Chapter 45 - Kali
KALI
Fuckers.
I was going to use every tip Amari had shared with me to prolong their deaths for this.
Straining, I twisted my wrists and ankles in hopes of snapping the thin ropes tying me to the chair.
Somehow, I hadn’t suspected this morning would entail Gedeon and Zion hauling my naked ass out of the former’s bed, duct-taping my mouth, kissing my forehead and nose, and telling me not to exhaust myself in seeking to get out.
Apparently, Gedeon had decided I shouldn’t go to Ilasall to infiltrate the auction with them today due to safety reasons.
I would show them safety.
That collection of knives in the middle drawer of Zion’s dresser?
They were going to safely find their way into the joints of the twenty fingers that had secured the knots around my limbs.
And perhaps into other appendages too. Zion had pointed out that I had no actual fighting experience and that it was better to stay back at the compound where he’d take care of me after they returned.
Like I needed his cock that much.
I deserved to go and try to figure out Alora’s whereabouts. It was me who’d provided them with the details of the auction, so it wasn’t like I’d asked for a free ride.
My muscles vibrating from rage, I thrashed to loosen the restraints, but all I achieved was rubbing my skin raw. I counted to three to calm my racing heart and threw my weight to the right.
The chair teetered, and I hung suspended in the air, time stilling, fear creeping up my spine from second-guessing my decision to attempt escape by—
Blinding pain shot up my right shoulder as I hit the floor.
Paralysis set in my diaphragm as I curled up into a half-ball, waiting for the agony to subside.
One. Inhale.
Two. Exhale.
Three. Breathe in.
Four. Breath out.
I blinked away the tears and stretched my arms in a test. My nerves shrieked, but thank the gods my bones had not leaped out of their sockets.
Tensing and straightening my legs with all my strength, I screamed into the duct tape as the restraints cut into my shins. The sting intensified, and I suspected I was flaying myself in the process, but the braided ropes slowly slid down the chair’s legs and popped off the ends.
Reluctantly, I peeked at my ankles. I was right. My skin had split in a few spots, and red rings encircled my ankles.
But it meant part one was done.
Onto the next.
Wobbling, I stood up with the chair stuck to my backside and my wrists secured to the backrest.
Okay, I could do this.
If I broke my tailbone, it would be their fault, not mine.
Knees bent, I jumped high in the air and squeezed my eyes shut in preparation for the drop. Weightlessness lifted my butt out of the seat and the sensation became surprisingly pleas—
I crashed down.
A silent scream rippled through me as tears scorched my cheeks and sweat beads broke free on my forehead.
A throb arose in my tailbone and right buttock and I mentally cursed Gedeon and Zion to never get hard again for the nasty bruises certain to cover my backside. I could live without their dicks, but I doubted they’d be happy about the lack of their functionality.
Seconds ticked by, and the sharpest ache subsided, giving way for my smile to grow wider. The chair had broken into pieces.
Grimacing, I freed my hands and peeled off the duct tape. If not for the burn, I would guess the tape tore my lips off with it.
I quickly cleaned the wounds and wrapped the roll of gauze I’d found in the bathroom around my ankles. They were barely bleeding, but better to be safe than sorry.
Once I finished raiding Gedeon’s closet, I pulled on a long-sleeved shirt and a pair of matching sweatpants. Like clothing, every single piece of furniture in his room was black, including the hardwood floor. An obsession for dark colors, which he continuously refused to admit.
Peeking into the corridor and finding it deserted, I rushed to my own bedroom to put on some actually fitting clothes.
But it turned out the universe had decided to curse me today. Because only sunlight filled the shelves of my closet. Not a single item of clothing, including my underwear, remained in my drawers.
Zion had to be at fault for this.
I stormed to his bedroom, and a need to break things rose within me. Despite turning his closet upside down, my search brought zero results.
Debating using his knives to shred his own clothing, I pulled on a pair of too-long-for-me socks and his black leather jacket. From now on, it was mine. He could beg on his knees, and I wouldn’t give it back.
The matte shine of my boots by the door caught my attention, and I practically kissed the leather. If he would’ve done something, anything to them, I would’ve ripped his head off.
Not that I wasn’t going to do it anyway.
I was. I simply had to wait out the day.
One look at the clock had showed Gedeon and Zion were far on their way to Ilasall, and not knowing how to drive limited my options in following them, in spite of how my body trembled with a demand to punch the smugness off their faces and yell so loud their eardrums burst.
And I seriously doubted the few people I’d gotten close to here would willingly give me a ride to the city.
But I could look at this as an opportunity to teach myself some patience. They planned to return in the evening, and that gave me plenty of time to plan the most creative murder inspired by their actions.
Obviously, I’d have to lure them down to the underground, but it shouldn’t be too complicated. And once there, Zion’s durable chains would keep them immobile while I exacted my vengeance.
My stomach grumbled, as furious at me for the absence of breakfast as I was at the two bastards for leaving me, and I stomped down the hallway and stairwell to the main kitchen on the first floor.
Jayla froze at the sight of me treading in heavily, her dripping spoon stuck mid-air above the chipped blue-and-white bowl. “Weren’t you supposed to go with them? They all left, like, an hour ago.”
“They tied me to a chair in Gedeon’s bedroom, and I just got out.
” I grabbed a bowl from a kitchen cabinet and filled it with the leftovers of whatever heavenly-smelling concoction was in the pot.
Plopping down in the seat beside Jayla, I pointed my spoon at Eislyn and Malaya sitting across from us.
“Did they, by any chance, tell you where my clothes are before leaving?”
“I don’t think so.” Malaya stirred her bowl. “Why?”
I scooped a spoonful of porridge and closed my eyes to properly savor the sweetness sliding down my throat and warming me up from the inside out, mollifying my boiling insides.
