Page 39 of Eternal Ruin

“First, why do you think I host tea in this room?” the dean asked. “What do you know of Faris House?”

Kidan didn’t know much. Slen’s flat eyes appeared to be working, though. Darting to the dean’s face, then around the room, gleaning information. The curtains whirred and Kidan could have sworn she heard a whispering sound. Like ghosts haunted this place. She shivered.

Dean Faris’s bronze skin appeared young under the chandelier of candles but there was nothing soft about the woman. She was alert, watchful. Even the ravensymbol pinned to her expensive blazer seemed to stare at them with an oily pupil, its wings sleek under the flames.

“My father told me about what happened in Faris House.” Slen spoke in a stripped tone. The mention of her father always removed all life from her voice.

“Go on,” the dean said.

“A vampire lost control. He killed three of your children during their first year at Uxlay. He was a rogue.”

The house dipped into an unforgiving chill. Perhaps it was only Kidan who sensed the floorboards grow ice, an ancient coldness spreading to her spine, then to the nape of her neck. She couldn’t imagine such a heartbreaking loss.

Yusef spoke softly, wincing. “I heard… it was to send a message. To incite a war with the rogues.”

“Yes. That vampire served under Lusidio,” the dean said. “Lusidio ordered the attack.”

A startling fire built inside Kidan, behind her eyes, as if she was stealing light from the candles suspended above them.

“Did you go to war?”

It was Kidan who asked the question, though she didn’t recognize the edge to her tone.

The dean studied her for a second, sipped her tea. “No. If I’d taken the bait, many lives would have been lost.”

Kidan’s mouth thinned. “So you did nothing?”

“What would you have done?”

“You have an army of vampires.Use them.” She didn’t realize her voice had risen until Yusef laid a hand on her arm. She exhaled, trying to calm down.

“Vampires are not mindless tools to be wielded. They’re not weapons. They’re our equals.” Dean Faris’s hawklike eyes narrowed.

Kidan pulled her attention away, fisting her hands. This reminded her of her own parents. Killed and unavenged. And Slen’s unaffected gaze told her she agreed with the dean.

“Three children… not one.” A flash of unexpected pain tremored Kidan’s words. “You should have avenged them.”

The cup in the dean’s right hand shook and yet she remained otherwisecomposed. “And every soul in Uxlay is someone’s child. They are under my protection as well. Should I abandon them because I want revenge?”

Kidan shook her head, her braids bouncing around her shoulders. The anger possessing her was sharp, and she couldn’t unlock her jaw. Kidan would do anything for her loved ones, and she could not understand how someone as powerful as the dean would let this go unpunished. Lusidio should have been destroyed. She paused. That must be what Susenyos was trying to do.

Yusef regarded the table with a quiet sorrow. Slen, on the other hand, studied the dean like an interesting concept.

The dean spoke carefully. “Since you are graduates, it is time you learn more about rogue vampires. Most are scattered, choosing to live alone. But there are communities of them. The largest of which is led by the tyrant Lusidio. He remains our greatest threat, hiding in a place protected like Uxlay.”

A ripple skirted on the surface of Kidan’s tea as if the house itself shuddered. Uxlay had used the universal law—no unauthorized person, human or vampire could find Uxlay—for generations now.

Kidan’s forehead creased. “But you need actis to form a boundary law. Masters from Border Houses.”

“Yes. There were once eighty acti bloodlines. Twelve make up Uxlay. Thirty-one make up the Lusidios.”

All their eyes stretched wide. Kidan stopped breathing, anger deserting her.

“That many? Why would the acti families ever work with him…” Slen’s words drifted as realization darkened her features.

The dean confirmed it for them. “Some choose to do so, believing it is more natural that a vampire lead our society. And some of the families are forced. They’re blood slaves.”

Her tone tightened at the word, and the curtains of the Faris mansion rustled. Once, the dean had reprimanded Kidan for using that word. Because Kidan had used it to refer to Uxlay, instead of where it should have been directed. Now the ugly word made her skin tense. Samson wasn’t the worst creature to exist out there.