Page 180 of Taken By Touch and Torment

Scarlett screamed, and the sound of it shattered me. She managed to grab the other dagger with her non-dominant hand and surprise Evangeline with a gash to her calf.

My power had been sufficiently depleted. But seeing someone harm Scarlett, for the thousandth time, while I watched helplessly, triggered the deepest rage in my blood.

The primal need to protect what was mine.

I forced the shadows on my skin to leap in search of the woman at my back. At the sound of blood gurgling, a body went limp behind me. The chain fell to the ground, allowing me to breathe and access what was left of my strength.

Two more women rushed at me, their own sharp weapons raised.

Scarlett had slowed Evangeline down, but she’d also deeply angered her. Evangeline entered bloodlust immediately, crawling on top of Scarlett as she sunk her teeth into her neck.

I fought the remaining two born women as my heart thundered.

Distracting me during battle was a feat only Scarlett could pull off. The truth of the situation was slamming into me, making it difficult to remain calm.

My Little Flame’s heart was too slow. She was already drained from my intensive feeding from earlier. And Evangeline was a beast gone rabid, not caring that Scarlett was running out of blood to give, that she’d torn open her delicate neck too roughly. The space between life and death for someone low on blood was a matter of seconds.

It took me three seconds to wrap my shadow vines around the two women, their blood spraying the walls as they fell in heaps of flesh.

It took me two more to yank Evangeline off Scarlett’s limp body, to snap her neck and kill her instantly.

Only five seconds.

It had taken five seconds for Scarlett’s heart to stop.

Time was no longer a concept I understood.

I’d clotted Scarlett’s torn open throat with my own saliva and exited the palace.

Scarlett was bathed in blood as I cradled her lifeless body to my chest. When I found an aunt hiding in the gardens, I set Scarlett down gently next to a bed of red roses—her favorite.

I tore open the witch’s throat just as Evangeline had done to Scarlett, pulling the woman’s essence into my body until she fell, pale and bloodless.

With Scarlett back in my arms, I kissed her forehead, brushing the hair from her own too-pale skin.

“We’ll be home soon,” I said, unable to recognize my own voice.

I annihilated anyone in my way, now replenished with vile witch blood. I ran with Scarlett down a route I’d studied before I left. I ascended the sloping side streets of Hatham, avoiding the heavy traffic of crowds of born watching the palace burn.

During key moments, I hid us in shadow rather than risk further exertion. Other times I let my shadows feast.

I heard Millie’s call before I saw her. My shadowbird soared for us. She would get us the rest of the way home.

In Hatham’s grandest park, I had a stunning view of Aristelle. The nighttime cityscape, one of Scarlett’s favorite things in this world. The world that had betrayed her, that had shown her cruelty and hatred and endless violence. The world she was hopelessly in love with despite it all.

The wolves had taken Scarlett through here during her first escape. I wondered what she’d been thinking in those moments, what she’d been feeling in that big, beautiful heart of hers.

I looked down at her serene, peaceful features, her body impossibly small and still under my black shirt. It clung to her now, drenched in her blood.

The scent didn’t even reach me. I’d gone numb to it.

From my vantage point, I could see a battle on the border. It wouldn’t be long before the born realized there was nothing left to fight for except preservation. Scarlett had made sure of it.

Millie landed, causing the ground to tremble. Three more shadowbirds circled overhead, carrying Uriah, Sadie, and Mason.

Millie’s eyes were glassy, her demeanor hesitant as I approached.

“Why do you look so sad?” I asked her. “What pain have you seen? Have the stable workers not given you enough treats lately?”

---