Chapter 88 Kane #3
The edges of my vision blur through the tears collecting on my lashes as I walk back to the cunt.
None of it is enough to stop me seeing her scream when the hot spoon glides over her cheek as I push it into her bottom lashes.
The smell is strange, like a mix of burning hair and a faint metallic scent as the outer portion of her eye bubbles.
I don’t do it quickly to scoop it out in one go.
That would be too generous. I make sure my hand is steady, slowly increasing the pressure to the point I can see her bottom eyelid stick to the spoon.
It slowly peels her skin away as I continue pushing deeper into her socket.
The hooks and drugs keep her still enough.
A shame, when it would cause her more pain.
Daigon continues digging his fingers into the wound on her leg so her senses are overloaded with the pain before I manage to seat her eyeball on the dip of the spoon.
I don’t have anything sharp to sever the nerves keeping her eyeball in place, so I push the spoon up as I tap Daigon’s foot with mine for him to move out of my way.
He huffs, but he doesn’t stop me as he walks over to the table to collect a new knife.
“You…” I slowly turn the spoon to the right. “Will…” The left. “Never.” And back again, higher this time so I can see the way her eye protrudes out of the socket as she screams. “Look. At. Anyone. Again.”
It takes some maneuvering. but I manage to get enough leverage behind her eyeball to force it out. The nerve hasn’t been fully severed so it limply hangs against her shit-stricken cheek as I step back, kissing the top of my wife’s head.
Daigon makes me miss Sasha even more as he delicately cups Helene’s eyeball while she whimpers, then carelessly slices through the nerve so it rolls onto his palm.
Holding it up with his thumb and finger, he turns it to face her before covering the one eye left in her head with his hand. “Can you see?”
She mumbles something, exhausted by the pain when she’s done worse to so many people who have survived in spite of the abuse.
“Okay, how many fingers am I holding up?” he asks, pushing the knife into her empty socket. She screams instantly while he explores the cavernous, bleeding hole in her head. “Trick question, it’s a knife.”
“She’s not worth wasting our time,” Delilah says.
Daigon steps back, dropping her eyeball on the floor before we lock her inside. Something squelches under my foot, causing me to slip. I look down at her nasty fucking eyeball as I catch myself on the coffin. The box jolts but it doesn’t fall while I try to clean my shoe on the sharp corner.
I gently move Delilah back before I open the small viewing window to ensure the bitch hears me clearly. Her muffled shouts are undermined by the smell of shit seeping through the small gap.
With strength in my voice, I declare, “My mother is Dora Xandros. My father is Damian Xandros. My mother was an orphan. She had one sibling, Lennox. And my name is Kane Xandros.” Delilah hugs my arm, pressing her lips to the side of my chest as Daigon carries the accelerants he found.
“The Kobalt name dies here with you. The empire has crumbled, God is dead, and no one will ever worship you in fear of their lives again.”
I take a bottle of turpentine, holding it up for my girl to unscrew the safety cap, then pour it through the window until it pools through the cracks at the bottom.
There’s no way to notify anyone of the island’s existence without incriminating myself, but a fire should do the trick.
Then Rowan will be lost, hunted—fucking haunted by everyone without a safe place to hide.
None of his auctions will get close to mine now I know his enemies, his secrets, and we have the locations of his Dollhouses.
Between Vlad, Decker, and their mystery helper, they should be able to afford a few million each for the information.
Delilah steps away from me to trail the other accelerants around the house, dousing the floors, the walls, the piano, until she skips back to me with a huge fucking smile on her face.
Daigon clicks his fingers, waking the dogs as he opens the basement door with a large bottle of turpentine in his hand. “Let’s go, boys.”
I don’t know how he’s managed to subdue them, but they obediently walk in a single file line down the steps. He holds the door open for us to walk ahead but I keep Delilah behind me as the dogs sit at the bottom of the stairs.
“Boys,” he says low in his throat. “Walk ahead.”
They slowly walk to the other end of the hallway as he spills a trail of the flammable liquid down the stone steps then walks behind the dogs towards the tunnels.
“Do the honors, pretty girl.” I hand her my lighter. “Fires are your forte.” I rip a corner off the paper carton of my cigarettes, so she doesn’t get close to the dripping liquid as it pools on the third to last step.
She smiles up at me, running her thumb on the roller to ignite the flame. The orange flickers dance across her face as she breathes out, “Let it all burn.” She lights the card to throw it on the steps. “Everything but us.”
The flames are instantaneous, almost beautiful in the way they climb up the steps, clinging to the accelerant before claiming the kitchen floor.
So is her laugh as she walks backward with Helene’s muffled screams fighting the roar as I thread our fingers together.
We run towards our fucking life together where no one else exists.
Our joint laughter echoes through the damp tunnels as we follow the faint light from Daigon’s flashlight.
He stops, allowing us to catch up with his new pets loyal at his feet.
“All done?” he asks when we reach him.
“All done,” Delilah says with the brightest fucking smile. “Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it, troublemaker. You’re going to pay me back by teaching the little demon the piano.”