Page 86 of Taken By Touch and Torment

“You really need to sleep,” Rune said. “This castle is the safest place you could be.”

“I want to know what happened,” I whispered, my voice scratchy and raw. “When did you decide you loved me again?”

Like parting clouds, Rune’s shadows loosened, and his eyes filled with heavier emotion than I’d ever seen in them. That vulnerable, deep pain that he could reveal only to me—the humanity that terrified him and cracked him wide open.

“I never stopped, Scarlett,” he said. “And I tried, believe me.” He slowly traced the side of my face, his lip twitching. “I was hurt. I thought that you were an enemy plant who didn’t truly love me. I was angry with you, but with myself most of all. Because even if I knew you were a beautiful delusion, I still couldn’t cut you out of me no matter how deeply I dug.”

“You didn’t even give me a chance,” I whispered. “You believed a false version of reality so easily, after everything we both felt, after I gave all of myself to you. After you promised me forever.”

“You didn’t feel real,” Rune said. “You never have. None of it’s an excuse. I fucking hate myself for what I did to you and what happened because of it.”

Rune had never felt real to me either. It had been just as easy for me to believe that he hated me, that I was a parasite and our love had been fabricated all along. We’d each succumbed to our own worst fears about ourselves and what we deserved from this world.

“I failed to protect the woman that I love, and I will never be able to forgive myself for that. I certainly don’t expect you to forgive me.”

I slowly reached my own hand out to trace his sharp jaw. Rune closed his hand over mine as it rested on the side of his face.

My lips wobbled as I smiled. “Always with the melodrama.”

Rune stared at me blankly for two long seconds. He rolled his eyes, though his lips curved. He gently thumbed away one of my stray tears. “We don’t have to hash it all out tonight. You should sleep.”

I opened my mouth to say more, but Rune twirled his finger for me to turn over. I was too tired to fight him. I wasn’t sure I even had the ability to put together another coherent sentence. I shifted so that my back was to his chest, his arms and shadow limbs locking around me. I deeply exhaled. I forgot about my body. I forgot about my broken heart.

I remembered how it felt to be safe.

I remembered how it felt to be Rune’s.

35

SCARLETT

Islept dreamlessly, bathed in darkness. When I awoke, my body was tight and sunken into the mattress, and I was held in a snug embrace. When I caught sight of Rune’s shadow tattoos, I screamed.

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Rune said, stroking my hair. “You’re safe. I would never hurt you.”

I cursed, cringing as my heart hammered violently. “Instinct. I’m s—” I stopped myself before I apologized again.

“Good girl,” Rune praised. “You could stab me a few times, and you still wouldn’t need to apologize.”

“How many times are permitted, exactly?” I turned over, silently yelling at my body to stop trembling. Sunlight managed to leak through a gap in the dark curtains, and I wondered how late in the day it was.

“Let’s start with one and see how we feel after.”

“That seems fair.”

Rune pulled me into his chest and kissed the top of my head. “It’s humiliating how much I missed you.”

“Good.”

Rune chuckled, the sound of it rumbling through both of us. My cheek was smooshed against his chest. He was in a black short-sleeved shirt; he must’ve shed a layer while I slept. When I realized I’d stopped shaking and had relaxed against him, something inside me melted.

And when he pulled back to study my face, I knew he felt the same relief. “Do you still want me here?”

I nodded. “But I need to shower. You’re kind not to mention my current… scent.”

Rune lifted a brow. “Fucking intoxicating and divine?”

I squirmed. “You don’t have to lie or treat me differently because of what happened. I’d prefer you didn’t.”

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