Page 47 of Taken By Touch and Torment

“I wanted to make her willingness clear, since we’ve brought up Rune’s little political magnum opus,” Durian said. “Lillian may not recognize laws designed to neuter her children and keep the born in a position of subjugation, but abide we must by the current laws of the land.”

I did not yield. I stayed neutral as Durian spun his lies about Scarlett, his attack on my rule. I did not give Durian what he wanted, and to my own satisfaction, a hint of frustration finally crossed his dark eyes.

Though I’d avoided looking at her at all costs, each time I did, I saw plainly my Scarlett’s brokenness, her pain that went on and on. I’d fortified my mind against mental magick as a precaution, hoping it might help counter Durian’s visions. Sadie had told me it would guard me from Scarlett too.

I needed to let down those walls, even if temporarily. I had to prove to Scarlett I still loved her. I had to reveal that this was all a show—that I loved her endlessly, devotedly, perilously. I demanded her to feel how desperately I needed her back, so I could mend her every last wound. Her terror when she saw me was clear evidence Durian had already poisoned her mind against me, traumatizing her into a sick bond with him.

I would never forgive myself for letting any of this happen. For letting her flame dim. She was already terribly wounded when she met me, and now—gods above and below, my heart was filled with nothing but piercing stabs—because she had never looked so hurt and afraid.

She needed hope, and she needed it right now.

Durian twirled a lock of Scarlett’s hair around his finger, oblivious to the silent exchange between her and Kole. Sadie hadn’t missed a thing, subtly shifting as her focus moved from Little Flame to the dignitary.

When Durian’s hand skated high on Scarlett’s thigh, I finally refocused on him. I opened my mouth to comment on his religious nonsense, the only attack I could make, despite wanting to send my shadows to decapitate him instead.

But he spoke again before I could.

“Was she willing when she was with you, Rune? Before she left you for a stronger ruler?”

21

SCARLETT

When I first saw Rune, every single act of torture he’d carried out on my body and mind came rushing forward. I thought for sure he was going to snatch me from Durian to cut off my fingers again or drain me dry.

Rune likely thought I’d run to Durian of my own free will. He thought I was a succubus plant, an evil demon who’d never truly loved him at all. It made sense that he despised me.

In his eyes, I was nothing more than the enemy.

The sickest part of me wished Rune would crush me with his words again—feed the mounting guilt over what I was and what I’d done to those humans.

Durian had whispered that I was safe, that Rune couldn’t hurt me. He’d reminded me to behave, and I clung to him for stability amid the waves of confusion and heartbreak.

But there was something wrong, something I didn’t understand. Rune didn’t glare at me with hatred. He didn’t look anything like the man who’d tortured me for weeks.

Yet he also avoided looking at me at all. His gaze wasn’t icy, but it was empty, disinterested.

Or at least, I thought it had been. But I’d noticed the way his eyes had flashed ever-so-briefly when Durian touched me. I searched and searched, but he didn’t reveal anything more.

“She’s my good little pet of her own accord,” Durian said.

Something inside me shriveled when I was forced to agree with Durian’s lie. Because I knew I wouldn’t be helped, and fighting him might take me out of the game for good. Though there were moments I thought I deserved to die, I didn’t actually want to. Not yet.

Rune’s desires were guarded, his mind opaque. He’d disowned me. His men and women also paid me no mind, save the witch, who was eyeing me very carefully at intermittent intervals.

Who was she? And why couldn’t I read her desires?

I could sense Mason’s and Uriah’s motivations, predictably focused on annihilating Durian and swaying the mind of this man I’d understood was some kind of mediator sent by the kingdom.

But why was so much of their desire focused on Rune? On helping him, giving him strength? Rune didn’t lose his cool, his perfectly steady exterior. The ripeness of emotions in the air, hidden and carefully tucked away, did nothing to quell my questions.

My shaking eased the more perplexed I became. My mind, once overcome by panic, cleared like a dissipating fog over Valentin’s beautiful mountains. I found myself focused on Kole and his growing interest in me. I sunk inside his psyche, parsing through the energy he freely projected outward. Some of his desire was focused on the witch, but a great deal of it swam toward me.

The more I flexed my accursed magick, the more I came back into my body. The more I came back to myself.

“Was she willing when she was with you, Rune? Before she left you for a stronger ruler?”

My stomach dropped, and my eyes flashed to Rune, as if seeing him here for the very first time.

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