Page 191 of Once Upon a Fable

“Enough!” Reaching for the ivy-covered wall, sickly sweat ran down my spine. My other hand held the leash, jerking her to me for good measure.

“Oomph.” She tripped, landing on her ass as the pressure around her ankle swiped her clean off her feet.

“Stay down there.” I breathed hard, closing my eyes as the world continued to spin. “You’re going to help me. You don’t have a choice. Let me just...figure this shit out. We need to start today. Right now. Before it’s too late.”

“I’m not going to argue with you because that will never happen. We both know you’re in no condition to garden.”

“Shut it.”

“I know this isn’t you, by the way,” she muttered from the dirt. “I didn’t trick information out of you while you were sleeping, but you were more talkative than usual. You were nice to me—when you weren’t trying to kill me, of course. You were...kind.”

Nausea continued to squeeze my throat. I opened my eyes and looked down. She sat almost elegantly, with her hands looped around her knees and bare feet planted on the earth. She still wore the maroon leggings I’d dressed her in back at her car along with a black shirt I’m guessing she’d stolen from a wardrobe.

Her eyes flashed green and brown, earthy and honest, open and true. “You kissed me.” Her hand danced to her lips, touching them gently. “It was one of the best kisses I’ve ever had.”

I froze, all thoughts of gardening vanished as insane jealousy poured through me. She spoke of that kisser as someone she missed, someone she preferred. It didn’t matter that kisser was me. I had no memory of it. No recollection of whatever desire she’d manipulated in her favor.

Anger made me spiteful. “So, for all your persuasions that I can trust you, it turns out you’re just like them, after all.”

“What?” She blanched. “How could you—”

“You used me against my will. Against my knowledge. Did you fuck me, too? Did you strip me, touch me, ride me, all while telling yourself that I was awake; therefore, I must want it?”

An explosive cough shot from her mouth. I’d never witnessed a face switch from willing conversation to black with loathing. “Wow, you truly are a bastard.”

I shrugged. “Only to those who have no respect for people’s boundaries.”

“I do respect your boundaries!”

“No.” I pinched the bridge of my nose, cursing the ache, the pulse, the pain. “You don’t. Case in point.” I waved at my raided crops.

“How can you say that? After all the time I spent nursing you?” She spluttered and added, “And don’t forget thatyou’rethe one who fuckedmeafter chasing after me! You could’ve just let me go and returned to your perfect little life.” Her cheeks blazed with temper. “But you didn’t, did you? You ran after me, you attacked me, you threw me to the ground, and tookeverythingfrom me—”

“Itook everything?” I punched myself in the chest with my good arm, gobsmacked at her faulty memory. “I seem to remember you grabbed me first. Your hands were wrapped so tight around my cock and balls, it seemed as if they already belonged to you.”

“I was trying to defend myself from you strangling me! Which seems to be a favorite pastime of yours, by the way!”

“I was trying to stop you from doing anything reckless!”

“Reckless? Like run away from a madman, you mean?”

I swallowed back the bile trying to claw up my throat. “Are you saying you didn’t fuck me back that night?”

Her mouth opened and closed. She made a noise in the back of her throat, denial followed by shame. Finally, she tipped up her chin and stared me dead in the eyes. “I won’t because that would be a lie. We both wanted it. We both admitted things happened outside our control. And not just...physical things.” She held up her hand when I went to interrupt. “If I can be honest about that, then you can. We bothfeltsomething. I can’t believe I’m about to admit this after what you’ve just done to me...” She stared pointedly at the leash around her ankle, then back to my eyes. “But Istillfeel it. I stayed because I feel it. I waited until you were awake so I could go and get help.” Shifting from her ass to her knees, she didn’t pray at my feet, but she did implore, allowing urgency and vulnerability to etch her beautiful face, kneeling in the sunshine, hair glittering like gold, eyes full of understanding that I couldn’t tolerate. “You’re awake now. You can move without falling, which means you can feed yourself. Let me go. Untie me, and I give you a vow on my brother’s life, onmylife, that I will run as fast as I can and return with transport to take you to the hospital.”

“Hospital?” I reared back, bashing into the wall behind me. “Why the hell would I go to a hospital?”

Her forehead furrowed. “Because you’re hurt. You...” She coughed delicately. “There’s no easy way to say this, Ka—” She pursed her lips, cutting off my name before she could finish.

Wise girl.

How did she get that out of me, anyhow?

What sort of delusion was I in when she’d pulled a fundamental piece out of my control?

At least, she’d learned quickly that she hadn’t earned the right to use it. Until she did, that name was off-limits to her. Perhaps my previous outburst had scared her, or she’d learned other things about me from my nightmares. Either way, she didn’t need to know I didn’t actually care about that name at all.

Yes, it came with suitcases of fucking baggage, and yes, it’d been screamed at me, yelled at me, whispered and moaned at me. It’d been murmured with tears and groaned with grotesque pleasure.