Page 3 of Eternal Ruin

Etete’s eyes slid to the side, toward the stairs leading to the second level. When she faced Kidan, she wore a secretive smile. “Dranaic Susenyos discarded the first one.”

There were many explanations Kidan had expected. It had gotten lost in themail. Etete had forgotten to give it to her.Susenyoswas the furthest from her mind. “He did?” she asked coolly, trying to mask her surprise. “When?”

“I believe it was the night you defanged him.” This time, Etete’s words were accompanied with a pointed look. Kidan averted her gaze, fighting the urge to apologize.

“I wonder why he didn’t give it to me,” she said instead, tracing the letter with a small smile.

Etete studied her with an amused look. Kidan straightened immediately, clearing her throat.

“Not that I care. Honestly, I’m too young to be thinking about marriage.”

“Don’t look so miserable. Your mother was the same way before meeting Aman.”

That gave Kidan pause. She’d heard actis like herself only married from the Arcane Societies—a group of normal humans from the outside world. But she doubted anyone willing to marry into a vampire-human society was normal. However, her father, Aman, must have come from the Arcane Societies.

Reluctantly, Kidan’s interest was piqued. “You know about these societies?”

“Know about them?” Etete’s chuckle made her weathered face crinkle. “I came from them.”

“Wait, you did?”

“Have you seen anyone drink my blood?” Her gray brow rose. “I’m not acti. I married into this university of yours.”

Kidan shook her head, baffled she hadn’t known this. Last semester, she’d been so focused on finding June she didn’t pay attention to anything else. Couldn’t afford to.

“I was a member of the Eagle Order,” Etete said, her voice hollow, her eyes tracing the symbol of the Eagle below the tower. “And the Eagle always marries into Ajtaf, Makary, or Delarus House. After I divorced, your grandmother found a loophole that allowed me to stay. I would serve as a house cook here and I’ve remained since.”

Kidan’s grandmother was a faraway entity, just like her mother. Dead before Kidan could memorize their love. Thoughts of her family overfilled and spilled from the corner of her mind. It felt like fluid in the brain, a surge of black waterthick with loss, with a reflection of Kidan that smiled often because the people she loved most loved her enough to stay in her life.

Focus on the present, she told herself firmly.The ones that are alive.

Looking into the dead was no different from standing still and letting someone punch you repeatedly. Kidan preferred to be on the move, gun in hand. She crumpled the letter.

“You should go before Samson returns,” Kidan told Etete, and couldn’t help but add, “Please.”

The woman sighed, and the sound made Kidan’s shoulders drop a little. She hated disappointing her. But Etete cleaned the kitchen, changed her head wrap, and left.

Kidan almost called her back when she realized she was alone in the house. The carpet softened like mud pulling at her ankles as she settled on the cold couch. The fireplace wasn’t lit. Susenyos usually did it, and she hadn’t bothered to learn how. One of her pockets was filled with pushpins, the other carried a gun.

It was surprisingly calm.

Enough for her to loosen a tentative breath.

It was a mistake.

The dark furniture and expensive cushions vanished, and three visions roared to life, each a piercing blade into her chest.

GK’s dead body.

June’s last video.

Susenyos’s absence.

Kidan sank into the couch, deeper and deeper until it seemed like there was nothing beneath her. If no one pulled her out, she would suffocate here.

The observatory was where her pain should be. Not here. She tried to move, but her body was filled with water. The only heavy thing, her mind. It was Susenyos. Ever since he left, the house had become erratic, leaking one emotion into another. Toying with her grip on reality.

Where are you?