Page 74
S USENYOS AND K IDAN SHARED ONE WEEK. O NE PEACEFUL WEEK where they didn’t want to kill each other. He read her pieces of literature by his arched window, sun drenching their skin. They fed on ripe fruit, sweet nectar splashing on their tongues, and enjoyed discussing how to get rid of the Nefrasi.
Kidan no longer attacked Susenyos inside the pale blue observatory. That voice telling her to hurt them both had vanished. They should have been able to stay in there longer now, but instead it was Susenyos who couldn’t manage it. He would encourage her to keep going, then walk unsteadily upstairs, making her brow furrow.
“Where is he?” she asked on the seventh afternoon, twisting a metal loop into what could be a jewelry box or a flat-shelled turtle. Kidan had started metalworking again, to keep busy and enjoy the stretching hours of the break. She would gather discarded antique pieces and mold one object to another. Creation gave her a blissful sense of control.
“You must have pissed him off at the ceremony.” Susenyos spoke from his own station, restoring the broken artifacts with care. Artifacts that belonged to the Nefrasi. The sight always made her chest ache. He’d said such cruel things to them over the phone, and it was clear Susenyos wanted them to hate him. Perhaps he was still punishing himself. Kidan knew all about that.
“I thought he’d have moved in by now,” she said.
Their plan of killing Samson couldn’t really take effect without him, and she grew antsy with the wait.
Susenyos stopped working, lost in thought again, and stared at the goddess illustration. He did this every twenty minutes, fingers playing with the silver nail usually lodged in the roof of his mouth. She wanted to ask him what was wrong, but she already knew.
Samson was coming here to kill him. It was bound to weigh on his mind.
He pushed his chair away and went to stand in front of the goddess portrait. “You once asked me about this.”
Kidan left her station and went to him. Susenyos shifted aside, giving her space she didn’t need. As if he didn’t want to brush her shoulder.
Kidan frowned at his reaction.
“What do you notice?” he asked.
The image always struck her, a familiar wrath stirring in her, aged and hungry. The cracked wooden mask captured the goddess’s intense eyes, weapons strapped to her back glimmered violent silver, and her fisted hand wore a flaming red ring—
Kidan’s eyes widened. “The Three Binds… the artifacts. She’s wearing them. I never noticed. But I thought the Last Sage was a man?”
Susenyos’s smile was faint. “Sages don’t have a gender. But the one who created Dranacti was a man, yes.”
“So there are others?” Kidan whispered.
“There were others. Many, once. There are none now.” Loss swam and tightened his voice.
Kidan traced the mask. What had cracked it? Her skin thrummed.
“Do you think we can get this house to show us where the Sun artifact is?”
His tone edged on frustration. “I’ve tried for years, and you’ve seen how successful I’ve been.”
She shot him a sympathetic glance. “There’s one in this house and one with the Nefrasi. Where’s the last one?”
“We don’t know. We found the Water artifact—the blades—two hundred years ago. The Sun artifact, which is the mask, we found fourteen years ago. Then your parents concealed it in this house. Who knows how long it’ll take to find the Death artifact.”
He sounded wistful that even as an immortal, he might never see those three artifacts together.
They moved to the kitchen, and Susenyos peeled fruit, adding it to the platter. Grapefruit was his favorite. She studied his long and slender fingers, recalling how they unwound her braids and massaged her scalp. Their kindness.
Again she frowned.
Other than at the companionship ceremony, he hadn’t touched her since the Bath of Arowa. Not a brush against her shoulders, not accidental contact of the fingers, and certainly not anything more. He kept a distinct amount of space from her, just like when they couldn’t stand each other.
She was alarmed by how her body craved his touches. Perhaps he was no longer interested in her that way. Her gut tightened at the thought, but she shoved it aside.
He was discussing some artifact that resembled the Last Sage’s ring when he nicked his thumb and blood spread over the spot. He pressed it to his lips and sucked to quell the pain. A very human instinct.
Kidan stilled on her chair.
Their eyes met.
And there, in those black eyes, that something she couldn’t quite figure out, a piece that she knew had been missing for the past week, clicked into place.
“This is the kitchen.” Her voice was strained. “You should be healing.”
He gave a tight smile, grabbing a towel to wrap around the cut.
“I was wondering how long it’d take you to notice.”
Ice washed down her back, her eyes darting from his thumb to his face. “You’re… human in more rooms. How many?”
He hesitated, drawing in a long breath. “All.”
“ All of them? ” She shot to her feet. “Since when?”
When he remained quiet, her mind raced to solve the puzzle, but she couldn’t.
“Yos.” She forced him to look at her. “When?”
He set down the fruit. “The night you went to save GK.”
She blinked. “But you didn’t leave the house. The house would only steal your immortality if you endangered the Sun artifact.”
His eyes simmered with defeat. “I did endanger it.”
