Page 45

W HEN K IDAN ARRIVED HOME, THE FAUCET WAS RUNNING IN THE upstairs bathroom. She bounded up the steps quickly, calling out in the darkness.

“Susenyos!”

The water stopped. A moment later, Susenyos appeared at the top of the stairs, towel slung over one shoulder. They stared at each other, the house falling quiet. His eyes were furious, ominous. She’d lied and accused him. How had their roles reversed so quickly?

Kidan wanted to warn him, but something held her tongue. What did she want to say? What happened to Iniko? More importantly, why did she care at all? Time stretched out around them, both illuminated by moonlight, both silent.

Before she could speak, there was a loud pounding on the door. Etete rushed from the kitchen to open it.

“Don’t,” Kidan called, too softly.

Professor Andreyas entered with two strong dranaics, who stormed past Etete. They were dressed in black and carried two gleaming silver swords at their backs. Sicions.

“What is this?” Susenyos barked.

The Sicions charged upstairs without asking permission or glancing Kidan’s way. They removed their blades and cut their tongues, wetting them in red.

The professor spoke with a tempered tone. “We have found the dranaic who killed Ramyn Ajtaf.”

Before Susenyos could move, the Sicions had their silver blades positioned at his neck. Susenyos blinked at Kidan, shocked even though her last betrayal had barely healed. Kidan had the decency to avert her gaze.

She heard his snarl as he tried to break free, and the slash of blade against skin. His pained grunt made her look at him. He was bent at the knee, blood moon eyes latching onto her with rage, a large gash on his stomach. The Sicions’ blood-licked silver didn’t hit a vital artery, but there was no promise their next assault wouldn’t. Susenyos stopped fighting, and they dragged him downstairs. She heard his curse, only for her ears, snapping with venom.

“Zoher.”

Susenyos appeared no different from a wounded, shackled beast. Professor Andreyas faced Kidan.

“Come to the Mot Zebeya Courts tomorrow morning. You’ll have to testify in detail about why you believe Susenyos took June.”

Kidan nodded slowly, and they left.

Etete covered her mouth, stifling her sobs as they dragged Susenyos out into the darkness. The sound of her cries broke Kidan.

She swayed back in the hallway, breathing rapidly. Her fingers touched the wall, seeking the sharp thorns of grief, but there was no ache or ripple. The lamp above no longer flickered. June didn’t roam the halls to haunt her.

Her pain… It was no longer here. Kidan traveled through the house in search of it, opening room after room. The house shifted under her, the areas of her psyche rearranging themselves. She’d felt it once when Susenyos nearly opened up about his past––his room had changed, become softer. Now she walked toward something worse, mutated. The observatory waited and its icy blue light washed over her face. Cold as an ocean rock, it drew her in. Her breath fogged at once.

A scream cleaved the room. A woman in torture. Kidan clamped her hands over her ears, but Mama Anoet’s voice descended from the ceiling like a storm. Kidan’s limbs locked. There was a deadness to this room she’d never experienced. The opened jaw of something endless, reminding her how unsalvageable she was, how with a single breath she could be vanquished.

“June,” she gasped out. “Help me.”

An invisible hand choked her, intent on drowning her into oblivion. Her muscles squeezed, and she spluttered. Her heartbeat echoed in the walls, the vision fading with the moon.

“ You know how to end this, Kid .” June’s voice finally came to her, and a tear glided down her cheek. “Keep your promise. Kill Slen. Kill Susenyos.”

“You don’t understand!” Kidan gasped out. “It’s not her fault. She only wanted to protect her brother.”

The pressure grew on her chest, suffocating. She had to breathe or end it now. Kidan struggled with her bracelet, pried it open, and retrieved the pill. It slipped through her trembling fingers. Showing her soft honeyed eyes, June picked it up, holding it out like a poisonous berry.

“ All evil ,” her sister encouraged, beautiful as a summer sun.

Kidan took it, swallowing it as June caressed her cheek, finally smiling. Tears leaked down Kidan’s cheeks.

“Kidan!” The voice sliced through the sounds of her frantic heartbeat.

A woman’s kind face and the scent of warm bread brought her out of the dark. Etete’s touch was salvation, and Kidan gripped on for dear life as it led her into the hallway.

She touched the base of her wrist. Her heart hadn’t stopped. Her bracelet remained intact, her mouth free of death. She retched, trying to expel any of it. But it was an illusion. This house… Was there no end to what it could twist and manifest?

“Thank you.” She shook. “Thank you.”

Etete’s creased eyes became deep wells. “You’ve joined your mind with his.”

Kidan pulled herself straighter. “What?”

“The house views you as one. The observatory is where you feel pain now too.”

“How… is that possible?”

“This house needs a master that’s true to themselves, peaceful. You two are pulling it in different directions, so it’ll never surrender itself to either of you.” Etete clutched the tail of her head wrap to her chest. Tears sparkled in her eyes. “You two will be the end of us all.”

Kidan averted her gaze. She hated causing Etete pain. “He called me zoher. What does it mean?”

“It means ‘traitor.’ One who wastes their ancestors’ sacrifice and blood.”

The house withdrew into itself, dimming. She found herself in Susenyos’s room. It was clean and organized, and a calmness settled over her skin like soft rain. The Mad Lovers was perched on the edge of his table, in front of the wall of scrolls she’d never asked him about.

She traced the line of the bleeding grapefruit and flipped through the pages. He’d underlined phrases and scratched his own thoughts into the margins. What was it about this book he loved so much? It was a perverted, ugly intimacy. She retrieved her own copy and returned to his room, because her room no longer offered warmth. Shoulders relaxing, she read. Kidan wanted to know their end before the hearing, and once she did, she fell asleep to the sound of light rain.