Free Dark Needs (Tales of Dystopian Decadence Book 1) by Finley Blake Page B

same time we wonder why they have taken everything from us. I might be too young to know what happened when the Regime overthrew our country’s president, but my mother remembered. Even though no one spoke about the past, she told me what I needed to know.”
    More tears stung the corners of my eyes. How could I possibly make Icharus understand this cruel world where a woman’s only commodity was her body, and that was only if a man deemed it worth paying for?
    “And she taught you to hate the Regime and everyone associated with it, even before my father had her killed.” His low voice pulled me from my thoughts. “It’s no wonder you feel the way you do about me.”
    “Look at me,” I said in a firm voice. He raised his gaze to mine and I grimaced at the pain I saw there. “I don’t hold your father’s cruelty against you. He’s wronged many people and karma is a bitch. I only have one concern about your scheme. He is your father and I know how it feels to lose a parent. Can you still…  Can you still look at me with any fondness if I do this – if I take his life, even if you’re the one who masterminds the entire assassination?”
    Icharus clenched his hands into fists, then released them and pressed his palms flat against the table. “I lost my mother too,” he whispered. “Because of him.”
    Seeing the pain in his eyes, I drew back in horror. “I’m so sorry…”
    “Don’t be. You didn’t kill her. He did.”
    “You don’t have to talk about it.”
    “No, I want to.” Icharus pushed away from the table, rose to his feet, and crossed the room. “You lived in pain and poverty until the school took you in? I only had the pain, but my father’s wealth – and seeing his face every day, the face of the man who murdered my mother – made it so much worse. He wanted me to feel beholden to him. One day, he even told me I would thank him for doing it – for taking her out of the picture. She was too soft, he said. She would only make me feel, make me care, make me sympathetic to the people I was supposed to learn to hurt.”
    He gripped the windowsill and I saw his knuckles whiten.
    “The only problem,” he continued, “is he never realized that kind of feeling can’t be taught. It’s a normal human condition, to feel sympathy and empathy. You can’t kill compassion once it’s instilled and nurtured in us. He was too late to stop my mother from doing that. The shock of losing her didn’t change the fact that I already saw that my father was doing the wrong thing to hundreds of millions of people. That’s why I can do this and not even think about hating you, because I’m in your shoes, Adette. We both have nothing to lose, because we’ve both already lost the people who mattered most to us.”
    “That’s not true.” I watched him as he leaned on the window frame, his gaze fixed on some distant point I couldn’t see. “We might have both lost our mothers, but you have your life to lose if anyone connects you to his murder once it’s said and done. That’s why you’re using me in this. You’re not the one with nothing to lose; I am.”
    “Fine. You’re right about that.” He turned to me. “Maybe I’m already no better than him, using you to do my dirty work. But I’ll tell you this – if the authorities manage to connect you to the murder, I will do everything in my power to keep you from going before the firing squad. You’re very wrong that I have only my life to lose. I stand to lose many things, including you.”
    I lowered my gaze to my half-finished food and said, “I don’t mind dying if my life somehow means something, if the end of it means the beginning of something better for others. Otherwise, I really don’t have anything to lose, like I said.”
    “That’s not entirely true. If I have you, then you have me.”
    I raised my gaze and smiled a little. “I should visit the school. I’m sure the headmistress will be wondering about me and want a report on