Page 51

L OUD POUNDING WOKE K IDAN IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT. S HE rushed downstairs, turning on the light as she went.

“Hello? Who is it?”

The knocking continued, and Kidan searched for Susenyos, but his side of the house was dark.

When she unlocked the door, two figures burst in, one supporting the other. Yusef was leaning heavily on Slen and making a low, sorrowful sound. When they stepped into the light, Kidan saw the blood. Ice shot through her veins.

“What happened?”

Slen’s eyes were struck with shock, her voice teetering on breathlessness. “It’s not our blood.”

Kidan stilled.

“Did you mean it when you said I could trust you?” Slen asked, the previous tremble of her voice disappeared.

Kidan was too stunned to speak.

“Did you?” Slen asked, louder.

“Yes, yes. Of course.”

Slen hesitated for a moment, then handed over Yusef. Kidan almost collapsed with his weight.

“I need to take care of some things.”

“Wait, what are you––”

Slen had already turned, grabbed a jacket off the coatrack, and fled. Kidan tried to move Yusef to the couch, but they both stumbled inches from it.

Yusef shook. Kidan tried to calm him, her fright rising, but he pushed her away and sank into the carpet, head in his hands, mumbling something.

“What happened?” she asked again.

He was whispering something in another language, his voice twisting in painful pleadings that tore at her heart.

“Yusef, please. Tell me what happened.”

Over the top of his curls, she saw Susenyos emerge.

“Forgive me,” Susenyos said.

“What?”

“Forgive me. That’s what he’s saying.” Susenyos lifted his chin to Yusef.

Yusef continued to rock back and forth as Kidan whispered calming assurances, uncertain it would work but unable to stop.

“Rufeal…,” Yusef gasped out.

Kidan met Susenyos’s eyes in shock.

Susenyos crouched before them. “What about Rufeal?”

Yusef’s tone flattened into cold shock. “He’s… dead.”

He stared at his bloodied hands.

“Did you hurt him?” Kidan whispered, bringing her voice lower.

“I didn’t… think I could.”

Her heart collapsed on itself as he quietly sobbed. Kidan had only prayed twice in her life. The night June was taken and the night she’d killed her foster mother. Both had brought her to her knees, profound losses she’d destroy herself to avoid. This loss of Yusef’s soul was gutting.

She was no longer praying but cursing all the gods in the universe for taking all the good from her. Why wasn’t she enough for them? Why did they have to poison those around her?

Kidan called to Susenyos softly. “Help me take him upstairs.”

Placing each of his arms over one of their shoulders, they took him to the shower and closed the door.

“What the hell happened?” she asked, voice cracking. “He can’t survive this. He’s a good person. What if the 13th come after him for this?”

Kidan went right back to that night, being tossed in a cell like an animal. Her heart squeezed. And it squeezed again.

Susenyos, alert to the flickering lights of the bulb above them, spoke before she spiraled. “Remember what I told you. You will help him, and I will help you.”

Kidan clung to those words, nodding.

When they went downstairs, Slen had returned with a covered picture. A spark of fury ignited at her presence.

“Did you make him do this?” Kidan demanded.

Slen stared, ever expressionless. “Yusef is the last person equipped to handle something like this.”

Kidan stormed toward her. “What the hell happened?”

“More importantly, where is the body?” Susenyos asked, appearing from behind.

Slen raised a brow to Kidan. “My dranaic took care of it.”

“Your dranaic in the 13th? Who?”

Slen refused to answer.

Susenyos crossed his arms, eyes stony with distrust. “Is there a particular reason you don’t want us to know? Perhaps you’re plotting to frame another innocent for your murders.”

The two stared at each other, neither bending nor blinking. Minutes ticked by. Kidan was sure that if she hadn’t been there, they would have lunged at each other.

Kidan broke the silence. “Slen, tell us what happened.”

Kidan was too agitated to sit as Slen recounted the events of the night. Rufeal Makary had spent his afternoon working on his mosaic of the famous portrait Woman in Blue . It was the piece that now stood propped against the fireplace. Upon seeing it, Kidan sank into the couch, softly struck by its beauty. Rufeal had chosen a rich umber ceramic for the woman’s skin and azure glass for her robes, which cascaded like waves. The glass reflected the sky, a cerulean shade of blue, and tinted her skin as if she was wrapped in the sea itself. It was a perfect re-creation of the original, save for one small deviation—her creator’s blood ran in two distinct stripes across her breast and neck, a shocking spray of red drawing all eyes to it.

Kidan’s ears buzzed. She was mortified by the violence, even more so that it had come from someone she thought a gentle soul.

The murder weapon was a hammer. The very hammer Rufeal used to shatter glass and ceramic to create the piece.

“Why would Yusef do this?” Kidan whispered.

“He doesn’t know either.” Slen leaned forward. “You know he won’t be able to handle this.”

Kidan didn’t like her tone. “We’ll help him.”

“He’ll take us all down with him.”

“We can’t abandon him. The 13th will be after him.”

“I know him.”

“You know him.” Kidan barked out a nasty laugh. “Yet you’re the first to throw him away?”

“I’m not talking about prison or the 13th. I’m talking about Dranacti. He won’t be able to focus, and that’ll hurt all of us.”

“You will abandon your friend for a class?” Kidan gaped, searching her face.

“I’ve been honest about my goals from the beginning.”

Kidan’s nostrils flared. “We will pass the class together .”

Slen stood to leave, pausing to look at the picture. “Burn that thing and pray the 13th don’t come for all of us.”

Kidan stared at Woman in Blue . Her striking beauty matched her pearl-like eyes. Kidan was so focused on the image that she didn’t hear the shower stop. Only the growing shadow on the couch alerted her to Yusef’s presence. She jumped, trying to cover the portrait.

He saw right past her, a haunted and unfocused gaze.

She lifted her hand aimlessly and rested it back against her side. “You should sleep here tonight.”

He gave her no response.

Kidan buzzed with questions but couldn’t put them before him in his current state. He walked forward and stretched out on the couch, still watching the portrait. Kidan retrieved a blanket from the laundry room and handed it to him. She hesitated, unsure if she should remove the picture. It needed to be destroyed. But she also wanted to study it a little longer. Something about it demanded her attention. She settled on the opposite couch and waited until Yusef fell asleep before moving it upstairs. She slid it behind the space of her vanity. There was a level of calculation involved in Slen’s killing of Ramyn, whereas Yusef’s was a sudden burst of uncontrolled violence. Actions she had never expected from either of them.

You can’t save them.

June’s voice slashed at her from the open window, and Kidan rushed to close it with a snap. Kidan’s breath fogged.

What if they hurt others? Do you really want more blood on your hands?

The alternative was to remove her new friends from this world. She shook her head. Her friends wouldn’t hurt anyone else. They’d made a mistake. A mistake. Yes. She prayed to June.

Let them live.

In her delirious state, Kidan thought June was poisoning her friends on purpose, jealous that when Kidan woke, her first thought was of a peaceful future with them.