Chapter 72 Kidan
KIDAN
Kidan woke up in one of the spare bedrooms, tracing soft cotton bedsheets, alone.
A lazy smile spread across her lips. Her body was still buzzing from the throne room.
The things Susenyos could do with that mouth of his should be illegal.
Then they’d come into this beautiful room and talked for hours, about GK, about her mother’s bones, and…
lion pets Yos had as a child? She couldn’t remember because he’d started to kiss her again, everywhere but on her mouth until she became nothing but a pool of pleasure.
He wouldn’t let her touch him, restraining her hands every time she drifted close.
It was why she couldn’t get rid of this annoying smile, or the heat in her cheeks. She fought off an inward groan, already thinking of when they could be alone again.
Her phone buzzed with an alert, and she rolled over to read.
She swore softly at Luroz House’s vote alert. The gemstone house would always sway to wealth or power so it wasn’t a surprise, but this did mean Umil House was the only one left. It would hold the deciding vote.
It could end in a tie, with six houses evenly split, which was now her best hope like Adjoa had said.
Voting would be held again in three years’ time but in the meantime Adane House’s middle position would be safe.
Or, if Yusef voted in support of the Border Houses, she’d lose her chance to cast any law before the week ended.
Kidan’s heart pinched, thinking of Yusef. In the end, it really was up to him.
Susenyos bumped into the room, knocking the door closed and falling onto the bed. He was in a new shirt, open down to his navel, and his face glowed, though his eyes couldn’t focus for a moment, which for him, meant one of two things.
“Are you drunk or injured?” Kidan asked, forgetting her phone.
He squinted, finding her in the brightness, and smiled.
With startling speed, he reached for her, pulling her to his lap, so they faced one another.
She swallowed a gasp and supported herself on his broad chest. The wall-to-wall window allowed morning sun to bounce off their skin, iridescent like gold in water.
“Taj and the others dragged me out last night to celebrate,” he breathed out, the scent of sour fruit clinging to him. “I fear the thousand-year-old wine must have been poisoned.”
After all these decades of being alone in Adane House, dining alone, spending time with trinkets, he more than deserved this.
She smiled, drawing a line along his forehead. “You don’t look like a king.”
“Good, because I’m an emperor. They conquer far more than kings.”
She lifted an amused brow. “Something is missing.”
Reaching beneath her shirt, Kidan unfastened her necklace.
She hadn’t taken it off since the day he’d let her chain him to their wine cellar.
His irises burned red at her exposed flesh, heating her core.
But she willed herself to focus. She took the crown thrones fashioned into a necklace, clasped it, and placed it upon his twisted hair.
Sunlight caught the ruby crosses falling against his dark brow, his parted lips and blood-tinged eyes.
“Hmm,” she hummed.
He gave her a smile, admiring her with wonder as well. “Do you know you’re poetry?”
“Poetry?” She laughed. “A drunk confession?”
He held her gaze, burning slow and steady. Her heart skipped a beat. “Soft, exquisite beauty that settles under the heart and captures the mind.”
Kidan brought his forehead to hers, studying his mouth. What if kissing him was dangerous? She didn’t care very much right now. Carefully, she closed the distance between their lips, letting them touch briefly and tingle.
“Kidan,” he warned. “Let’s not play with my control.”
She definitely wanted to.
And she would have if Uxlay wasn’t lurking in the back of her mind. The house. GK. Her final class of Mastering a House Law. Sighing, she removed herself from his lap and gave him her phone.
Susenyos squinted at the official announcement of the Luroz vote. The haze cleared from his face quickly. “Umil is left, then. Everyone else has voted.”
After Umil House, it would be her turn to vote.
Kidan nodded slowly. “I’m going to use Resurption when I go back. I have to understand what my mother wanted, inherit her culture any way I can. If Yusef votes against me, we’ll lose Adane House along with the mask. We’re running out of time.”
A dark frown broke his ease from earlier. She already missed the little peace they’d managed to get. “We’ll go now.”
He slid the crown necklace off his head and tied it around her neck. His gentle fingertips sent goose bumps along her throat. “You know, in another time and world, you would have made a formidable empress.”
Her eyes simmered, touching the cool metal. “Empress. Poetry. I’m usually called much worse things.”
His smile was a delicious curve. “By who? Tell me their names. I’ll gently correct their error.”
“Gently?”
He nodded. “You can gently remove a tongue.”
Kidan was laughing deeply, and his eyes were shining when a knock on the door interrupted them.
