His laughing didn’t stop at my words. No…the declaration only seemed to further his amusement. Until suddenly his laughter faltered, instead turning into a coughing fit that had him gasping for air as his eyes bugged out and he looked around wildly.
My heart rate spiked. Was the venom finally working?
Chapter Sixteen
Kyella
“Help me,” he croaked as he fell to his knees, swaying harshly back and forth like he might keel over at any moment. Throwing his hands out in front of him, he fell onto all fours and stayed there for a few moments, alternating between wheezing and sounding like he was trying to clear his throat of a blockage.
This had to be the venom.
I knew I should have killed him the second he showed a moment of weakness, but the truth was I hadn’t made peace with the atrocities he’d committed. Iwantedhim to hurt. Offering him a swift death wasn’t an option. I wanted to bring him so much pain that he begged me to end his life. I wanted him to know how much a person could hurt all the way down to their soul when they thought that being dead was an act of mercy over staying alive to face their agony.
Striding toward my daggers, I quickly grabbed them before facing him once more, looking for any signs of a ploy to lure me, but found none. As I stood above him, relishing in his slumped body being atmyfeet now, I found the hand I’d bitten rotting away like it had fallen victim to a flesh-eating bacteria.
A pungent scent accompanied it as it slowly crawled toward his wrist and forearm, oozing a yellow-green liquid as the healthy skin slowly melted and peeled away.
The wound had to hurt fiercely, but it wasn’t enough to quell the anger battering my soul. Not even a little bit.
I couldn’t see how quickly the venom was eating away at him or if it had spread to any part of his body hidden by his clothes, but it had to have spread viciously through his blood stream, hitting his organs first before the physical decay had set in on his hand. Without a doubt, it was going to kill him, so I needed to make my peace now.
Pulling my foot back, I slammed it into his stomach hard enough to cause him to collapse completely. His arms gave out beneath him as he curled into a ball on his side. His moans of pain as he clutched his stomach were like music to my ears, and I was just getting started.
“That,” I yelled, “is for my family!”
“This,” I murmured before sheathing a single dagger and crouching bent over at the waist, “is for all of the families you’ve hurt.” As my hand wound back, I released a feral scream before it cracked against his cheek. I felt the bones of his face crunching beneath the force of the blow, and my knuckles split with the contact.
The floor cracked beneath where his face lay, a pool of blood dripping from his mouth. The blood of a monarch in their throne room…just like what he’d ensured happened to Myrin.
“This is for Myrin,” I seethed between gritted teeth and tightened my grip on the lone dagger I had out. Crouching down, I saw him forcing a fucking smile to his face as I held the tip of the blade to the side of his throat.
How did he not realize that I was his demise, finally? How could he continue to act like this was a game that he was winning?
My chest heaved and tightened as angry tears began to spill from my eyes. I had planned on cutting through his neck to be done with him, but now he’d renewed the white-hot anger that coiled like an angry snake in my chest.
“I hate you!” I screamed before dropping my second dagger and doling out hit after hit to his face. I fell into a trance, mindlessly smashing my fist into him rhythmically, waiting for the pain I’d been carrying around for so long to be lifted.
There was squelching and the crunch of bones snapping, and flesh being pulverized, but beyond that I couldn’t make out anything. Those sounds were all I was focused on, pushing my thoughts past anything other than ensuring his pain continued.
If guards were to flood the room, coming to rescue this useless waste of space of a man, I would be at their mercy, but I would have at least ensured there was nothing left of him to save.
I wanted the blows to heal something within me. I wanted them to make me feel better, but all it did was enrage me further.
I wanted to be free of this fucking pain. From the memories. From him.
My vision was completely obscured with the tears that stung my eyes, and my breathing grew labored as my sobs overtook me.
Eventually, my fists halted their assault and his face lay mangled beneath them, but I wasn’t done. Icouldn’tbe done. He hadn’t paid enough.
Lifting my bloodstained hand, I curled my fingers into the hair on top of his head and pushed to my feet. Placing my foot against his shoulder as I added my other hand to his hair, I cried for the girl I was before.
I cried for the girl who I was before he killed my family.
I cried for the girl who had fallen for the lies he’d spun with his pretty words, believing that he would be my family and that I wouldn’t be alone.
I cried for the girl who had to wonder every moment of the day if she was going to be preyed upon.
I cried for the girl who had guarded that last flickering ember of hope within her, even when the shadows threatened to engulf it further with each passing night.
