Page 156 of Taken By Touch and Torment

“Have you lost the faith, brother?” Durian asked, his voice strange and high-pitched. “Leave my sight and come back when you’ve prayed your way back into Lillian’s divine darkness.” His grip on me loosened. “The Dark Mother and King Earle have blessed our war against blasphemy. Everything is going according to plan. We must see through the false prophets of Rune and his bastard brothers and sisters.”

I couldn’t do much with my magick, but I was still able to read the prevailing collective energy in this hall.

Everyone was listening, even the women. They heard the bizarre inflections in Durian’s voice, the way he’d evaded Brennan’s questioning and call to be practical in favor of religious fervor and delusion. The tides were turning, and they were not in the mad illusionist’s favor.

He really was losing it.

My eyes drifted shut.

A hand gripped my face roughly.

“Why are you smiling, you stupid, useless cunt?”

I sleepily murmured my response.

“Because I’m back with my Master.”

61

SCARLETT

Iwoke up on an altar.

Durian was staring down at me, his eyes nearly black.

When I screamed, he smiled, stroking my hair. “I’ve missed my favorite sound, terribly, pet.”

This was my worst nightmare. I knew what I was walking into when I came back to this place, but I avoided thinking about the inevitable horrors as much as possible. And, naively, part of me hoped that I really could trust Brennan to protect me.

I would have to trust myself, instead.

Careening off the side of a rocky precipice, I scrambled for anything at all to grab hold of. If I fell all the way to the bottom, I wouldn’t be able to be of use. To stand for something greater than myself.

Instead of imagining Durian carving into me, I imagined it was him on this altar.

I halted my fall into dissociation by imagining the look in his eyes when it was he who was restrained, unable to move.

I imagined those dark, beady irises the moment Durian realized that this stupid, useless cunt had been turning his entire court against him.

My chest rose and fell rapidly, and I stared hard into Durian’s eyes—watched them roam my body like he was admiring a fine cut of meat.

“Do you have a family, Master?” I asked, my voice raw from screaming.

Durian froze, and I’d possibly never seen him falter this noticeably. His brows furrowed, and his lips turned down.

“Obviously, pet,” he said.

I watched his eyes flicker from confusion to paranoia to something more contemplative.

“I had to kill most of them,” he said. “Such is the reality of a vampire destined for greatness. You live a life constantly threatened, and those closest to you are the biggest threats of all.”

Durian raised a blade, twisting it around in his hand as if he were playing with a toy.

I showed fear, but underneath, I held on to that sturdy branch, heard fate’s melody roar in my ears. I was laying with Rune under a field of stars, laughing and sharing secrets like we were young lovers.

I mumbled something quickly and softly under my breath.

Durian’s confusion multiplied. “What did you just say?”

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