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But now I am failing Ero. The man I care about more than life itself.

And I am failing. My will bleeds out with the scarlet leaching into my clothing.

“Fight!” he begs. He’s so much stronger…

I know it will break him to kill me. Even if he knows he must in order to set me free. He will win, and Ananke will take him, hurt him. Use him up and dispose of him.

No! It can’t end this way.

“Hm. I believe that I have seen enough of your melodrama, children. As much as I would delight in watching you both tear yourselves to shreds in a futile attempt to resist…there is much to be done. And I only need one of you for those plans.”

Waving a hand towards one of her men, she turns and walks away. The guard steps between us cautiously, checking the clip before dropping his pistol on the ground.

Ananke turns back at the steps, throwing one last look over her shoulder. “One bullet. Only one of you can survive. Make it count.”

“Fuck you!” Ero growls. “I’d rather kill us both than submit to you again.”

“Color me impressed if you manage those two birds with one stone. Better than two broken toys running amok. I have a responsibility to the world. I created you after all. Now. Get it done. Circe, dear…remember your training. Remember what you did to Ero too. Show him mercy. Kill. Him. Now.” Like she knows that I am weaker. Egging me on.

The outside force of her will and command hammers against me again. Harder. More insistent.

A ragged cry tears my throat.

Torture. Worse than any inflicted on me previously. Flashes of my training assault my mind. Freezing water, hosed down, my head dunked under. Depravation. Darkness.

Farther back, lessons with Ananke, our kindly therapist. My teen years. Earlier.

She really has been there since the start. Manipulating me. Experimenting on me.

Then the most heinous vision if all slams down. Me. Standing over Ero. Ananke’s mouth moves. And I comply. Ero screams, convulsing to my touch.

“Snap out of it, Circe!” Ero’s voice slaps me across the face. Back to the present.

I’m crawling. Tears dripping onto the filthy tiles of the porch. Drawing ever closer to the gun between us.

He’s just as close, his steps labored. Held back.

At the same moment, we concede, Ananke’s final demand more than either of us can take. I dive, he leaps.

I know he’s stronger. Faster. Closer.

He will beat me there, and I resolve to close my eyes, accept my fate, and hope he can forgive himself. Until I feel the grip of the pistol in my hand.

I dodge the smashing heel of his boots, roll, spin back to one knee, lifting the barrel. Ero freezing.

A little grin tugs at his lips, and the horror of what he’s done washes over me. He let me…

“No! Ero?—”

His eyes glint with fire. Black steel.

“I love you,” he utters in a voice so low only we can hear it.

My fingers squeeze the grip, my hand creaking with strain. My other hand latches onto my wrist, clawing, tearing at my skin, trying to stop my finger from sliding over the trigger.

Too much. All of this is too much. I falter.

Maybe this really is a mercy. To spare him any more pain.