Page 85 of Taken By Touch and Torment

Rune’s face fell, and I stared down at my plate.

“I’m sorry. I want to sleep now,” I said. “Thank you for the food, and tell Penn I said thank you too.”

Had I eaten enough? Were they going to be angry with me for being ungrateful? Exhausted tears welled in my eyes, and I hated those too. Because I was sick of all the pathetic crying. It didn’t help me, and it sure wouldn’t bring Rosalind back.

“You don’t have to apologize, Scar,” Snow said. “I’ll be here tomorrow. Everyone who loves you will be here tomorrow. And we don’t need anything from you. You can move at your own pace. No one has any expectations.”

Gods, I wanted them both to stop looking at me. “Okay, see you tomorrow.” I fled the room, and I realized quickly that I didn’t really know where to go except to Rune’s bedroom.

The room was dark, a lone lamp dimly lit on the bedside table. I collapsed atop the dark bedding, impossibly plush beneath my weary form. I didn’t bother getting under the covers. Every time I began to drift, I was jolted by the terror of being unsafe, of being somewhere unfamiliar. I saw the faces of the born, felt their hands on my body.

“Little Flame,” Rune’s voice came from my left.

I jerked awake and opened my eyes, my heart hammering in my chest as he came into focus.

“I’m going to sleep in my guest room. It’s on the other side of the dining room. I’m around if you need me, but I won’t disturb you. There are clothes for you on top of the dresser.”

I stared at him. His weaponized body, his shadow tattoos that still lightly thrummed with power. My body was fearful, but the rest of me had never been more conflicted.

He headed for the door.

“No, wait,” I said, the words coming from somewhere broken and frightened. The part of me that yearned for my mother, the part of me that forgave my abusive sister because I hoped I could inspire her to love me again. “Can you please hold me?”

Rune returned to my side, his own features conflicted as his face crumpled. “Are you sure? I don’t know if that’s?—”

“Please.”

He didn’t fight me. He lay on the bed next to me, and his shadows instantly reached for me—thorns tucked as they skated over my body. I rolled onto my side to face him.

“You’re terrified of me,” Rune whispered.

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“Please stop apologizing.”

“It’s because of the hallucinations,” I said quickly. “Durian plagued me with visions of you torturing me for weeks. I know they weren’t really you, but my body hasn’t figured that out yet. They felt real. I’m not crazy.”

“Of course you’re not crazy, Scarlett,” Rune said, his jaw tensing.

I knew he was hiding his wrath from me. Still, I scanned for evidence of it—the way his shadows coiled around my limbs, the heightened power in the air despite his magickal depletion.

“Do you want to bathe and change into something more comfortable?” he asked. He noted the look of panic and exhaustion on my face. “Or at least get out of your coat and under the covers, maybe?”

I shook my head.

“Is there a reason for that as well?”

I stiffened. “Fine, close your eyes.”

Rune’s lips turned down, but he obeyed without question. I sat up and yanked the coat off, refusing to look down at my ruined body as I receded under the covers. All the while, Rune was still, his eyes glued shut.

“Okay,” I said softly. “Come on in.”

Rune smiled, looking at me like I was the most precious thing he’d ever seen. It made me feel like I was falling—how it felt to swing by the forest and stare up at the stars.

“Thank you, baby,” he said. He watched the way I kept the sheets pulled tight around me as he joined me underneath the covers. But he didn’t comment on it, just kept his eyes on mine.

He was the same, yet irreversibly different. We both were.

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