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T HE PRESIDING JUDICIARY BODY OF U XLAY U NIVERSITY WAS COMPOSED of three Mot Zebeya judges and a jury constructed of dranaics and actis. It surprised Kidan how quickly they had gathered for Susenyos’s preliminary hearing. Koril Qaros’s hearing still hadn’t occurred. For all the equality they preached, when it came to matters of murder and wickedness, Uxlay pointed to its vampires first.
Kidan waited in a secluded area inside the court building, a nervous tick dancing in her fingers. She didn’t know what she’d say. The events of the past few days needed months to be digested. Slen and Koril Qaros. Ramyn Ajtaf. Susenyos Sagad.
She shut her eyes and tried to organize them by importance. The answer: June, always. Yet yesterday, June had fed her the pill.… She’d wanted Kidan dead. Kidan shook her head. No . The house twisted things.
Was surrendering everything to the 13th the best way to get June back? If Kidan complied, became a dutiful, loyal heiress, would June be returned?
Umil’s words echoed in her head. The 13th need an heiress for House Adane.
It meant, for now, June was alive.
“They’re ready, dear.” A woman with burgundy glasses stood by the large doors.
Kidan entered the courtroom, taking the short steps to the witness seat. Her eyes immediately settled on Susenyos. They had fashioned black handcuffs on his wrists. The bands were thornlike and piercing his skin. His bowed head lifted as he sensed her presence.
Anger stole into her chest.
It was supposed to be him. He should have been the source of everything. He should have dropped Ramyn from the tower and abducted June. How many nights had she dreamt of this exact moment? Bringing him to his knees and burning him alongside herself?
Not an ounce of light pierced the blackness of his eyes. They promised death, and she believed them. With him vanquished, her thoughts would no longer press on the soft flesh of her mind like knives. He stirred more hatred, more violence, more wrongness. Even as she sat here, he appeared to see the potential of her own perversion. Darkness stirred inside Kidan, wings spanned, ready to take flight and tear out of her chest.
Here and now, she could kill the wicked part of herself by condemning him. What did his innocence matter? How many others had he killed? Once stained, the hands couldn’t be washed of blood, only abstain like a devout person seeking forgiveness, and Susenyos would never repent.
It was either she killed him or he killed any good left in her. June would never forgive her then.
The back door opened, revealing Yusef and GK. The tightness in Kidan’s chest eased, the shadows shrouding her vision cleared. She didn’t know what drew her to them, this flickering, taunting light. Perhaps it was never having true friends, always keeping an icy distance, being so careful not to reveal her identity that she melted into the back of every classroom. Perhaps she’d finally found a glimpse of the family she lost, or the humanity torn from her when Mama Anoet died. The seeds of their friendship were still growing, yet she felt they were feeding a part of her that was long starved.
Slen appeared behind them, a dark figure in her jacket, chin held high. Kidan’s vision tightened once again, unable to untangle her feelings toward her. Slen had had Ramyn killed. She also had gotten her disgusting father imprisoned. Pain and relief spun into a tornado inside Kidan.
Yusef gave her a bright smile crafted from the sun. GK held her gaze and nodded kindly.
We’re here for you , they seemed to say.
Her anxiety eased a little. But what would become of them in a few months? The 13th had surrounded her new friends like wolves. If that secret society managed to bend Slen, their strongest, what hope did the others have?
Abandoned as they all were by parents, and vulnerable and desperate for family love, Kidan cared for them more than she thought she was capable of. And maybe, if she succeeded in saving someone this time, her worst sin could be forgiven. She wouldn’t be a carcass but someone warm, alive, loved .
Out of the bleak darkness came a tiny speck of hope. She couldn’t be rid of Susenyos or herself yet. Not when she had work to do. This place would ruin her new friends, brush their souls against old words that would take root inside and manifest in destructive ways. Kidan was already lost, but she could guard them from it—the weakness of a person’s psyche, the descent into madness. Just like she’d done for June.
She would set out and take on their every sin until her mind was addled and her skin stretched tight. Then, when she met her end, it would be like in theater plays—as a hero, not a villain.
The 13th wouldn’t be scared away if she didn’t bare her teeth. Yes… she had to delve deep one more time. Like the night of Mama Anoet’s death. If monstrosity was what would protect them and bring June home, she could no longer deny herself. She would save Susenyos Sagad. Together, they would bring the 13th to their knees.
Susenyos remained calm, too calm for a vampire awaiting possible death. His head tilted as if he understood she was transforming before his very eyes. Pain crackled along her skull, shooting through her arm and pulsing at her wrist. He’d warned her of this, not so much with words but with twisted books like The Mad Lovers . Suppressing her nature would eventually tear her apart.
