Page 61 of Depraved Royals

With a blood-curdling roar, Fyodor floors it. Simeon doesn’t turn around quick enough to react.

The car smashes into him, snapping his legs like twigs. His body flies over the roof and smacks into the concrete, landing in a crumpled heap.

Idina gives a long, piercing scream.

Fyodor slams on the brakes so he doesn’t hit the wall and then turns to drive down the ramp and out. He doesn’t look back.

It all happened so fast.

I’m frozen to the spot, my chest burning. I realize I haven’t taken a breath in ages. As I fill my lungs, trying to get a grip, my mother flings herself onto Simeon’s broken body. She’s sobbing, pulling at his shirt.

“My Simeon,” she wails. She looks up, jabbing her finger at me. “You killed your brother! How could you do this to me?”

As I watch, appalled, she composes herself. She sits up and wipes her eyes, and just like that, the show of emotion is over, locked away inside.

“It’s okay, Kal. You can make it up to me.” She holds out a hand, but I don’t move. “Come, my son. Fyodor is weak. We can finish him off, and everything will be as it should be. That bastard killed your brotherandyour father!”

I stare at her. Her eyes are wild, desperate.

“First it was me who killed Simeon, then Fyodor. But you’re full of shit.Youkilled Simeon, but not today. You snuffed him out years ago with your abuse, leaving only an empty shell of a man.”

I walk to where the gun lies on the ground and pick it up. Idina never takes her eyes off me for a second.

“I won’t hurt you,” I say, “but I won’t help you, either. You lied to me every day for my entire life. Nothing we ever had was real. I thought you loved me, but you only know how to use people. I know what love is, and now thanks to you, I may have lost it forever.”

“You think I don’t know love?” Idina cocks her head at me. “There was a man once, Kal. I’d have done anything for him, but everyone warned me away - they said he was a bad guy. I wanted to believe there was good in him.

“On Christmas day, I told my parents I would stay with a friend, but I went to him instead and told him I loved him. I was just seventeen, and he was forty. He told me he loved me too and wanted to have sex with me.”

Is this bullshit? It could be. But she’s talking weirdly, almost like I’m not here.

“I said I wasn’t ready and wanted to announce our engagement first, but he didn’t like that. We argued. He beat me and then held me prisoner for two days, forcing himself on me many times. He only let me go because he knew I loved him still and wouldn’t tell anyone what he’d done.”

I feel like I’m gonna throw up.

“That’s who your father really was, Kal,” Idina says. “Erik knew. He chose you to mold in his image because he knew you came from real evil and would never be able to escape that.”

I back away towards the door that leads to the stairwell.

“Do you still think you can be a good man? Your blood is tainted with depravity. You’re sick to the core.”

Gotta get away from her. I can’t listen to her twisted words anymore.

She’s shouting now, still sitting beside Simeon’s corpse.

“You’ll ruin that girl’s life. She deserves better than a bastard like you. Vera told her everything you did, and she’ll never let you near that baby in a million fucking years.” She’s laughing. “Go! At least I know the Pushkins are gonna suffer for a long time, thanks to you!”

I’m everything I feared I was. I bring pain and death wherever I go. Love is too beautiful and tender for someone as impure and sullied as me, and now I know the badness truly does run deep.

I think of some of the things I’ve done to Dani. Am I sick? Have I corrupted her? Maybe I just imagined she was into it to justify taking what I wanted.

I run down the stairs to the ground level and find the attendant dead in his booth. Figures. Even Simeon could handle one overweight security guy.

Idina’s car is parked on the first floor. I know they must have followed me here, but I don’t know how I didn’t see them.

I return to the security booth and rummage under the counter until I find a crowbar. The driver’s door is easy enough to jimmy open, and as I climb into my mother’s car, a memory comes flooding back. I wonder if she still does it…

I flip down the sun visor, and the keys tumble free, landing on my lap.