Page 9

D EAN F ARIS AND K IDAN ARRIVED AT A HOUSE THAT BORE THE SAME wealth and rich wood that a haunted manor might. But if other houses reminded Kidan of feral pets, this one had its teeth broken and festered a particular disease inside.

She eyed the windows, trying to glimpse the dranaic who’d conveniently lived through her family’s death. If Kidan hadn’t struck her deal with the dean, she would have lit this house on fire as well.

“I thought it would be bigger.” Kidan frowned, comparing it with the Faris mansion.

“Your parents had quieter taste.” Dean Faris’s features lightened as she studied the house. “I haven’t entered this house in many years.”

“Why?”

“I mastered my house when I was twenty years old, at which point I could no longer enter other mastered houses. Adane House belongs to no one at the moment. It is a very rare circumstance, and I’m glad to visit it.”

Kidan couldn’t begin to understand their customs. She eyed the black chimney and uncleaned gutters.

“I don’t remember this house,” Kidan said, trying to parse her old memories.

“You wouldn’t. Uxlay doesn’t permit children to reside here. All children study at our boarding school, where vampires are not allowed. Once they finish, they come here for higher education.”

“But if Uxlay is so safe, why do you have to accompany me inside?”

“Because as of a week ago, Susenyos Sagad was expecting to inherit this house. I’m cautious of what we will find inside.”

As they drew closer to the lion-shaped knocker, music drifted out. It held an equal measure of a drum and brass instruments with vocals that wrapped around a foreign language. The oak door was heavier than Kidan imagined, swinging inward as if the hinges needed a good oiling. The smell of old carpet and dust settled on her tongue. It appeared both lived in and untouched since its occupants left it. Kidan found she liked this about it. It was an unusual show of loyalty, to keep itself as it was, not erasing history. For a wild second, she imagined she would find her parents upstairs.

“Do vampires not clean?” Kidan asked.

“You do have a house cook, Etete. So you’re not entirely alone. She will be very helpful. Unfortunately, her presence doesn’t interrupt the will, as she isn’t an heiress of Adane House. ”

The idea of a house cook wasn’t that comforting.

Glass shelves in every corner were filled with antiques and other treasures. Upon closer inspection, they appeared to be East African trinkets, possibly from archaeological digs. Although Kidan was Ethiopian, she barely recognized her culture. Another thing long lost.

The dean lifted her eyes from the picture she was admiring. A woman in a long skirt and coat stood amid ruins next to a shaded man in a wide-brimmed hat. At the bottom it read, AXUM ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROJECT, 1965 .

“Your family were passionate about recovering lost things. Just as much, they had a hard time parting with things they recovered. The Axum Archaeological Project investigates the Sage-period site in northern Ethiopia. Many had given up hope that ancient Axum could be found again, but your ancestors were determined to locate it.”

They walked into a well-furnished living room. Still no sign of the dranaic. A giant portrait hung above the fireplace. It captured five well-dressed people in exquisite detail. There was a woman who looked like Aunt Silia, in a sleek black dress, hair piled in a messy bun. Kidan couldn’t remember if her nose had been that shape. With her were two silver-haired elderly people and, in the middle, a smiling couple, outfitted in a smart suit and red dress. June had their father’s eyes, warm and twinkling. Kidan shared her mother’s straight nose and high forehead, appearing stern when she didn’t mean to. But the loose and curling hair fanning around her was all June. Kidan tugged at the end of her braids, which were coarse and unbending like iron. It was a battle to make her hair submit, with many combs sacrificed to the cause. Her father seemed to understand the pain, instead choosing to wear short, dense hair. Every feature that she and June had came from pieces of these strangers. It felt larger than anything, alive in a way that made her want to weep.

“When was this done?” Her voice betrayed her emotion, wavering. Her parents looked so… young, close to her age now.

“At the Acti Gala, about sixteen years ago.”

The dean’s eyes slid to the corner signature, and her tone slightly changed. “Omar Umil’s work, of course.”

Omar Umil… Why was that name familiar? It was a name in Aunt Silia’s book. The only person her aunt had spoken fondly of, and who was currently in Uxlay’s Drastfort Prison. Yet another mystery.