Taj came in quietly and stood at the back of the room, arms crossed, face hard. Iniko entered from the side door. Her eyes were bloodless as she assessed the exit points. They’d massacre everyone in this courtroom before they let Susenyos see the inside of a cell.
“Kidan Adane,” the prosecutor said, annoyed. He must have been calling her. “You reported your sister June Adane’s lips were marked in the same way Ramyn Ajtaf’s were. Why do you believe Susenyos Sagad took your sister and killed Ramyn Ajtaf?”
Deep breath. “I don’t.”
A murmur traveled around the room. Those who had come to see Susenyos crucified shifted, exchanging glances.
“You don’t believe he took June Adane?”
Kidan exhaled. “No.”
Whispers rose to the roof. Susenyos adopted the most obnoxious demeanor she’d ever seen.
The prosecutor read his document, frowning. “And the Axum Archaeological Project deal that Susenyos signed with Koril Qaros? Were you aware of that?”
No, she wasn’t. She recalled the picture of Susenyos next to her family in the ruins of Axum, his deep love of preserving artifacts. The warmth in his voice when he spoke about treasuring archives. It didn’t seem plausible he’d trade such a gold mine of history.
“That site has been kept up by Susenyos and my family for generations. Why would he sell it?”
“I assume to join Qaros House.”
So, this was how they planned to tie Koril Qaros to Susenyos.
“A vampire that killed all his house dranaics suddenly cares for companionship? With a man like Koril Qaros no less?” Kidan waved a dismissive hand.
This sent a startling silence throughout. Susenyos had his head bowed, but she could have sworn she glimpsed a flash of teeth.
The prosecutor lifted a bag labeled EVIDENCE . Susenyos’s flask was inside it. The very one she had handed the chief detective.
Shit.
“This blood was collected from Susenyos Sagad’s flask. It doesn’t match anyone in our system.”
Kidan swore internally. The 13th must have had influence in the campus authorities. The chief wasn’t here.
“I wanted to frame him…,” Kidan pushed out. “So I changed it with my own blood, which I knew wasn’t in the system yet.”
Susenyos’s night eyes twinkled.
“That is a serious offense.”
“I know.”
“It may even be cause for expulsion.”
Dean Faris drew a line with her eyes from Kidan to Susenyos. Kidan couldn’t leave now. She was so close to June.
Kidan’s palms grew damp and she twisted her fingers. “I know. I’m sorry. I was—am—still grieving my sister. I wanted to know who took her. I crossed a line.”
Dean Faris held her gaze. Would the dean use this chance to expel her? The woman was smart. If Kidan was publicly defending Susenyos, she had to know the threat was elsewhere.
Please believe me.
Dean Faris broke eye contact and spoke to Professor Andreyas in a lowered voice. He relayed the message, and the prosecutor, fixing his tie, returned to the stand.
“Susenyos Sagad,” the prosecutor called. “Would you like to press defamation charges?”
Shock rippled through the court. Kidan’s eyes widened.
Susenyos didn’t lift his head, so she couldn’t read his expression. “That won’t be necessary.”
Kidan loosened a breath, sinking in her chair.
“Very well.” The prosecutor cleared his throat. “Kidan Adane will be given an official warning and sign a house release. In the event she graduates and masters her house, she will swear to uphold all laws. If she’s found breaking any laws again, Adane House shall be stripped from her and given to Uxlay to be used as it wishes.”
Susenyos whipped his head toward Dean Faris with a slash of anger and surprise. Dean Faris stared ahead, collected as ever. Kidan was speechless. She thought the dean was helping her, coaching her as a fellow member of a Founding House. Did she want everything for herself?
“Do you accept?” the prosecutor pushed.
Susenyos met Kidan’s eyes, warning etched in his furrowed brow, urging her to refuse.
Kidan’s eyes traveled to her classmates. To the 13th members sitting on the edge of their seats, hungry for Susenyos’s fall, for House Adane to be theirs. Tamol Ajtaf frowned, and Rufeal Makary hovered near Yusef like a vulture.
“I accept.”
Susenyos shut his eyes.
“Very well,” the prosecutor said. “Proceed to the office for the paperwork.”
Each step down from the witness stand turned Kidan’s stomach. She had the sinking feeling she’d done something irreversible. That someday, a week, a month, or even a year from now, this moment would steal everything from her.
But she had no choice. Susenyos knew this place, understood how to skirt the laws to eliminate his enemies. He was a weapon of destruction, and if aimed right, she could make sure she had no blood on her hands for the tasks she planned.
Together, they would eliminate all traces of the 13th. Together, they would find June. Once he forgave her… they were only limited by imagination.
Table of Contents
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- Page 46 (Reading here)
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