“Yos, it’s urgent.”
He breathed in and turned. “Come in.”
Iniko came inside, studied them on the bed for a moment before her eyes hardened. “It’s Samson. He’s escaped.”
While Susenyos and his friends searched for Samson, Kidan went to visit GK again, with the hope he’d accompany her to Uxlay. Every time she thought of Samson free, her skin boiled. But he’d be caught. Or, hopefully, killed with the majority of the Nefrasi furious with him.
“Yusef and Slen will want to see you,” Kidan said carefully, back in the concrete cell. “To apologize.”
Though GK didn’t look at her with disgust, he still kept himself in a corner of the dark room.
Silent.
“Is talking to Warde helping?” she asked after a moment.
“I’m not sure. He doesn’t talk. Only nods or shakes his head.” The dry rasp to his voice had eased a little. “We’ve always been taught a Mot Zebeya followed all the rules of the Last Sage. Warde… is leading his own life. But no. I won’t go to Uxlay.”
Kidan nodded, playing with her mother’s finger bones. “I’ll come back, then. As soon as things settle down.”
GK said nothing, but when she turned, he spoke. “Be careful.”
She smiled a little. It was barely anything, but it was a glimmer of the old GK, a reminder they could overcome this as long as she didn’t give up on him. And she wouldn’t.
Outside, June swung on the garden chair, waiting for Kidan.
Her sister smiled right at her. The expression was equally familiar and jarring.
“I’m coming with you to Uxlay,” June said with a hint of excitement.
“Why?” Kidan’s brows drew together in suspicion. “Are you still trying to get the mask?”
June shook her head quickly. “No, no. I’ll help you get it. Whatever you need, I’ll help.”
Kidan stepped back, searching her face. Something wasn’t right. “You want to help me? All of a sudden?”
Was this her attempt at healing their relationship?
Kidan kept walking. She’d hoped that’d make her sister go away but it didn’t work.
Humming, her sister followed her. A few years ago, this would have been an ordinary day, a walk to the park or from school, but now June’s lovely song carried an eerie undertone.
Kidan rolled her shoulders, trying to get rid of the sensation that someone was watching her.
She looked over her shoulder. June’s eyes remained a honeyed color, her brown face innocent. When June stepped into a shadow, a flash of golden-olive eyes took over her sister’s pupils, gone the next second. Kidan shook her head.
You’re being paranoid.
But June had tried to kill her once. It didn’t mean she wouldn’t try again.
So tell her to go away.
Kidan worried her bottom lip, her sister’s wildflowers scent tickling her nose. She didn’t want June to go away. Nor did she want her to stay close. Even if this wouldn’t last, she wanted to walk with her sister. There was no harm in that. They could pretend a little.
When they arrived at Uxlay, semester break was over and students dragged themselves to class with caffeinated drinks, rubbing their eyes, fatigued from late-night parties.
Kidan released a deep breath among the oppressive architecture.
It was easy to forget there was an entire world outside the massive golden gates.
Past the Ajtaf engineering buildings and their black spires, June stopped by a red-roofed bakery, her eyes sparkling. “Want to have some doughnuts?”
Sweet Fang Bakery had a few students enjoying its many treats. But the question only made Kidan wince. She knew her sister was trying, but she couldn’t bring herself to go inside. It was like a flip had switched overnight and Kidan didn’t know what to make of June’s new attitude.
A little crestfallen, June hesitated and then she said, “I’ll get us some.”
And left her standing there.
Kidan was still trying to understand if she should accept the doughnuts or not when Sacro, the well-suited vampire, appeared at her side.
“Adjoa wishes to speak with you.” His tone was polite but firm.
Kidan glanced at her sister, who was lining up among the soft lights, shifting from one foot to another.
It felt like looking into another world and time.
A stranger knocked into June’s shoulder and dropped his box of doughnuts.
June quickly bent down, smiling gently and helped the nervous boy, who wore a Goro House sigil on his scarf.
Kidan’s gut turned. June’s casual kindness felt like a punch to the lungs.
It would have been better if June treated everyone cruelly.
Easier to hate her. But June didn’t seem to have changed toward everyone else. Only Kidan.
Unable to stand June’s compassionate gaze anymore, Kidan turned her face. “Let’s go.”
Sacro escorted her to Piran House. Perched at the northern border of Uxlay, it was surprisingly made of nothing but old bricks, something that belonged to another century.
Adjoa Piran was waiting for Kidan with a hardened gaze. “We need to talk about Yusef Umil.”