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I crossed my legs, yawning dramatically. “I’ve got nothing but time. And I wanna see you hit it with your best shot.”

His hand tightened around that crystal.

“Oooh, does it explode?” I asked. “Go ahead. Throw it. What’s the worst that can happen? We get burned? Neither of us will die. So do it. Come on. Throw it at the door.”

His breaths shortened, shoulders broadening. It was settling in. He was slowly realizing that he couldn’t escape.

“Come on!” My yell made him jump. “Do it! You’re the fierce one here. You’re so strong. You’ve evaded every other capture. You’re the king of all things, eh?! Come on, lad, take the door down.”

Utter silence.

I laughed. Not a chuckle, but a deep, almost maniacal howl. It’d been so long since I laughed, I forgot how it felt. I forgot the little burst of joy laughter and smiling brought.

“You’re going to regret this,” Michael said.

I lapsed just before him, lifted a hand around his throat, and slammed him into the wall. His mouth opened, as if trying and failing to pull in breath.

Laughing still, I squeezed his neck so tightly that I felt apopfollowed by acrunch.

“See, that’s what you don’t understand, esiasch.” I squeezed tighter, watching his squirming cease. Perhaps I broke something that enabled mobility. “Even if you do get out, even if you are able to enact your revenge for this, I’m not capable of regret. I won’t regretanything,lad, because I have nothing left to care about. You took all that mattered to me, and unless you give them back, nothing can hurt worse thanthis.”

He was limp in my grasp, brown eyes wide, glued to mine.

I released him, stepping away as he crumbled to the floor. “You can make this easy, or you can make this misery. I’d say I’d prefer the easy route, but if I’m being honest?” I leaned against the wall beneath a flickering torch. “I’ve been dreaming about the awful things I’ve wanted to do to you for a thousand years. I’m excited to act them out.”

Panting hard, clutching his throat, he looked up at me. He wasn’t glaring anymore. His eyes were wide, like they’d been when he was a boy, and I yelled at him for the first time. He’d been playing in the barn with Ayla, and he pulled on one of her whiskers. She raised her lip at him in warning, and I’d panicked, thinking she’d kill him.

I yelled “Michael!” so deeply, he’d stumbled backward and hit the ground. I’d felt so guilty for startling him, for scaring him.

He wore that expression now. I wasn’t sure if it was genuine. Maybe it was all a facade. Maybe he thought if he looked scared enough, I’d feel guilty. Maybe he thought I was the man I’d been a thousand years ago, or a few hundred thousand years ago.

I wasn’t. That Nix was long dead, and he wouldn’t return until I had my wife and children in my arms.

“Don’t look at me like that,” I said.

“Like what?”

“Like I owe you pity,” I growled. “I owe younothing.”

He snorted. “I wasn’t looking to you for pity, Uncle. I was looking at you with shame.”

“Oh.” I laughed, tucking my arms against my chest. “You want your loving uncle back, eh? You want someone to kiss your bruised knees and wipe your tears?”

He went back to glaring. “You don’t have the stomach for what you plan to do.”

“You, sweet child, only saw the verybestof me when you were growing up.” My smile widened, and I caught a glimpse of it in the reflection of the ore floor. It was as deranged and maniacal as my laugh had been. “I don’t think you have any idea how awful your life is about to become.”

“That’s the funny thing, esiasch,” he said. “You think this will make you feel better, but it won’t. Nothing’s going to—”

I lapsed behind him, simultaneously yanking my blade from my hip. I landed on his back. I plunged the knife into his spine. As he screamed and writhed beneath me, I dug in my pocket for the hunk of Elvan ore. It was smaller than my fist, but bigger than a skipping stone.

And I jammed it into his flesh.

He screamed at the top of his lungs.

Elvan ore to the flesh of an Angel was like alcohol in a bloody wound. This wasn’t only a cut by the poisoned rock, but a piece that would stay inside him, dulling all his Angel abilities until it was removed.

It wouldn’t kill him. Since he’d taken the elixir, I’d need to siphon his soul from his body to kill him.