Her brows pinched. “No, all you did that night was talk on the phone. You gave me the clue—” She gasped. “Is that it? You endangered the house when you gave me the Mad Lovers clue?”
Susenyos gave a strained nod.
“That can’t count!” she shouted—and the kitchen stove caught fire.
Susenyos put it out with the towel, although the fire wasn’t real. “Unfortunately, the house disagrees with you. I thought the clue wouldn’t set it off, but I was wrong. This house is linked to my mind. It sensed my intention, and my intention was to save you by bringing a threat into this house.”
His voice remained concealed, working hard not to rise.
He grabbed the platter and moved past her. “Let’s eat.”
Kidan was stunned. But then she said to herself, “It’s only in this house.”
She rushed to follow him. “If you leave, you’ll still have your immortality, right?”
“Yes.” He returned to the kitchen to grab plates.
She followed him, close on his heels. “Samson is coming here to kill you. Uxlay isn’t safe anymore. You need to leave.”
He paused, then offered her a lazy smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Why? Don’t tell me you’ve started to care about my well-being now.”
She didn’t snap back, didn’t smile, but merely held his gaze. She was starting to care and… it terrified her. When had her feelings for him shifted? Like the rooms of this house, her feelings had changed without her volition and without noise. Her mind tightened with the ruined image of their future. He’d be weakened, and the cruelty of Samson would break him. Dread crawled all over her skin. This changed everything.
His eyes grew dark in the quiet, and his voice rang carefully. “Keep your guard up, little bird. Don’t waver now.”
A line twitched along her jaw. “I’m not wavering.”
“You are. Nothing I told you should change your plans.” He almost sounded disturbed by her worry.
She pressed on her lips. “It doesn’t.”
“Good.”
“ Perfect ,” she snapped. “And when he kills you because you cut your finger and can’t heal? What then?”
His lip quirked. Almost genuine this time. “Well, from the looks of it, you might avenge me.”
She shook her head, fisting her hands. “This isn’t a joke.”
His intense gaze flickered, reaching deep into her soul. “Why would you send me away?”
She crossed her arms to add distance between them, to shield her fragile heart, which had just started beating again. “I needed you to help my friends. To save GK. I needed you to be strong, but now…”
Deep silence fell, adding weight to her words and turning them more vicious than she’d intended. But she didn’t break it, couldn’t. She let them settle into the selfish truth.
“You don’t need me?” Something dreadful crystallized in his dark gaze. “Don’t worry. You’ll still have my strength.”
His tone burned like pure ice, removed.
Kidan traced the floor with her eyes, feeling the rift between them grow. “But I don’t get it. Why are you not shouting? Why aren’t you angry? You’re human—”
“Don’t. Don’t say that word.” His jaw tightened, eyes flashing.
She bit her lip, frustrated.
“Why am I not angry?” The plates in his hands clattered to the table. “Of course I am. I will always be. Don’t you remember the state of this room?”
She studied the lounge, recalling that confusing night. The fire eating at the space, swords punctured into walls, furniture broken, and so, so much rage . But June had been on the screen, and nothing else had mattered. Now she remembered. Understood that his anger had been because the house stole everything from him.
“So, you are angry,” she said slowly. “Of course you’re angry. Then why didn’t you tell me?”
“I went to yell at you. I had every intention of doing so at the infirmary.” She remembered him bursting through the doors like an angel of death, shouting her name. It was all so clear now.
His eyes were cast low, golden at this angle, wrought with two conflicting emotions. “You ran into my arms. You were hurt, and you came to me. Why did you have to do that? Took the fight right out of my words.”
Kidan’s heart twisted.
“I don’t blame you, Kidan. I gambled, and it cost me. I made a mistake.”
Her vision tightened. A mistake.
“This is the crux of my nightmare,” he continued in a haunted voice. “I’m robbed of my strength. I can’t stand the feel of my own skin, the dullness of my own heartbeat, and while every bone in my body is telling me to flee before death comes, I must stay. I will acquire all of the Last Sage’s artifacts and keep Samson from such power.” His fierce words shook the entire house. “There is nothing more important than that goal, and nothing will keep me from it.”
He held her gaze with unwavering determination until she nodded. He inhaled deeply and released the breath. “Good. And as for why I didn’t punish you, well, you did that all by yourself, didn’t you? I watched you drown in your sadness after June’s video. The house grew suffocating with your loss, until I couldn’t breathe. Your pain…” His expression changed, dark and disturbed. “What scar could I add to the ones you already carry? Even I have my limits.”
A fist seized her heart. He hadn’t yelled at her because of June. For nearly two weeks, he’d pretended everything had worked out. Had carried this loss with him without sound. Had let her begin to have hope again.
“Thank you,” she said softly, surprising them both.
Susenyos blinked as if he’d heard her wrong.
“Thank you for waiting, for giving me time.” She squared her shoulders and leveled what she hoped was a strong, unwavering gaze at him. “I can handle it now. Don’t hold anything back. You can yell at me for everything I’ve done. Everything I’ve ruined.”
