Page 41 of Eternal Ruin

“You’ve been in Adane House long enough, Kidan. What is the written law?”

Kidan didn’t expect the sudden subject change. The dean was fishing for a reaction. Again, there was that pull to trust the dean with this knowledge. Kidan dug her fingers into her thigh.

She couldn’t tell anyone about the law.

Remarkably, her voice remained even. “It still hasn’t been revealed to me.”

A ghost of a smile moved over the dean’s face. She did not believe her.

“I see. Perhaps your sister will be more successful.”

Kidan dropped her gaze to the gleaming teapot. If June read the house law, how long before she told Samson or the dean?

“Can we leave?” Kidan asked. The heavy lemongrass tea was making her head fuzzy.

“Yes, good luck with your studies.”

Kidan tracked the floor as they exited. Only a swirl of dark green skirt made her look up.

June was here and she was just as surprised. The two stared at one another in the shrinking hall.

Yusef cleared his throat. “You must be June. I’m Yusef—”

“Yusef,” Slen said firmly. He stopped talking.

June’s eyes traveled over them as if trying to figure out who they were.

“June,” the dean called from her chair. “Come in.”

June walked past her. Again, Kidan reacted without thought. Grabbed her arm and pulled her close.

“Careful what you tell her.” Kidan’s warning was nothing but ice.

Her sister looked straight ahead, not making a sound. A red Uxlay scarf, new and odorless, lay curled around her neck. She really was going to be a student here.

It was both Slen’s and Yusef’s hands that made Kidan let go. June entered past the engraved door and shut it behind her. Kidan felt another pair of eyes and turned to find Warde watching. A chain of bones around his thick neck. Had Samson instructed him to follow June around?

As Kidan passed him, Warde slightly tipped his head forward, making his bones crinkle. It felt like a greeting and a warning.

16.

KIDAN

Kidan’s eyeballs felt boiled with the stretching, endless hour in the Grand Solomon Library. She had taken Professor Andreyas’s words to heart and had already finished reading one of the assigned texts. Slen and Yusef were collecting philosophical texts about mastering a house, waiting on translated copies and even selecting some fiction books. The mystery around house ownership made Kidan’s skin tight. She would only feel at ease once she knew exactly how to do it—no more vague interpretations. From the Adane Historical Archives, Kidan had withdrawn a large portion of Mahlet Adane’s research and personal journals. Thankfully, not all parts were written in Amharic, but they weren’t organized either. No dates. No way to know what the random lion sketches meant. Or the number twenty-one.

Kidan had an obsession with symbols, shapes specifically. Her mother shared the same tendency, but with numbers. One number sketched in the margins, repeated over and over again like she couldn’t get it out of her head.

21. 21. 21. 21. 21. 21. 21. 21. 21. 21. 21.

She traced the number, dancing along the curve of the two, then the straight line of the one. Was it a code? Or did Mahlet use it to catalogue her emotions like Kidan? Every detail she discovered about her mother made their lost connection regain some of its threads. As if Kidan could bring her back to life if she learned more.

When Kidan wasn’t driving herself mad with that, she hunted for any moremyths about how the artifacts and binds worked, but they were all vastly different. Some claimed bringing the artifacts under fire released a demon, others said the binds would never break.

Kidan checked out another book, adding it to her pile, and yawned. It was past two in the morning, and Yusef was snoring softly, his head on the edge of the desk. Slen stretched and went to the bathroom.

Moving to another aisle, Kidan looked forTransgressing Psychology—Slen’s request. Securing the thick text, she returned. She paused, noticing a small deckle-edged book on her pile—one she hadn’t retrieved from the stacks. No title on the cover or spine. On the first weathered page, in cursive,Aseractiwas written. The subtitle read:Submission and control—master the house, master all.

Kidan looked around, even went down the aisles, wondering who had put it there. A trolley wheeled by, pushed by an assistant, and a few tired students yawned under lion-shaped lamps. New Dranacti students most likely—June’s classmates. Kidan stirred her thoughts away before they bit at her.