Page 30
K IDAN MADE IT BACK A MINUTE BEFORE MIDNIGHT, brEATHLESS AND sweaty, just as students were lining up.
“Where were you?” Slen muttered as Kidan climbed onstage. “Did you get something?”
“Yes. It’s… risky.”
Interest gleamed in Slen’s features, making Kidan’s lips press together with nerves. This could go brilliantly—or be disastrous. Either way, she would go out with one final win.
Dean Faris watched, a turquoise beaded hairpin shining in her sleeked hair. Kidan had overheard that Professor Andreyas gifted it to the dean forty years ago on this day. The cornrowed and dark-skinned professor remained the oldest of all the dranaics here, a companion to the very first dean of Uxlay and serving the house loyally ever since.
“Actis, dranaics.” Professor Andreyas didn’t need to raise his voice to command attention. “Following tradition, we will now reveal which actis have garnered the gift and interest of companionship from dranaics.”
Yusef Umil held up a heel. “Resa Tar, Delarus House.”
A stunning vampire with a neck tattoo shot him a sultry look.
Rufeal Makary nodded toward a large vampire with a thick beard. “Asuris Redi, Makary House.”
GK held up a button. “Iniko Obu, Ajtaf House.”
Awed whispers echoed in the room. Iniko gave a brief nod of confirmation.
Kidan’s heart launched into a frenzy when it was her turn.
“Kidan?”
Shit.
She was displaying no article of clothing. Nothing.
“Susenyos Sagad, Adane House.”
The professor lifted a brow, as did others in the front crowd, leaning forward. Dean Faris regarded her with a curious tilt of her head.
Susenyos held his relaxed position at the back of the room, drinking with a triumphant look. He knew that whatever she had, he’d say he didn’t gift it to her, utterly embarrass her, and that’d be the end of things.
She’d known she needed something he couldn’t afford to deny. Something he’d rather say he relinquished than have every soul in this room learn she had wrenched from him.
Kidan opened her fingers, revealing a pair of glistening and bloodied fangs.
The crowd gasped.
Susenyos choked.
Kidan smiled.
“The assignment was an article of clothing ,” Rufeal sneered.
“You said something personal, professor.” Her voice rang loud in the stunned quiet. “What’s more personal to a vampire than his teeth?”
A small roar of laughter echoed, breaking up the shock. The actis laughed. No dranaic did.
“He gifted these to you?” Professor Andreyas’s mahogany forehead furrowed.
Kidan lifted her lashes to him. “How else would I get them?”
Every head in the vicinity turned toward Susenyos. He was on his feet. Iniko and Taj were blocking him. When had they gotten there? Iniko had a firm hold on his arm, and Taj was speaking intently into his ear. She could imagine Taj’s rushed words, reminding him they were in public, to calm down.
Would he admit she defanged him because he attacked her, almost forcing a companionship vow? No. Dean Faris was here.
Would he say she defanged him by force? No. He had far too much pride. And no one would believe a weak human girl could overpower the great Savage Susenyos.
He’d rather say he gave them to her and save face. It was his only move.
Stop smiling , she told herself.
She really tried.
“Susenyos?” Professor Andreyas called.
Kidan thought the most beautiful expression she’d witnessed on him was after he’d found the artifact room destroyed. How wrong she was. This look could murder all looks. If Kidan could paint, she’d capture his stiffness, curled lips, black eyes catching red, the hands of his friends taming him as if he was a wild beast a breath away from tearing out her throat. He was all her fury, all her hatred and violence, made manifest—and how decadently, how divinely, they fit him, better than the clothes he wouldn’t gift her.
Now they were even.
Taj’s words must have convinced him, because Susenyos managed a curt nod, barely moving his chin. It sent another wave of murmurs through the room.
Professor Andreyas gave nothing away. “Very well.”
Kidan rested her hands, sighing. She’d passed.
“You’ve seen this year’s cohort. Wish them luck and hope they will join us formally at the end-of-year companionship ceremony. Now, as tradition dictates, actis, please join your chosen dranaics in a dance.”
The claps were staggered before falling as one.
Wait… Did he say “dance”?
When Kidan snapped her gaze to the back of the room, Taj, Iniko, and Susenyos had vanished.
Table of Contents
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- Page 30 (Reading here)
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