Chapter 1 Kidan
KIDAN
Death waited in Kidan Adane’s house, and tonight it would regret ever visiting her.
Locked in one of the private wood-and-metal workshop rooms in the School of Art building, Kidan finished her reread of Weapons of the Dark and picked up the tool that would kill vampires.
An impala horn.
Tonight, Samson Sagad would die.
And Kidan would finally use hellfire to snap her sister free from his hold.
The thought of June made her fingers tremble, and a familiar square appeared on top of her desk. Kidan shook her head, adjusted her safety glasses, and focused.
Samson had to die first.
Kidan’s fingers smelled like the ash of cigars, but even the ghost of Mama Anoet couldn’t reach her in this place.
For three hours each day, Kidan came to the fourth-floor room that looked out onto Ahnd Cemetery, locked herself inside, and ground a curved impala horn against a whetstone, creating curling peels of animal remains.
It was tough work, but the process of deconstructing an object, even one such as this, gave her peace of mind.
Sometimes, she imagined using just her bare hands to shatter an object.
It almost happened a few days ago, when June appeared on her doorstep with fucking Samson.
The metal doorknob had bent under Kidan’s hold.
Since then, she kept searching for that wisp of power again, willing things to break at her mere touch.
But it seemed only her anger at June could call forth that power.
Cupping a hand on the edge of the desk, Kidan scraped the shavings into her palm with the other and deposited them in a small black cup. Reaching for a blowtorch and a pair of thick gloves, she paused to glance at the empty desk across from her.
A memory came to her, Susenyos bent over the artifacts she’d shattered, a frown between his straight brows as he taught her how to piece broken objects back together.
The last time they’d spoken had been four days ago, the start of winter break, the day June arrived on her doorstep. They were allies now, had agreed to work on mastering the house together. So why did he suddenly leave?
He’d told her to wait until he got back, and nothing else.
Kidan’s hand drifted to her neck, remembering his burning bite in the Bath of Arowa.
The solid outline of his body under his drenched shirt, impossibly close to hers.
She shook her head, trying to stop the images.
But the longer he stayed away, the more she went back to their old conversations and burning touches, slid them under a microscope, and tried to understand where they stood.
He’d said he didn’t blame her for the loss of his immortality in Adane House. But he also hadn’t touched her since.
In her darkest moments, Kidan thought he’d left her behind.
Susenyos was running from something. A danger he wouldn’t tell her about.
It had worried her parents enough for them to set a punishing law on him, preventing him from leaving Uxlay.
But fear of the Adane House law couldn’t keep Susenyos in place forever.
He was human now.
In all the rooms of Adane House. He had nothing left to lose.
Kidan’s hand shook slightly as the whirring blue flame of the torch sparked like a small spear, illuminating her face.
Wait for me before you do anything, he’d said.
Patience wasn’t really Kidan’s strong suit.
She brought the fire to the bottom of the cup, watching as the shavings writhed in an effort to escape the heat before becoming ash.
Sweat beaded on her forehead as she worked. Going through the motions—shave, burn, collect ash—and letting her thoughts fade. She needed a large amount of impala horn ash. At least a full bag’s worth.
And today, it was ready.
Next came the tricky part.
Kidan stretched the opening of a black balloon apart and funneled the impala ash inside. Once she tied the balloon, she held it up with a smile. She now had seven balloons filled with impala horn ash.
After wiping her desk down with disinfectant, Kidan exited the room with her hand around the balloon strings.
Uxlay’s campus was a ghost town. Most students were vacationing in Africa, visiting distant relatives. Slen and Yusef were here, though, waiting on Kidan’s call.
She checked her watch again. As previously rogue vampires, Samson, Arin, and Warde had to attend three hours of compulsory induction every day. Kidan could weep before Professor Andreyas for giving her such freedom.
South of the Arat Towers, Adane House appeared like a depreciating, exhausted creature.
She didn’t feel the itch to burn it down like her childhood home.
It certainly harbored more evil than Mama Anoet’s little house and racked her with nightmarish visions.
