Page 81 of His Toy

Listen. Be attentive. We would work together.

“You’re scared,” Zaid said. “You have—” Zaid glanced around, counting for show, when his career made it so that he already knew the answer, “—fifteen men against one man and one woman. A coward and his army of muscle. Two of us. You couldn’t leave the Great Pleasures Palace without them, could you?”

Eric stopped, his body eerily still. “You think me a coward,” he said quietly.

“You’re a worm. You can’t face me like a man. What does that say about you?” Everyone was frozen in place, except for Zaid. “Go ahead. Kill us. But you can’t say you killed your enemy with your own hands. They were here too. These chains. All of this protection.” Zaid laughed loudly. “You’re weak.”

Eric’s eyes were bulging red. He turned to his men. “Get the fuck out,” he whispered. “Give me the fucking key.”

“Boss,” one said.

“Don’t question me,” Eric hissed. “Or you’ll be next.”

The man handed him a key. “Do you want us to wait here?”

Eric stared, his eyes on fire, and the men turned and left.

Once they were gone, Eric said, “I will let you fight me, but not before I beat the shit out of you.”

He railed on Zaid, and Zaid grit his teeth, bearing the punches and kicks, waiting for it to be over. The blood on Eric’s hands, Zaid’s blood, stained his skin, his clothes.

Eric stopped and removed a kerchief from his pocket, and wiped his hands.

“Coward,” Zaid said.

A deranged look of a demon took over Eric’s face as he unlocked the bolts keeping Zaid against the cage. Zaid crumbled to the ground as soon as he was free, barely catching himself.

Come on, I thought. We have to survive this. If Eric lives, my sister will die, and who knows how many people will die too. There’s no human left in that monster. We need to stop him.

Eric took steps towards me, brandishing a knife. “My favorite weapon,” he cooed. “I used this same one to kill his mother, you know.” He turned it over, watching the light catch the metal. “And now, I’ll use it to kill his only love.”

I turned my head, trying to protect myself. But as Eric raised the knife, thudding fists knocked Eric aside. Eric turned towards Zaid, and Zaid threw an unsteady arm, but his movements were jagged, adrenaline his only source of energy, and he missed. Eric knocked Zaid down, focused on him.

Zaid had saved me.

I checked the restraints on my wrist. Loose. Unlocked. I removed them as discreetly as I could.

“This is irritating now,” Eric said. He shoved his knife towards Zaid’s face, cutting him down the other side. Then he stabbed Zaid in the stomach and kicked him down. He tossed the blade on the ground, and it slid away.

Eric pressed Zaid against the cage. Zaid looked at me, blood covering his face, his one open eye urging me to fight. Though his hands were down by his side, he pressed two fingers together, motioning downwards.

Open.

“Bow before me,” Eric said. He pushed Zaid down to his knees. “I’m still your fucking master in the end. Isn’t that a shocker?”

Open.I kneeled too, my legs spread. In this position, the blade was within reach. I grabbed it.

“I will kill that cunt, and you will watch, like a good little boy, Vander,” Eric said. “And you will thank me for freeing you of your weakness, for showing you true mercy. You will never be as powerful or as strong as me.”

I raised the knife into the air. I thought about my sister, how she had been under this man’s power, his control. If Eric lived, he would kill my sister, just like he would kill his own son. But most of all, I thought about Zaid. That he was right. Eric needed to die. He had never lied about that and he had sacrificed himself to protect me. How long would he survive with the wound in his stomach?

I plunged the knife into Eric’s back, and Eric howled. I ripped it out. Zaid leapt up, hoisting all of his energy to knock Eric down and hold him there. I stabbed Eric over and over again until I slit his throat and blood gushed from his neck, bubbling like a stream drying out in the woods.

Then Zaid collapsed.