Page 53 of Taken By Touch and Torment

My eyes flew open as Durian yanked me out of my blissful dream and back into my nightmarish reality. Standing over me were three men. Durian, Brennan, and…

Kole.

“You must be quite the rarity, my dear,” Kole said, desire bleeding from beneath his flashy clothes. “To be coveted greatly enough to provoke such violent, politically short-sighted incidents.”

I looked to Durian, sensing brewing paranoia hiding underneath his overwhelming air of victory. Everything came back to me all at once. I realized I was missing a huge gap of time in between Durian feeding from me, Rune’s shadows leaking, and my arrival back at the palace.

Rune still loved me. Which meant he’d likely fought for me.

But he’d somehow failed.

Panic seized me. Rune was the strongest vampire in Valentin. How could Durian have thwarted him?

And why was Durian’s paranoia circling me like a viper?

“Did I behave to your standards, Master?” I asked quickly.

This halted Durian, his severe features relaxing an inch. “Yes, pet.” He smiled at Kole as he spoke to me. “Kneel.”

I knelt, understanding we were in one of Durian’s studies—black walls and dark furniture accented with crimson and gold. Magick emanated from the bookshelves and several trinkets and antique weapons were strewn about.

Anger boiled in my blood, as ripe as my fear and disappointment. Somehow Rune hadn’t saved me. Was he okay? Surely Durian would be in a much different mood if he’d actually harmed Rune in a lasting way.

I was still a slave. Yet everything had changed.

I fought the urge to glare at Kole, who clearly cared so little about true diplomacy, justice, and the well-being of Valentin that he’d ridden back with the born to Durian’s palace.

My collar had been placed back on my neck.

But Rune still loved me. He’d committed violence in my name. I didn’t know how it was possible; but it was real—I’d held his heart in my palms, examined it from every reality-shattering angle.

Nothing was solved. I had a wealth of unanswered questions. But Rune had given me a lifeline, and I clenched my exhausted fists tight around it.

The whole world is doomed, Little Flame. We live and love anyway.

I couldn’t let the tears form. I couldn’t show an ounce of my overwhelming grief that I still sat here, kneeling before men I hated.

Durian scanned my face for evidence, and I stayed demure, feeding him back delicate strokes of his ego.

When Lillian’s vengeful spite lit up my nerves, I allowed it to break through my walls of shame.

I would fight. As I always had.

I had a home to go back to. I had friends who adored me. I saw Snow’s face, felt her arms around me as she laughed. I had…

Rune.

“Drink,” Durian commanded, bending down to shove a potion in my face. I recognized its blood replenishing magick immediately, an expensive and rare commodity.

Rune had once told me he would have to give me these so he could feed exclusively from me whenever possible.

I drank this potion for him. Rune’s achingly beautiful face was all I could see, the tips of his thorny shadow vines creeping up his neck. That dark, nearly black hair that was feather soft to the touch.

I handed the glass bottle back to my captor. When he patted my head in approval, my mind was flooded with a stomach-churning mix of satisfaction and shame. I hated the hold he had over me, despite everything he’d done.

“You are going to spend the evening with Kole, pet,” Durian said with a sigh, a dramatic air to his voice. As if he were emphasizing how difficult it would be for him to share.

I tensed. I searched his desires for wiggle room, areas for me to slither between cracks and exert my own will. But his decision had already been made. I wasn’t stupid enough to ignore Rosalind’s harsh warnings. I couldn’t afford to break the spell, to ruin the tenuous control I had over Durian by aiming too high.

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