Yet there were some days, rare days, when the sun concealed the old wooden panels and made it look timeless.
This house had stood in Uxlay for generations, passed down through her ancestors as the only tangible thing she knew, and it only felt right that it would outlive her.
Besides, Kidan hoped if she was civil to the house, it would let her master it.
Etete opened the front door with a smile. She looked as though she’d been baking, flour stains on her dark elbows, her Afro hair a short crown around her. At once, the tension in Kidan’s shoulders eased. The heady scent of fresh bread welcomed her in.
Kidan swallowed roughly, her stomach tightening. She gazed at the narrow staircase leading upstairs. “Is she here?”
Etete seemed to understand immediately that Kidan was talking about June. “No, she’s still with the dean.”
Kidan sighed in relief, and the tight coil of dread in her stomach loosened.
Right after June showed up, Dean Faris had called her to the office, no doubt to have her explain where the hell she’d been and what her intentions were.
Kidan wanted to know too, but she couldn’t think about June until she took care of Samson.
It would be in her sister’s best interest if some of Kidan’s anger was unleashed before they spoke.
Pushing the thoughts aside, Kidan wrapped her fingers around the doorknob and tried to twist it like before.
Come on, a little strength.
It didn’t move, let alone bend.
She worked her jaw, trying a few more times before giving up. So much for being nice to the house. She would have to try again later. Now there was work to do.
She crossed the hallway and shoved a chair into the middle of the lounge. There was tape in Susenyos’s desk drawer, and Kidan ripped some with her teeth before standing on the chair. She taped the balloons to the ceiling, placing them equidistant from each other.
Etete’s soft movements interrupted her work. “You should wait for Dranaic Susenyos.”
“He may not come back,” Kidan said, continuing her work. She could feel the burn of Etete’s worried stare. And the house glowed with the shimmering blue wave of her own sadness. She ignored it.
All that was left to do was wait for Samson’s return. At the thought, fire licked across Kidan’s feet, the lounge magnifying her newfound rage. Yes, she needed to harness that instead.
“This came for you,” Etete said. There was a black envelope in the cook’s hands.
Kidan stepped down from the chair and took it slowly.
Susenyos always loved his letters, and for a moment her heart raced at the thought that it could be from him.
She still carried the last letter he’d written her.
But this envelope had unfamiliar symbols printed on it—a five-petaled white flower, a fanged panther, a soaring eagle, a lone oryx, and a blue gemstone.
They decorated the bottom of a tall, eerie tower.
A dull pang spread through her. With a spike of sudden alarm, Kidan realized she was waiting for him.
She should be glad his arrogant, demanding presence wasn’t here.
In fact, she was glad. Relieved even. Blowing out an irritated breath, she ripped the seal open.
Congratulations on your graduation from Dranacti. We are thrilled you are progressing so well.
Once again, we cordially invite you to the Arcane Tower to begin your courting. Whether you sway to the Abyss, or favor the soaring Eagle, prefer the Panther over the mighty Oryx, or simply marvel at the Blue Stone, the tower opens its doors to you.
Courting begins on the seventh of each month.
We await your response.
Warmly,
The Arcane Societies
Kidan frowned, flipping the letter this way and that, searching for an answer. “What is this?”
“A marriage invitation,” Etete said. “They’re asking you to come find a husband. Uxlay’s long-held tradition.”
A marriage… Her eyes widened. She was only nineteen, marriage was the last thing on her mind.
This had to be some kind of joke.
Etete chuckled, smiling at Kidan the way a grandmother might, warm and patient.
Kidan looked away, clearing her throat. She didn’t like to be reminded of the family she’d never had.
But that was exactly what this envelope did.
The idea of marriage brought her parents unbearably close, their intertwined hands, their promise to love Kidan and June until the day they abandoned them.
Only to be dead before their children’s sixth birthday. It might be irrational, but if their parents had truly loved Kidan and June, something as simple as death shouldn’t have kept them away. It wouldn’t keep Kidan away.
Inhaling deeply, Kidan pushed away the memories of them to a dark corner in her mind before the house could latch on. There was no point in revisiting that part of her life.
