw, looking away in anger. Then her skin hardened at once, a shield cloaking her. “Would you do it now? Come then. Fight me.”

“It won’t be us.” Professor Andreyas finally spoke, coming alive. “But it will be done. By someone you all know. Someone who will put an end to your misguided Dirt Diggers. Say your goodbyes.”

Mahlet widened her stance, her face carved with the fury of eternal flames. “If you take me away from my children, I will burn your house down. I will destroy this precious institution you’ve sacrificed everything for and rebuild it from rubble. Then I will kill you.”

Each sentence was a poisonous arrow, poised to destroy. Dean Faris remained infuriatingly still. “That is the difference between you and me,” she said finally. “You lead with your emotions, never reason. Grief is the first enemy to master. That is why you can never lead us.”

Kidan’s vision was a blurry mess as was her face. She wiped continuously as her mother and father reached for each other, the house dimming with her mother’s memory.

The rest of their words warbled. Kidan was underwater, and she felt pulled back by the center of her gravity.

No. Not yet.

The sound didn’t clear, and the last thing she saw was her father’s knees crashing to the floor, and her mother leaning her head down to his.

Kidan gasped, blinking to find June’s enlarged brown eyes. “Kidan! We need to leave!”

That was when she noticed it. The entire left side of her body was being eaten alive. Veins the color of coal pulsing under her brown skin. She stifled a scream as June helped her up. But her legs locked on her and they collapsed onto the hallway.

“It was the dean.” Kidan’s breath was stilted from pain and fury. “The dean had them killed.”

June froze.

Kidan’s vision blurred, thinking of Daric, the beast who wrenched out her parents’ hearts. Daric—lover to Adjoa Piran, brother to Mikhail Temo, who received a life exchange from the Rojits but chose to serve another house. He had been the heart of the Dirt Diggers, and by somehow forcing his hand, the dean had dissolved their group.

This was the truth buried in Adane House, fourteen years old and finally, finally it was free.

But more than that, her mother’s last words rang with a crescendo, reaching a horrible finality as she cursed Dean Faris.

I will burn your house down. I will destroy this precious institution.

It was revenge. Her mother wanted revenge in the end. Kidan reached for her notebook on the carpet and opened the page to her answers, her rotting hand shaking.

“Pen,” Kidan gasped, the words jumping in and out. “I need a pen.”

June scrambled and pressed one into her hand.

It cut her flesh. She was holding a blade now, but Kidan forced herself to cross it out, write the truth.

Does the house master believe in bravery, revenge, loyalty, or responsibility?

Responsibility

Revenge.

At once, the golden letters of the law appeared on the wall, illuminating their faces.

Wincing, Kidan extended her poisoned hand and touched it, whispering,please.

Nothing happened for a second.

Then extraordinary light flooded the hallway. Kidan let it sear her eyes as her flesh screamed in pain. Pure energy kissed the tips of her fingers and was concentrated onto her right palm, like entrapped lightning.

When the flashes of light cleared, a written law appeared on her palm.

If Kidan Adane endangers Adane House, the house shall in turn steal something of equal value to her.

She gasped, staggering backward.