Page 162 of Taken By Touch and Torment

“Leave, Kole,” I said sternly, attempting to keep the depths of my wrath from my voice. “You wouldn’t want to miss your opportunity.”

Kole studied my features, understanding washing over him. “Good luck, Scarlett. I apologize.” He scanned my body one last time. “For all of it.”

I pointed with my head toward the door, and Rosalind came to my side.

Before we left, Kole spoke one final time.

“This world was built by beautiful, deadly women, as much as we men would rather believe otherwise,” he called. “Give them hell, ladies.”

I wanted to throw an obscene gesture over my shoulder at his patronizing display of allyship, but I resisted the urge.

“Stay safe, Kole,” I managed to bite out.

As soon as we left Kole’s room, I hissed to Rosalind, “We need to get to my chambers now.”

I had to stop Rune and his fighters from walking straight into a trap—a trap Brennan had set from the very beginning and one I’d been too blinded by my own arrogance to consider. I thought I’d led Brennan to make a stupid mistake with the tunnels, but it had been the other way around.

Brennan was the one who’d played us.

Witch lights were going in and out of power as we moved. Rosalind knew this place like the back of her hand, guiding us to my wing through back halls. We hadn’t encountered anyone yet.

Palace vampires were a little busy currently.

I was nearly sprinting now, passing the window we’d thrown Liza out of, and beelining for my room.

Rosalind screamed, and I turned with my hand on the doorknob just in time to see a river of blood rushing for us. The deep crimson roared, sloshing up against the sides of the halls.

I flung open the door. The wave of blood crashed up against the other side as I pulled it shut behind us.

“Visions,” I said.

Rosalind gasped for air. “Durian is plaguing the whole castle with them.”

I rushed to the vanity, opening my makeup drawer and finding the tin of pressed powder where I’d stashed my note. Then I opened an empty tube of eyeliner to retrieve my pen.

“I like Scarlett the spy. She’s a badass,” Rosalind murmured.

My heart was pounding, my legs aching from running when they were this badly bruised. I unfolded the note.

Rune, it’s a trap. Don’t use the tunnels.

I stared so intensely at the paper I feared my rage and terror might somehow set it aflame.

Minutes passed. All of me was tightly wound. It was hard to swallow. My palms were slick.

No response.

I wasn’t sure how long it had been when Rosalind placed a hand on my shaking shoulder.

“You’ve done all you can do. I’m sorry, Scar, but we really need to keep moving,” she said.

The blank piece of paper stared back. And I couldn’t say the words out loud—the reality that if Rune wasn’t answering me, that meant he couldn’t answer me. Because there was no way in Helia’s green earth that he would’ve felt that shock through his system, for the first time in three days, and not drop everything to read my note.

I felt so stupid. Of course, Brennan would assume that Rune had dosed me with his blood after everything, that Rune would only let me go if he thought he could get me back.

Brennan wanted me to reveal the tunnels to Rune.

I ran through our conversations, squashing down my panic so I could concentrate. Brennan didn’t think that I was working with Rune. He thought I was oblivious to everything, only leading Rune into a trap inadvertently.

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