It took Kidan a great deal of effort to look away, and even as she did, she knew she’d sneak one more glance on her way back.

They followed the swelling music into a common room of sorts, with a study desk and large, towering bookshelf.

Kidan’s body was suddenly thrust into a violent, disturbing cold.

Several girls stood in a strict line in the middle of the room. All were blindfolded and blood ran from their bitten shoulders.

“June,” Kidan whispered as she burst into the darkened room. She grabbed one of the girls and yanked down her blindfold. Green eyes blinked at her instead of soft brown. Kidan staggered back. She continued along the line, pulling the fabric off the young women one by one. In her lowest moments, Kidan had already imagined this scene, June tortured and used for her blood. Dread tightened around her throat when she reached the last girl.

Please. Please.

Kidan had finally found Uxlay and entered the place Susenyos lived.… June must be here. She had to be. Her fingers shook too much, unable to pull the last blindfold. The girl removed the fabric herself, dark black eyes blown wide. Not honey brown.

“Who are you?” the girl whispered.

Kidan swayed and reached to brace against the wall, trying to force air into her lungs.

Past the girls, three people occupied a table, playing some sort of game. One of them had his back to her, black and thick twisted hair reaching his shoulder.

Dranaics. If Kidan could breathe fire, they’d all be incinerated.

Dean Faris joined her, pity in her eyes hardening to stone once she regarded the vampires. Two of them rose at once—a boy and a girl.

A gold-plated band wrapped around the boy’s forehead, his muscled body fitted in a tight shirt. He flashed a shaky grin. “Dean Faris. We didn’t expect you here.”

Dean Faris’s words were barely constrained into formality. “Blood courting is forbidden outside the Southern Sost Buildings. Whose idea was this?”

The dark-skinned girl gave a small bow of her head in apology. She wore a velvet brocade vest and coat, a bloodred flower pinned to her collar at her throat. Her hair was cut at her neck, sleek and curling behind her ear. She looked like a fine lord of the Victorian era.

“I apologize.” Her address rang more formal.

Dean Faris frowned. “I expected more from you, Iniko. Report to Andreyas and tell him you’re banned from courting for the next three months.”

Iniko nodded again, accepting her punishment without question.

The dean eyed the girls. “Iniko and Taj, take your guests with you and wait for me in my office.”

Taj, the young man with a golden headband, approached the women. “With me, ladies. Hold hands, yes, this way.”

He winked at Kidan as he left. Her nostrils flared in disgust.

Once they were gone, Dean Faris took one of their seats, facing the vampire collecting the cards in swift motion. Kidan remained at the wall.

“Did Iniko tell you about your changed circumstances?”

“Oh yes, delivering news through my closest friends that I’m to be crossed off the will is not something I’d forget.”

The vampire’s voice sounded familiar, deep, and mocking. Kidan moved forward slowly, heart thundering.

“I figured it was best. She has a talent for reasoning with you,” the dean said.

“I suppose she does.”

“And the blood courting? Was it really Iniko’s idea?”

“She plans to find me a match. I can’t deny her wish.”

Dean Faris’s gaze fell to his sleeves. “You’re not wearing your pin. Are you considering joining another house?”

He shifted, retrieved a silver pin from his pocket with two mountains shielding each other, and secured it to his sleeve.

“Always Adane.”

He pronounced Kidan’s last name with the correct affectation and too much familiarity.

His attention finally flicked to Kidan, striking her still. Eyes deadened with time. Skin that held the earth too close.

“Hello, little bird.”

Kidan’s vision blackened, her breathing growing heavier.

He cocked his head. “Have you killed any more innocent creatures since I last saw you?”

Dean Faris drew a line between the two. “You have met?”

He gave a thin smile. “I helped her when she was in desperate need, but I fear she sees it differently.”

“You were supposed to wait until I introduced you two,” Dean Faris said disapprovingly.

His smile deepened his dark brown skin. “There are so few new faces around here. I had to satisfy my curiosity.”

The dean touched a hand to her temple. “Kidan Adane, meet your house vampire, Susenyos Sagad.”

The smile on his face strained when it returned to her, displeasure breaking through the mask for a moment. Kidan truly felt like the bird they’d killed, already dead, and now thrown into the depths of hellfire.