“It says ‘once again.’” Kidan frowned. “But it’s the first time I received this letter.”
Etete’s eyes slid to the side, toward the stairs leading to the second level. When she faced Kidan, she wore a secretive smile. “Dranaic Susenyos discarded the first one.”
There were many explanations Kidan had expected. It had gotten lost in the mail. Etete had forgotten to give it to her. Susenyos was the furthest from her mind. “He did?” she asked coolly, trying to mask her surprise. “When?”
“I believe it was the night you defanged him.” This time, Etete’s words were accompanied with a pointed look. Kidan averted her gaze, fighting the urge to apologize.
“I wonder why he didn’t give it to me,” she said instead, tracing the letter with a small smile.
Etete studied her with an amused look. Kidan straightened immediately, clearing her throat.
“Not that I care. Honestly, I’m too young to be thinking about marriage.”
“Don’t look so miserable. Your mother was the same way before meeting Aman.”
That gave Kidan pause. She’d heard actis like herself only married from the Arcane Societies—a group of normal humans from the outside world. But she doubted anyone willing to marry into a vampire-human society was normal. However, her father, Aman, must have come from the Arcane Societies.
Reluctantly, Kidan’s interest was piqued. “You know about these societies?”
“Know about them?” Etete’s chuckle made her weathered face crinkle. “I came from them.”
“Wait, you did?”
“Have you seen anyone drink my blood?” Her gray brow rose. “I’m not acti. I married into this university of yours.”
Kidan shook her head, baffled she hadn’t known this. Last semester, she’d been so focused on finding June she didn’t pay attention to anything else. Couldn’t afford to.
“I was a member of the Eagle Order,” Etete said, her voice hollow, her eyes tracing the symbol of the Eagle below the tower.
“And the Eagle always marries into Ajtaf, Makary, or Delarus House. After I divorced, your grandmother found a loophole that allowed me to stay. I would serve as a house cook here and I’ve remained since. ”
Kidan’s grandmother was a faraway entity, just like her mother.
Dead before Kidan could memorize their love.
Thoughts of her family overfilled and spilled from the corner of her mind.
It felt like fluid in the brain, a surge of black water thick with loss, with a reflection of Kidan that smiled often because the people she loved most loved her enough to stay in her life.
Focus on the present, she told herself firmly. The ones that are alive.
Looking into the dead was no different from standing still and letting someone punch you repeatedly. Kidan preferred to be on the move, gun in hand. She crumpled the letter.
“You should go before Samson returns,” Kidan told Etete, and couldn’t help but add, “Please.”
The woman sighed, and the sound made Kidan’s shoulders drop a little. She hated disappointing her. But Etete cleaned the kitchen, changed her head wrap, and left.
Kidan almost called her back when she realized she was alone in the house.
The carpet softened like mud pulling at her ankles as she settled on the cold couch.
The fireplace wasn’t lit. Susenyos usually did it, and she hadn’t bothered to learn how.
One of her pockets was filled with pushpins, the other carried a gun.
It was surprisingly calm.
Enough for her to loosen a tentative breath.
It was a mistake.
The dark furniture and expensive cushions vanished, and three visions roared to life, each a piercing blade into her chest.
GK’s dead body.
June’s last video.
Susenyos’s absence.
Kidan sank into the couch, deeper and deeper until it seemed like there was nothing beneath her. If no one pulled her out, she would suffocate here.
The observatory was where her pain should be. Not here. She tried to move, but her body was filled with water. The only heavy thing, her mind. It was Susenyos. Ever since he left, the house had become erratic, leaking one emotion into another. Toying with her grip on reality.
Where are you?
Right as her bones began to dissolve, sudden footsteps bounded onto the porch. A shudder of warning tore through the house.
Like a swarm of insects, the visions scattered.
Kidan’s feet found the ground. Solid and ablaze.
She released several quick breaths and bent over. This lounge always nurtured her rage, and it was back, curling like a dragon’s tail around her legs.
She straightened slowly and tightened her shaking grip on the gun.
Samson was here.