Page 86 of King of Ruin

“I’ll take him to his room, Trick. Will you make sure there’s sulfuric acid and hydrogen peroxide down there as well?”

Trick nearly giggles before turning to leave. “Oh, yes, ma’am, I sure will! See you down there in a minute.”

I wait until the door closes behind him to shift back to Kilo. “How are you feeling?”

“You don’t have to do this.”

My face jolts backward. “I must not have heard you right.”

He holds up a hand. “I’m not sayingat all, Boss. I’m saying you don’t have to go down there right now.”

I guffaw. “And when would be a better time to end this, Kilo? Please, tell me.”

I can feel my heart racing now, the sudden increase making my veins throb. With the obvious anger radiating from my body, he surprises me again when he merely tilts his head and shrugs. “I’m not sure. But if you do it now, it will be over before it starts. All those emotions still fresh and bubbling to the surface will cause you to rip him apart.”

“That would be a mercy, and I can promise you this–that man willnotknow mercy.”

“As he shouldn’t. Butyoudeserve it.”

It’s hard to swallow around the lump forming in my throat. “I don’t.”

“And why is that?”

I shrug aggressively, rage and guilt tangling around my spine and setting my soul on fire. “Because I couldn’t protect you! I couldn’t protect any of you! I’ve made mistake after mistake and in the end, I couldn’t even provide you with the man that caused you the most pain.”

“You’re human. And why do you think we wanted Phineas? He wasyourcrusade foryourclosure.”

My brows furrow. “Phineas’ death was for all our benefit.”

Kilo nods. “Yes, but not a necessity for us. He hurt you, and you needed him dead to move on. We didn’t. We found a new home here. In each other. In you. We learned to love again. But you learned you could never do it because that meant it could be taken away.”

Fire burns at the back of my throat, and I’m sure my face is one of distraught because Kilo moves his chair forward, and puts one of my shaking hands in his. “Finish this. Truly finish it. Let it die with him.”

I close my eyes against the burn and nod. No matter if Sam was to die tonight or next week, one thing is certain. “I intend to, my friend.”

* * *

Every step I take into my basement is both weighted and light. It’s a move toward salvation. Toward redemption. Closure and rebirth.

Who I end up being afterward is yet to be seen but I know one thing, I will survive.

Red hair comes into view first. Maddy’s leaning against the wall near the bottom of the stairs, twirling her favorite blade as she watches the center of the room. My fierce little warrior. She yields to no man, including Father Time, and will stop at nothing to protect her family.

Next to her is Shi. Ever the reserved, she too is looking at the man in the center.

Shi. My advisor and second in command. She has the wisdom of a woman who’s lived much longer than her twenty-eight years, and without her, there are many times we would have been lost.

As I reach the bottom, I see my boys. My twins. Total opposites in nearly every way, but together they are passionate. Creative. Ingenious. They are the pillars on which my operation stands.

And in the middle, stands Sam, chained by his wrists and latched to a hook overhead.

Like myself, he’s been merely a ghost up until now. The memory of his voice has haunted me. It’s plagued me. I haven’t gone a day in ten years without hearing it.

But I must say, seeing him again after all this time feels almost disappointing.

He’s big. But not as large as he was when I was fourteen. He looks brawny. But not as strong as he did when my parents were kneeling in front of him. He’s deadly. But half as much as he was when he cut them down on that pretty day.

I’ve worked so hard to no longer be the girl from that day. To not allow their deaths to plague me, to not let their screams feed into my nightmares. But standing in front of the man who took everything, I am her. I am her rage. Her loss. I am her savior and her death. After this, she will be no more.

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