Page 104 of Taken By Touch and Torment

I’d seen what Evangeline had in her basement—those sacrificial altars for ritualistically feeding from slaves. I’d also seen what Durian had done to Scarlett’s body with a blade. His name had been carved on her stomach not only at the meeting but also when she’d been rescued, and it had been fresh. I had the sick intuition that he healed the wounds of his brutalization only to perform the acts all over again, like the demented, sociopathic freak that he was.

I wanted to rage, to unleash the feral noise building in the back of my throat. I wanted to shake the castle’s foundation with my wrath. But I couldn’t do that to Scarlett. I couldn’t frighten her like Durian’s nightmare vision of me had already terrorized her for an entire month.

It was all so vile, and yet Scarlett couldn’t always see it. She kept repeating how much worse it had been for others, and how it could’ve been far worse for her. She was champing at the bit to step into her power, to fight for Valentin in whatever way she could.

And I equally adored her for it and was selfishly infuriated with her because of it. The mere thought of her being harmed again, by anyone or anything, tested every ounce of my self-control.

Sadie was helping me work through these weaknesses, and I tried not to be furious with her, too, knowing full well she’d encouraged Scarlett to forge ahead on this path. None of us could afford to let our emotional baggage rule our minds and our actions. Not with Durian only continuing to try to manipulate King Earle and his council while they deliberated, or with Kole still fucking around inside the palace doing Lillian knew what. Or with the born continuing to gather at the border, building defenses and carrying out supposedly rogue suicide missions in border districts.

Every move needed to count.

I forced myself to practice gratitude, one of Sadie’s suggestions that I followed despite my reluctance. Because for whatever reason, I respected the ancient witch and her occasional bout of nonsense woo-woo therapy.

I thought about the way color had returned to Scarlett’s cheeks, the darkness under her eyes receding. I thought about how she was eating more, and she’d had two nights in a row without nightmares. I thanked the gods for her willingness to feel better, to listen to her healer and accept help.

Above all, I expressed my endless gratitude that she was back with me for as long as fate allowed. My Scarlett was safe. She slept beside me, just as I’d always dreamed and hoped, even more desperately after she’d been stolen. And that was enough. It was more than enough.

“Rune.”

I turned to see Uriah step onto the patio. “Sorry to disturb you while you indulge in your nightly ponderings,” he said. His humor fell flat, his features tight. “Durian has sent another letter.”

“About the impending war? Negotiations? Lillian’s divine will? To ask me about my day? Literally anything other than what I think you’re about to say?” I asked bitterly, already shaking with fury.

“Sorry to disappoint,” Uriah said, scratching his head. “He’s still rattling on and on about Scarlett. Paragraphs upon paragraphs. Very wordy, lots of purple prose. He’d benefit greatly from a good editor.”

I laughed dryly, rubbing my mouth and rising to my feet to face him. “I can’t say I blame him. I might’ve done the same if I lacked self-control, half a brain, and a modicum of sanity.”

“Your writing would’ve been far easier on the eyes,” Uriah added, crossing his arms. His smile faded. “He says he’s going to commit an atrocity for every day that she’s gone. Sacrifices for Lillian, other fucked-in-the-head language that doesn’t need repeating.”

“He wants her to know,” I said. “He wants to hurt her. To give her even more incentive to fight me and find her way back to him.”

“Are you going to tell her?”

I listened to the sound of late-night comradery out in the training field. I picked up on the sound of a woman’s laughter carried in the frigid breeze.

“No. It wouldn’t help her to know. It would only harm her.”

Uriah nodded. “I think you’re right about that.” He gazed out over the city, familiar anger crossing his features that let me know he was thinking deeply. “Rune, he… he might want to punish her for being here, but he still legitimately believes she was taken against her will and wants to be with him. He believes she was given to him by Lillian. He’s fetishized her blood. And her, um, pain. He sees them as these sources of holy power.”

I ground my teeth, my every muscle straining and flexing.

“And I don’t say this to hurt you, as I don’t think a lot of it is worth reading for your own sake. I say it to point out that, yes, we may have underestimated Durian’s powers of persuasion and intelligence, but I don’t think we were wrong that there’s a fundamental screw loose. And I think Scarlett was working on that screw, deepening that vulnerability. He doesn’t sound sane. He doesn’t sound like someone who knows for certain his holy book is fabricated and his religion is a mere political ploy. My read is that he believes his own delusions, or at least some of them.”

I used Sadie’s techniques to ground myself, to steady my breathing. I thought about what Uriah was actually saying instead of getting lost in the swell of my emotions.

“Kole isn’t stupid,” I said. “He doesn’t despise us for idealistic reasons. He’s not truly buying into the religious nonsense, and if it’s interfering with Durian’s ability to lead, that will become intolerable to someone like Kole. Entertaining psychotic children isn’t like him. There’s something there that we’re missing.”

Uriah looked down at his feet, squinting before slowly raising his gaze. He shifted nervously. “Scarlett was close to him, no? You think she might understand Kole’s current state of mind? Or… could find out?”

I wanted to cut off Kole’s pathetic excuse for a cock for merely thinking about Scarlett, but I feared he might enjoy that too much.

“No one can get to her through a letter,” Uriah said.

A half-truth. “She’s getting better. But it’s only been a week.”

Fuck, I just wanted to protect her from it all. I always had. My only solace now was that her succubus nature made her immortal like me. It was a truth we hadn’t even begun to unpack, and I wondered how much Scarlett had gotten a chance to consider her new reality. At least now I knew that war would not ruin her life. She would still be here, by my side, when this unchanging world moved into its next season of stability.

“I want her to have more time to grow stronger. Nothing has changed. We’ll loop her in soon.”

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