He regarded her beneath heavy lids until the clouds covered the sun entirely.
“I don’t want to yell at you,” he said quietly. “Enough with the self-loathing and punishment. Leave them behind. I’m only interested in what I can become. What you will become.”
He walked to her slowly, and her body tensed, every nerve alert, eyes tracking his rising fingers, already feeling their warmth. She knew this stance of his. He was going to grab her chin, as he did whenever he was serious. But he let his fingers fall inches from her face, a frustrated line tightening his jaw. Kidan tried to clear the disappointment from her eyes.
His words grew steel, sharp with resolve. “You are Kidan Adane, heiress of House Adane, able to master this house until your will breaks all wills.”
She blinked in surprise. But he wasn’t finished. “Because if I fail—though I’ll fight like hell not to—you will be ready. You will change the current law and craft one that’ll return far greater than what I lost.”
She stared into his unflinching face, that unbending resolve that made him stay in this house for decades. He was ablaze with this desire of his, and it would burn them both to ash.
“Is that an ask or an order?” Her eyes searched his, her voice equally hard. She needed to know what they were, how to move forward from this point.
His features tightened at the question, pupils swirling, before they settled into a concealed emotion. “We’ll only know if you fail. Don’t fail.”
When he stepped back, her eyes dropped to his cut finger.
Human.
A word he couldn’t even bear to hear. She could see the silent request in his expression. He needed her to treat him no differently even though every single thing had changed.
She gave him his wish, crossing her arms. “So, it’s a race. To see who between us can master the house first.”
Surprise arched his brows. “I suppose.”
“Well, don’t slow me down.”
His face carried shadows, but his lips stretched a little. “Wouldn’t dream of it.”
The lights dimmed around them, the walls moving closer, pushing them together. Kidan wondered if he felt it too. Was he straightening his spine as well? What were they, exactly? Too many things to one another, maybe not enough of one thing to be whole.
The doorbell rang. It thrummed in the family portrait and the antique clock and the very core of the house.
Susenyos’s mouth hardened. Frost spread down her veins. The hallway’s lamps popped and shattered, darkness swallowing the path. The carpet moved and shifted like a current of ocean. It hadn’t been like this in a while.
“You see that too?” she whispered.
He nodded. “Fear lurks in the hallway. That doesn’t mean we don’t cross it.”
With each step, the carpet gripped the soles of their shoes, determined to drown them. They were suddenly fragile. On the brink of something new, and they had to flee together to protect whatever sliver of peace they’d found. One week was not enough. It would never be enough.
A shadowy figure stood behind the distorted glass. Terror stole into her chest. She had seen this shadow when it came to take her sister. And now here it was on her doorstep.
Susenyos nodded at her.
Kidan took a deep breath and opened the door. A rush of light irritated her eyes. The sun was bright, yet the house mirrored the middle of the night.
Samson Sagad adjusted his gleaming glove. “Sorry for the delay. I had something to collect.” His gaze focused on Susenyos, hard as marble, and melted into a sick smile when it reached Kidan. “Although I feel you two didn’t miss me.”
“Always jealous, wendem. After all these years, I’d think you’d find a new flaw.” Susenyos’s eyes glittered as he crossed his arms and leaned against the wall.
Kidan was always impressed with how easily he masked himself.
Samson’s jaw twitched, then smoothed into a dangerous smile. He turned to the side.
“Come here,” he ordered.
Kidan’s brow furrowed. A young girl stepped into view, the scent of wildflowers and honey carried in by a gust of wind. Kidan’s vision blurred, then focused. The girl wore a pale blue sundress, her brown skin aglow, curling braids grazing past her shoulders. A single butterfly bracelet with a three-pointed sun dangled from her wrist.
Kidan’s lip quivered. She couldn’t utter the name that could break her apart again. Her feet were already sinking in this hallway, and she’d drown. She willed her spine to straighten, pleaded with the deepest part of her soul.
Please, please. Give me strength.
The floor rumbled under her, and the shards of the light bulbs picked themselves up and webbed themselves whole. The ruined lamps roared to life as light flooded the hallway.
She turned to Susenyos in surprise, but he was already watching her intently, brows raised. The carpet lost its water and fear retreated, depositing itself in another room. Locked away tight.
Something else pushed against her feet. Sudden and jolting. The ground of her ancestors stirred like an ancient beast and opened its jaws. Earth enveloped her, unbroken and mighty, and dressed her in armor—starting at her feet, climbing along her legs, and cloaking her shoulders. Power coursed through her veins with a giddying rush. Kidan’s hold on the doorknob dented it. She stared in awe at the damaged metal.
For the first time, Kidan commanded the house. It obeyed.
Slowly, she met her sister’s gaze. One mirrored the lonely moon, one burst with the burning sun.
“June.”
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