Page 29 of Eternal Ruin

Kidan Adane wasn’t fooled by Uxlay University’s beauty.

The campus sparkled, sheets of water running down its old stones, turning it to reflective glass. There was a reason the Philosophy Tower was always soaked in rain, washing itself of the blood of its students. The black statue on the spire disappeared into the swollen clouds but the hunch of the figure’s shoulders was unmistakable. Kidan felt the same way. Buried by the weight of all the acts she’d committed, remembering the two lives she’d helped feed to this ravenous institution. She adjusted her scarf higher, trying to cover her ears against the stony chill. The scarf smelled like peaches still. Like Ramyn. She reached into her pocket, tracing GK’s journal. A wince of guilt went through her but she wanted the scarf and journal with her as reminders of Ramyn and GK, a way of bringing them with her to the first day of class, along with Slen and Yusef, who were by her side. It was a promise to always remember their original group, and in GK’s case, to bring him home.

For a second, Kidan imagined the fire trapped in the lion lampposts catching, leaking down the pole like lava, snaking down the corridors into the Grand Library, into the vampire buildings, cleansing all the misery from this place.

Kill all evil.

Eradicate all evil.

A part of Kidan burned to answer this old call, something deep in her bones demanding to awaken, because she had been created to cleanse this world ofsomething.

But what?

Kidan had already translated the message wrong once. Thought she was the great evil, the thing to be destroyed until Uxlay opened its gilded gates and worshipped murderers like her. Yet if she was worth saving, with all her crooked parts, what had to die? Something had to, it always did because Kidan still wasn’t free. The chain around her ankle had been extended, yes, but something else kept her to the ground. Restrictive like a band around her lungs.

There was something she had to kill.

And she was actively looking for it.

Yusef pulled his warm wool hat over his ears, studying each student who passed by with plain suspicion.

“Stop that,” Slen muttered, breathing into her large collar.

“How can I?” he whispered. A scent of almonds from the hot chocolate in his cup followed him. “Any one of them could be a member of the 13th. We’re so fucked.”

Kidan didn’t want to agree and heighten his anxiety. Between Samson and her sister, she had almost forgotten another threat lived within Uxlay.

Instead, Kidan asked, “How’s your dad?”

Yusef froze, scratching his cheek. “Uh, haven’t visited him. I keep going to Drastfort but can’t enter.” He released a breath. “What am I supposed to say?Hi, Dad, I know I’ve spent my whole life thinking you’re a cold-hearted murderer and ignoring your letters, but now that I’ve actually killed someone, I kind of understand. I know it’s this fucked-up university—”

He cut off when he realized both Slen and Kidan had stopped walking a couple steps back. “Maybe I’m nervous.”

Kidan smiled softly. “We’ll come with you.” Omar Umil was the only decent adult she knew.

He exhaled, fogging the air. “Thanks.”

Kidan scanned the passing students as well, but not for the 13th. June hadn’t been in the house this morning. In the spare bedroom her sister had taken, there were long skirts and thick sweaters strewn about as if she’d tried them on.

Slen snuck her a glance, intelligent eyes working too fast. “She’ll be with her tour guide. Dranacti classes don’t start until next week.”

Kidan tried to keep her burning gaze on the Philosophy Tower. “She shouldn’t be anywhere near this place. What, does she think she’s going to graduate Dranacti and master the house before me?”

“You’d be surprised what people will do with enough motivation,” Slen said. “Keep your focus.”

There it was again. That strange sense of unease that seemed to hover around the two of them whenever school was involved.

Dranacti had destroyed their morals and whatever their Mastering a House Law class demanded, Kidan was ready to pay it. She was just afraid Slen might be wired the same way.

“I am focused. I’ll master the house and bring GK home.”

At the mention of his name, time slowed down around them. A wound exposed.

Yusef’s face lost its light. “Where do we even begin to look?”

“We can’t talk about this here,” Slen said, watching the passing students and vampires. “Focus on being house masters first. Only then can we conduct our own private searches through our dranaics.”

Kidan understood Slen’s strategy but that didn’t mean she liked it. They couldn’t use the Sicions, so it was up to them. Technically, once Kidan recruited more companions into Adane House, she could order them to comb the country for GK.