“Because they’re not in my room. Nor in theirs.
I think Zion did something to them because he tried to steal all of them a couple of weeks ago. ”
Jayla and Eislyn exchanged glances.
“What?” I frowned.
“We caught Zion standing behind a fire outside this morning. He wouldn’t explain what he was doing but acted very”—Eislyn sipped her steaming herbal tea—“smug about. I think it might have been your clothing.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” I pressed my forehead on the table, its chill seeping into me, unable to placate my frustration.
“What are you planning to do?” she asked.
“A healthy dose of revenge.”
“Want any help?” Jayla nudged my side.
I perked up at her beaming with her signature smile of deviousness. “Have anything in mind?”
“We hit them where it hurts. The two places in the entire compound they love the most.” She pushed away her empty bowl and said to Malaya, “And you’re coming with us. It’s time to get you out of this kitchen and in on some action.”
“What if we also cut up their clothes for destroying yours?” Malaya asked shyly.
“That’s a good idea,” I mused, licking my spoon clean. “The only problem is that this would make Zion even more happy because then we’d both be naked.”
“And believe me, no one wants to see him running around with his dick out,” Jayla remarked.
Malaya’s cheeks heated, further boosting our burst of laughter.
“I think I have a better idea. First, we do what Jayla proposed.” Eislyn gathered our dishes and dropped them in the shining silver sink. “But then, I know how you can actually freak them out.”
“You’re more mischievous than I thought,” I told Eislyn as the four of us filled the cardboard box we’d picked up along the way with jars of toiletries from Eislyn’s bathroom.
I was getting sets of new ones for her and Jayla by putting the bill on Gedeon’s tab. Because if I did so on Zion’s, no doubt he’d come up with an equally brazen way for me to repay it.
“You’re a bad influence on Eislyn. But I like it. I need someone on my team.” Jayla hooked her elbow through Malaya’s. “Come on, we can raid my bathroom next.”
“I’m just too bored to play nice anymore. They’re getting under my skin too, you know. Do you have any idea how many times I’ve stitched Zion up this year alone? The answer is too many.” Eislyn shook her head as we turned a corner, and Jayla invited us into her bedroom.
“Damn,” I breathed out. Her room drowned in color, from a dozen pillows, the many shades of autumn leaves, on her bed to the two sky-blue upholstered armchairs and a tiny round table between them. “Where did you get all this stuff? Everything in my room is black, white, or gray.”
“That’s because Gedeon prepared it. It’s like he repels all color,” Eislyn called from the bathroom where they were shoving everything from Jayla’s shelves into our designated box. “Your room is next. We’ll skip Malaya’s.”
“It’s okay. I can share.” Malaya toyed with the hem of a yellow pillow resting on the armchair. “I really don’t mind.”
“Not on my watch,” I objected. “And we’re taking you on a shopping spree anyway. Jayla is an expert at them, and I feel like kicking the shit out of Gedeon today, so just say yes.”
“Ahm, okay,” she murmured shyly.
“Let’s move,” Jayla said as they strode out of her bathroom.
We made our way to my room and relief filled me at how my furniture matched perfectly, not a random color popping out of nowhere. So soothing it felt like the limits of walls didn’t exist and the space was endless.
Jayla immediately glued herself to my windows overlooking the compound. “You think my room is nice? You have the best view!”
Okay, so the two assholes who had gone to put an end to the auction at Ilasall today might not be that bad. I did love the sensation of vastness the upper floor windows provided.
“You have way too much of everything,” Eislyn pointed out, emerging from my bathroom with the overflowing box together with Malaya clutching what didn’t fit in it. “But we got most of it.”
“Gedeon has a thing for his hair and Zion keeps buying me new stuff before I even get to finish what I already have.” I took half of the tubs and jars from Malaya. “Let’s hit the study first.”
We marched down to our first target, and I gulped at the ebony desk, the one Gedeon had made me fall apart on in the hall during the night of my tattoo. In front of everyone, including our friends.
“So what are we supposed to do?” Malaya asked.
“His notes. Throw them around, hide them anywhere you can. The mess is sure to exasperate him.”
Jayla was the first to unleash herself, and we followed her lead in ravaging Gedeon’s study. Climbing onto the desk, I tossed the largest pile of notes up in the air and leaped off to join Jayla dancing in the rain of them.
Eislyn and Malaya chose a more methodical approach and stuffed the sheets of scribbled-on paper under the couch, inside the cushions, and between the books filling the dark wood shelves lining one wall, adding a finishing touch to the chaos Jayla and I were releasing.
“The underground is next,” I announced, and we hurried down the stairs to the damp basement sprawling under the central building. “Take your pick.” I offered the box to the girls.
Malaya hurled a jar of lotion right at the small steel table, and it exploded, drowning everything in a citrus scent.
“This is amazing.” She grabbed another tub and launched it.
The glass container drew a graceful arc in the air, sparkling in the harsh light overhead, and ruptured open on the cement floor.
The white liquid turned pink where the cleaners hadn’t scrubbed well enough.
Malaya was right. This was beyond satisfying. And Zion was bound to freak out at the mess. We were desecrating his torture chamber with shampoos and soaps. Their fragrance would linger in the space for days—the total opposite of the cloying stench of blood he worshiped.
“At least it will smell better now.” Eislyn nodded approvingly at Malaya’s hits.
We threw jar after jar, shrieking every time one of them shattered too close and lotions, soaps, and shampoos splattered onto us.
Once our feet were slipping on the sticky ground and everything looked sufficiently coated in a mix of citrus-, flower- and herb-scented liquids, we agreed our work was done and half-climbed, half-crawled the stairs back out.
I wiped away a tear about to fall. I’d never laughed with my friends so much before.
I’d never had friends like this at all.
I hoped to never not have them again.