Page 176 of Once Upon a Fable

I didn’t stand a chance against him physically. I knew that.

My only hope was to stay immune to him. To ignore my moronic heart and guard myself against the multiple pieces of him all scrambling for salvation.

I stiffened in his arms, calculating how best to untangle myself from his hot embrace.

Only, he felt me shift. He groaned sleepily, nuzzling into my hair again. “You want to leave me, too?”

I swallowed hard. If he was falling asleep again, I ran the risk of a different Kas waking up. “We left dinner across the room...I’ll-I’ll go fetch it.”

“I’m not hungry.” He kissed my neck, sending shivers down my spine. “Stay. Please...don’t go.”

My stomach knotted in pain. “I’m not leaving. I’ll just—”

“I’m happy with you in my arms. I’ve never felt so...calm. Stay. Just a little longer.”

The knot in my belly twisted into barbwire. Once again, he imprisoned me with brutal honesty and a voice layered with loss.

Closing my eyes, I squeezed back tears.

“Say you won’t go. Not yet.” He inched closer, flushing our bodies tight together. “I don’t want this to end.”

I thought of my brother and how distraught I’d be if Josh ever suffered what Kas had. I thought of Kas’s family, none the wiser to his torture—most likely thinking their son was dead after so many years.

I thought of the decade he’d been alone with no one to speak to, to touch, to hold.

And it was no longer a choice to stay or to go.

My body relaxed in his comforting cocoon. Exhaustion crept over me, gleefully sucking me into darkness now that I’d finally stopped fighting. Clouds entered my mind, foggy delirium from the past nine days of doing my best to keep him alive, all while surviving the madness of this forgotten house, popping like iridescent bubbles.

“I’ll stay.” I yawned. “I’ll grant whatever happiness I can.”

He didn’t reply.

His breathing leveled with sleep, soft and even. His arms loosened around me.

I stupidly snuggled closer.

I felt safe.

Protected.

Wanted.

For one night only, we were friends who fell into happy dreams together.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

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COMING BACK TO LIFE had a strange texture.

Awareness came over me gradually. The return of sight as I blinked and looked around the dawn-glowing library. A chair that looked big enough to be a throne pushed against the many shelves housing fictional classics and non-fictional manuals. Blankets strewn on the thick carpet, creating mayhem in orderly perfection.

The room was familiar.

The scent of leather and pages not jarring or foreign. I recognized it. Ghosts flittered in my mind’s eye. Girls and boys scurrying in the dark to borrow books. A man standing guard at all times with his whip.

I tried to focus on those ghosts, only for them to dissolve into dust.