Page 44 of Taken By Touch and Torment

“Kole was given a new journal—he’d had one of the three potential decoys—and he’s already sent us a new date and time.”

Mason’s eyes glowed even if her form remained rigid, her features stone. “Good. Just as it always should’ve been.”

“Not quite,” I said. My chest was tight, my shadows heavy with need—for her, always for her. “The born will still be in attendance, on neutral meeting grounds with harsh rules instated by the kingdom. The council may be pissed they’ve been manipulated, but that doesn’t mean there is enough evidence to pin it all on Durian.”

“Despite it being dead fucking obvious,” Uriah muttered.

“He’s still gotten to them, even if it was under false pretenses. Earle more than anyone else, unfortunately. That much is clear,” I continued.

“But the path isn’t as set in stone as we’d thought,” Mason summarized. “It’s not great. But at least we have more time to prepare no matter what’s coming.”

“Rune,” Uriah said, glancing around for a moment as if to make sure it was still only the four of us. “I know it’s been mentioned in passing, but now that we’ve reached this point…”

I sighed. “Out with it, friend.”

“Should we still be considering keeping peace with the kingdom? After everything they’ve done, everything they’ve allowed? The whole reason more turned clans have risen up against them is because Earle and his lords have begun to resemble Ivan and Haemon and their demented court of the underworld.”

Ivan and Haemon Ardente were born brothers who once ruled Valentin. The first batch of turned, the three of us included, had been turned using Haemon’s blood. Now we used the powerful blood of the fallen born king himself, Ivan, who Sadie held captive in a magickal suspension in her dungeons.

“Ravenia’s uprisings are a reaction to the slave trade and attacks on mortals. Aren’t their turned just us, centuries apart?” Uriah finished.

We were all silent for a moment.

“No one could ever be us, darling,” Sadie finally said.

I was only half in this conversation, a truth I kept to myself. Mason and Uriah had yet to connect the dots. The reason why I wouldn’t be able to sleep until this meeting.

“We need more information,” I said, shutting down Uriah’s fanaticism. “We cannot help Ravenia without first securing Valentin.”

Before Uriah could utter another syllable, I added, “We’re keeping our meeting with Kylo, the Hekate clan leader. That is already risky enough of a move. While I’m with you idealistically, I cannot ignore what is at stake for our own people, including the defenseless humans who live under our rule.”

Uriah raised his hands and sighed. “Just some food for thought.”

Mason had been staring at me, scanning my features as her lips pursed and eyes narrowed.

It looked like someone had finally connected the damn dots.

“You think he’s going to bring her, don’t you? When he learns you’ll be in attendance?”

An ocean of feeling roared through my veins. The lights flickered. A muscle in my jaw feathered as I wrestled with my shadows.

“He won’t be able to resist,” I growled. I knew his type. I’d met many Durians in my lifetimes, even if their ambitions weren’t nearly as lofty. They operated extremely predictably once you understood what motivated them. “He’s been dying for my attention, for my acknowledgment of what he’s done. He wants me to barter, to beg, to show at least a drop of my wrath for taking Scarlett. He’s infuriated by my silence.”

The fireplaces on either wall hissed as they extinguished. The spacious room went dark save for flickering witch lights casting shadows on the bookcases and furniture.

“And there’s one thing I know for certain about my Scarlett,” I said, my every muscle straining. “If a man’s attention is on her, he will have no choice but to become unfathomably, insatiably obsessed with her. And if I know that, then Durian must know it by now too.”

I saw a vision of shadows crawling up palace walls, rotting the building’s foundation and reducing every born to a pile of ash and mangled flesh.

“Durian will bring her. He wants me to finally lose control. He needs a win, and above all, he wants to show me that he’s capable of taking what belongs to me.”

I wasn’t—couldn’t pay attention to Sadie’s flirting with Kole. Involving her was a risk, but so was every move we made now. We pretended not to be close to her, as if she’d weaseled her way into this meeting of her own accord. We also subtly hinted that she was Uriah’s domme, much to his chagrin.

Sadie sat to my left, with Uriah to the left of her. Mason was to my right, followed by Percy and Dev, two members of my inner circle. Percy was ancient, technically older than I was given he was turned early on and when he was already over fifty years old. His shadows were potent poison. Dev was a strong fighter, a wielder of air magick and glamours. He was also popular among women, which had gotten him in trouble on more than a few occasions.

Kole refused to talk business until the born arrived, and he said so in a tone that very much made me want to slice off his tongue with my shadows.

I had never been more on edge. Thank fuck Sadie was here, a constant reminder of the necessity of maintaining my tenuous control.

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