Page 174 of Taken By Touch and Torment

Rune followed my gaze, cleaning the dagger I’d given on his pants leg before handing it back to me. “Your turn.”

Now this was true love.

“You really are my soulmate, you know that?”

Rune rolled his eyes. “I’ve known it since that night I watched you work Noel’s. But I’m glad you’ve finally caught up.”

We both crouched in front of a crazed and immobile Durian. He glared at me with a hatred that reminded me of every drop of derision men and women had forced down my throat. In those beady black depths, I saw every rape, every assault, every cruel word, every act of emotional or physical abuse. I saw a lifetime of objectification.

A lifetime of underestimation.

“How does it feel, Durian?” I asked again, my voice nearly unrecognizable as I burned with the rage of two decades of trauma. “To have been defeated by the woman you called stupid, useless, weak, pitiful, and worthless?”

I cut open his shirt, revealing a pasty white stomach.

“An ugly canvas, but it will do,” I said with a twist of my nose.

“You’re not a woman, you’re a mistake,” Durian spat.

I hesitated, seeing a vision of a faceless human leaving me at Helia’s temple in Crescent Haven. A helpless baby, unwanted and alone.

“You’re a freak of nature that will never belong on this plane. One day you will be put out of your misery, and you will die a nobody whore.”

Rune placed a hand on my shoulder.

I looked up at him. “Remove his tongue.”

Rune didn’t hesitate, yanking Durian’s tongue with his fingers before a tendril of razor-sharp shadow squeezed it clean off.

More blood flew through the air, and I squeezed my eyes shut as specks landed on my face.

Rune waited patiently as I sucked in air through my clenched jaw, finally bringing the tip of the dagger to Durian’s stomach. In deep slashes, I dug an S into his flesh.

It wasn’t very pretty.

The H was a lot better. The straight lines were made for initial carving.

“Marked by Scarlett Hale,” I said, my hands no longer trembling. “The woman you brutalized, assaulted, and threatened with rape. The woman who destroyed everything you built. The woman who will ensure you’re recorded in history as nothing more than a footnote—remembered only as a madman, a failure.”

Durian’s mouth was full of blood. All he could do was gurgle now.

It was better that way.

“Whoever said vengeance wasn’t as sweet as you imagine it in your head was full of shit,” I declared.

I rose to my feet, staring down at my abuser as he choked on his own blood. My initials were dug into his skin, his blood was splattered on my naked body.

Rune followed me, his eyes trailing over my form. “Something about you nude, armed, and covered in blood has my obsession with you driven to new peaks, Scarlett darling.”

“Do something about it, then,” I said, breathless. I was caught in a whirlwind of power—mine and Rune’s, forever intertwined by blood and stardust.

Rune’s smirk did terrible, wicked things to my body. By the time he’d freed his cock from his pants, I was a mess of desire and need.

He glanced from Brennan to Durian. “Pay attention, boys. Maybe you’ll get it right next life.” He tongued his fangs, shrugging. “Or not. In my religion, the gods are punishing. Lillian saw what you did to her daughter.”

I licked my lips, staring at Rune’s imposing length.

He grabbed my chin and forced my eyes back up. “And unfortunately for you, in this life and all the rest, I am Scarlett’s God.”

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