Page 242 of Eternal Ruin

“I want to break them all, June. Use whatever power I gain to bring them back. I want to use the Sage’s power.”

Kidan curled in on herself, waiting for her sister’s disapproval. Her good,reasonable sister would pull her back from such a dangerous, devastating idea. And her shame would deepen.

“Do it,” June whispered instead. “I’ll help you.”

Kidan propped herself up, silent tears flowing. “What?”

“I’ll help you.” June’s eyes were large, almost hopeful.

“Really?” Her chest tightened. “Our parents knew the ring artifact’s location. They were close to finding all the bind artifacts.”

It soundedabsolutely—

“I believe you.”

Kidan blinked her wet lashes. “You do?”

June gently wiped her tears away, her brown eyes determined and alive. “I do.”

A rush of warmth cocooned the two. Kidan hugged her sister tightly. It felt wonderful to be believed easily, without having to prove herself, to be validated.

“Do you think I can bring them back then? Yusef and Yos?”

June hesitated for a long moment, then said, “I think you have to try.”

Kidan stood, her heart beating with this new plan. She paused, realizing something. “I need to find Samson. He knows where the blade artifact is.”

June’s eyes slid to the side, her bottom lip disappearing into her teeth.

“What?” Kidan asked.

“I know where the blade artifact is,” June said.

Kidan’s brows rose. “Where?”

A smile curved on her rosy lips. “The ivory house.”

Kidan and GK stood outside an iron door on a quiet street, waiting for June to come out of the abandoned white mansion. Kidan shifted on her feet, trying to look inside the boarded-up windows.

GK was watching her with his quiet regard, ever silent but speaking multitudes.

“You don’t approve,” she said.

“No, I don’t. Breaking the blade artifact would shatter the First Bind—vampires will be free to feed on anyone. Not just actis. What you plan to do will hurt civilians.”

“What about the actis inside Uxlay? The ones that have to kill to share their blood? You yourself dropped out of Dranacti because you saw how awful it was,” she said, bracing for the wave of disappointment rolling off him.

GK stared at her with those dark brown eyes, still more kind than her own, even though his soul had become immortal.

“Don’t do this, Kidan.”

She thought of her parents, of Yusef, her promise to Susenyos.

I’ll protect you.

The joy carving into his face at the mere thought she’d consider him worth protecting. And the dead soulless gaze that greeted her mere hours ago.

He was her companion, the first to reach out his hand when she was drowning, and if she had to break the world to rescue him, she would.