Page 159 of Taken By Touch and Torment

I was allowed to walk, but Durian still led me on a collar and leash as he showed me off before his court.

When Kole saw me, his face paled, his eyes sweeping over my body in unconcealed horror and distaste.

I’d glimpsed myself in the mirror only once. My body was covered head to toe in constellations of marks, cuts, and bruises, and in a sick, twisted way—there was indeed a certain perverse artistry to Durian’s cruelty.

That hadn’t stopped me from dry heaving on the floor.

Durian had beaten me for that, too.

I’d still hadn’t received a bite of food, and I thought perhaps my stomach was starting to eat itself. Every step hurt, my skin, muscles, and bones soaking in pain from my days of torture and abuse.

Brennan turned from his hushed conversation with a couple of lords, and as soon as he saw me, his face went utterly blank.

It was like he knew that if he allowed even a drop of his fury and disgust into his features, he might pull the trigger on his mysterious plans and blow up his coup before it began.

Instead, he merely moved his eyes to Durian. “Your pet is on the brink of death,” he said dryly, lifting a brow.

I knew I must truly look like shit if even the cruel lords next to Brennan regarded me with something close to pity, or perhaps sadness for what had become of my once fuckable body.

“It would be quite ironic, if after all those attacks in the bastard districts—not to mention Brennan’s reacquisition mission—you killed the girl anyway,” Lord Nereus said.

Durian yanked me, and I choked, grasping the thick leather around my neck as I stumbled closer to him.

“Pet is fine,” Durian hissed. “Her flesh is a conduit for the Dark Goddess’s divine power.”

While Durian fell inside his delusions, I was mildly irritated that Brennan and the lords kept talking up this special ops mission as if I hadn’t been the one to orchestrate the entire thing.

Idiots.

Gods, I was hungry. I was flooded with shame at my exposed, destroyed body, exhausted from trying to keep myself from mentally shutting down, and still working through the puzzles of what Brennan was up to and how to escape my imminent rape…

Nope, I was going down.

I saw black as I collapsed.

“She needs fucking medical attention, Durian. She is not a toy; she is a human!” Brennan’s voice reached me from my place on the floor, my limbs bent in very unsustainable positions.

Magick swelled. I saw a kaleidoscope of color behind my eyelids.

Kole’s voice rose. “If you harm me, you harm King Earle. Stop this madness right this minute!”

“He is not in his right mind,” Brennan said. “I think we can all see that.”

“Durian has always had a taste for being rough with his slaves, Brennan. This is hardly irregular for our chosen, blessed by Lillian,” a voice I didn’t recognize said.

Collective desire for violence reached a peak, and I wished I could open my eyes.

Could someone please stuff some food and potion in my mouth? I didn’t have the time for another bout of inconvenient unconsciousness. I needed to write to Rune.

“Liza was murdered, and none of you care!” a woman wailed with the high-pitched voice of a most grotesque ghoul. Evangeline. “You know Liza’s gift, Durian. She was killed right after she touched that slave, right there, Scarlett fucking Hale!”

“Wakey, wakey!”

I opened my eyes. Under me was a plush carpet. Above me were Rosalind and Kole. My stifling collar and its accompanying leash had been removed.

Everything ached. The ground beneath me vibrated as if by powerful magick. Rosalind swallowed, and Kole looked like he was about to piss himself.

“Sit up slowly, dear,” Kole said.

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