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“Looks like we’re both hurt,” said Kyrkos. He took in a deep breath and sighed. “Your father hurt me too. He hurt me very deeply when he—”

“FUCK YOU maniac!”

Kyrkos parried my outburst with several seconds of silence before going on. “As I was saying, he hurt me very deeply,” he continued, “when he ultimately chose to betray me.”

I wanted to rush him. For some reason he hadn’t bound me, hadn’t restrained me at all. There weren’t even any bodyguards in the room.

I could probably get my hands on him, I thought to myself. If I could ignore the pain for ten quick seconds, I could rip his fucking eyes out.

“My father wanted to leave Indigo,” I said. “He wanted to live his own life… and you wouldn’t let him.”

Kyrkos shrugged his thick shoulders. “He had secrets, your father. Too many to count.”

I watched as he marched confidently to one side of the room and grabbed a decanter off a nearby table. It was filled with an amber liquid. He poured two glasses and offered me one, but I only wrinkled my lip in disgust.

“Your father’s knowledge alone would’ve made the situation difficult,” said Kyrkos, “but there’s a chance I could’ve trusted him. I’d known Benjamin a long time. We’d been through a lot together.”

He walked back to his chair again and sank down, this time the right away. He leaned back a bit. Pushed up on the balls of his feet, while sipping his glass.

“I loved your father,” said Kyrkos “I gave him every opportunity to save himself.”

My eyes glassed over. I bit down hard on the sides of my tongue, to keep myself from crying.

“But if a man can’t save himself…” said Kyrkos. “What good is he?”

I flung myself at him. It happened instantaneously, before even I knew what was going on. Kyrkos reacted with surprising speed for a man his size. He would’ve stopped me, or sidestepped, but I had something else going for me as well.

He was leaning back in his chair.

“Andrea, I—”

I tackled him hard, slamming him backwards against the floor. I heard his head hit the flagstone. It made a very satisfying ‘thump’.

“Fuck you!” I screamed, reaching for him. “Fuck you and fuck you and fuck—”

His hands gripped my wrists, first one, then the other. When he had them both he gnashed his teeth together, leaned forward… and head-butted me as hard as he could.

HOLY. SHIT.

Pain — pain such as I never felt before — rocketed immediately through my brain. There was no stopping it. No setting it aside, either. All I could do was bow before it. Pay homage to it, as I dropped straight down, onto both my knees.

“UNGHHH!”

Before I could recover he kneed me, just under the chin. My teeth clacked, my head snapped back, and there was another violent explosion of pain… this time from somewhere within my mouth.

“I need this to be over!” shouted Kyrkos loudly. “This foolishness with you, and Alvarez, and your two other friends! This stupid, petty vendetta…”

Just as quickly as I’d fallen, he grabbed me by the hair and yanked me to my feet. I thought maybe he was going to strike me again, but this time he only pushed me away from him.

“Petty vendetta?” I repeated through a mouthful of blood. “Do you realize how many lives you’ve destroyed?”

“I’ve destroyed nothing,” the man snapped. “Most people are the architects of their own suffering. They choose their own path. Make their own choices. Just like your father.”

He winced as he applied pressure to his wounded arm. It was bleeding even more profusely now. Dripping all over the flagstones, making them slick and red.

“And who am I to change these people?” demanded Kyrkos loudly. “Should I pay the penance on their sins? Should I have allowed your father to just destroy me, simply because he was having second thoughts? A moment of weakness?”

Moment of weakness!?