Page 137 of Taken By Touch and Torment

Rune sunk his fangs back into my wrist, not caring the effect it had on the room. My eyes rolled back.

The calls to tone it down went ignored.

“You’re really leaving tomorrow?”

Snow and I sat out in the gardens, despite the cold. We’d put a blanket down, surrounded by shrubs and barren trees. I wished we could go somewhere out in the city, but I couldn’t risk it. I’d thought I’d claimed freedom when I’d escaped Durian, but the truth was, I would never be free while he still breathed.

It was getting late, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to do much sleeping, anyway.

“Yes,” I said softly. “I told Kole and Brennan that my life is in danger here, that because of Durian’s atrocities, everyone except Rune wants me dead or returned to the born. They think I’ve convinced two of Rune’s guards to smuggle me out, because the guards want the violence to stop and think Rune is selfish for keeping me.”

“They bought it?”

“Yes.” My heart was beating too fast again, anxiety ripe in my body no matter how violently I tried to squash it down. “Brennan recommended a weak spot at the border, the one we created, and he’s told me exactly where to go to meet his escort.”

I was to make my way to a statue of Lillian inside an abandoned library. I’d learned that tunnel entrances were all marked by depictions of Lillian.

“You don’t deserve any of this, Scar,” Snow said.

Even underneath my gloves, my hands were starting to freeze. I lifted the mug of hot chocolate, warming my fingers as I took a sip. Though it seemed like we were alone in the frigid darkness, I knew at least three vampires were nearby keeping watch.

“Deserve is a strange concept,” I murmured. “Do any of us truly deserve pain? Struggle? Loss?” I shook my head, glancing up at the clear sky of twinkling stars. “These things come for all of us, anyway. They’re inescapable. I think measuring what life gives us against what we think we deserve causes a lot more suffering than necessary. Better to remember that it’s all temporary, that a new season is right around the corner. I feel the most peaceful when I surrender.”

Snow stared at me silently for a few beats before looking up at the stars, seeing what I saw.

“Mom calls it the flow. She says the flow is the natural course of the gods’ will, inescapable and perfect. You can either move with it or fight it as it drags you along, but it keeps moving forward either way.”

I thought of my own mom, my adoptive one. Did she believe in the gods’ will? I barely knew her, and that lodged a lump of heartbreak in my throat. I wondered if that was why these esoteric concepts came easily to me. I’d been made durable, insightful, by my trauma and upbringing. Just like Rune.

Maybe it all balanced out in the end.

I hoped so.

“I love you, Snow. Believe in me.”

“Always, Scarlett.”

54

SCARLETT

Rune’s hand trembled slightly as he secured the lightweight holster around my waist, a dagger on each of my upper thighs. The belt was made from velvety black fabric, the entire contraption designed to be smooth and inconspicuous. The only point of bulkiness was the weapons themselves. Overtop, I would wear a skirt, blouse, and coat—an outfit that made me appear as vulnerable as possible.

They had no idea the vengeful demon they were welcoming back with open arms. And I was going to keep it that way until it was time to bite.

Rune pushed me up against the wall of his bedroom, looking down at my body clothed only in black underwear, a holster, and two deadly weapons.

“I can’t even properly enjoy how fucking sexy and dangerous you look right now,” Rune said with irritation. He lifted my chin. Scorching heat radiated from our bodies pressed together. “You are coming back to me, Little Flame.”

“Yes, Rune, my God.”

He chuckled darkly, his hand moving to squish my cheeks between his thumb and index finger.

“Good girl,” he purred, kissing my forehead.

But underneath the dominance, I tasted the desperation in his desire. He wanted me to stay. He wanted to tie me to his bed and never let me go.

Rune the Ruthless was terrified, and the sight of it had my heart in a painfully tight squeeze.

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