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I didn’t give her an ounce of space away from me, lording over her. “You do not want to know the terror—the torture I had planned for his killer.”
Her shoulders lifted. “I don’t think you could imagine anything worse than what I suffered under Cletus.” The edges of her eyes fell into a beaten cringe. “Maybe you can. Maybe that was just the tip of the iceberg. Maybe I don’t understand one fucking thing about you Folottos.”
“Don’t lump me in with them.”
Her head shook and she managed to sink even farther into the corner, her gaze dropping out the window, staring out into the abyss. “I am so fucking tired of this fight, of fighting for survival, of fighting to be sane. Fighting. Every fucking day. Every fucking hour.”
Her words went wooden, all fiery spirit of them gone to dust. “I am done, Damen. I am just done with this. With us. With revenge. With the pain. With fighting to stay alive when I just need to let you kill this monster inside of me before it does more damage. And if it’s unspeakable pain along the way, then so be it. Do it. You have my permission. If you’re inventive you can probably find a way to thread an augentrum blade into my heart through my arm after you’ve had your fun. Or maybe you’d like to drag this out for years. Either way, do what you need to do. I am done. I surrender.”
Her left fingers went to her right arm, unclasping the titanium arm band that covered her vulnerable skin.
She dropped it to the window seat and it rolled off the edge next to my leg, the cold clank of it as it hit the wooden floorboards echoing up into the high ceiling of the room.
No fight.
I never thought I’d see it in her.
She’d given up.
Given up on me. Given up on herself.
And it pissed me the hell off.
I reached down and grabbed her chin in my hand, forcing her face up to me. “You aren’t done until I say you’re done, Ada.”
Refusing to look at me, a bitter laugh escaped her. “Believe me. Of that fact, I am well aware.”
“Your year is not done.”
Her look flew up to my eyes. “You honestly still want to impregnate me? Knowing what is inside of me? Knowing what I am capable of? You cannot unleash a mutation of that onto the world.”
“What I want is for you to adhere to our agreement. Your commitment.”
“No.” Her chest lifted in a tortured breath. “You do not get to give me something to live for, only to take it away from me when you decide it’s time to destroy me. And a baby? A baby would do that. So no. Thank you for wanting to fuck me. But no. I prefer to leave this earth without entanglements. You can at least do me that courtesy.”
“And Venetia?”
She drew a hiccupped breath, then snapped her chin out of my grip, averting her eyes. “Venny will be fine. She is strong now. Stronger than you ever could have imagined her. She doesn’t need me.”
“She will always need you.”
A tear squeezed out of the corner of her eye. “Is this the torture?”
“You two became a family before I could even stop it. She does need you.”
Ada shook her head. To disagree or to convince herself my words were moot, I wasn’t sure. “She cannot leave the Academy for years. That was the agreement. She doesn’t need me.”
“She needs to know you are out here for her, whenever she truly needs it.”
A strained smile came to her lips, her voice still dull and broken. “Well then, I’m sure she’ll enjoy visiting me in your torture chamber down below.”
I scoffed a chuckle. “I do want to kill you, Ada. I want to flay the flesh from your bones. Hear your screams. Watch your entrails spill out for killing Rodo.”
She motioned with her hand. “Let us just get on with it then.” She unfurled her legs, squeezing them out past me and she pushed herself up.
I jabbed a step to my left, blocking her movement. “Except…”
“Except what, Damen?” She looked up at me, her green eyes ashen, lifeless. “I am done. You won. You found Rodo’s murderer. I may be tough to torture, but you can always ask Cletus for some suggestions. I’m sure you’ll get your comeuppance out of me.”
