Page 198 of Once Upon a Fable
I smiled wryly. Unless my choice included forsaking my family and choosing Kas for my ever after, I was right.
There was no choice to make.
It’s okay.
He’ll be fine.
With a final hitched inhale, I stepped into the night.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
––––––––
“GOING SOMEWHERE?” I COUGHED, slouching against the doorframe leading into the kitchen.
She froze, spinning around and stumbling with the heavy inertia strapped to her back. “What are...you were...how are you awake?”
I swallowed the dryness in my mouth. She didn’t need to know I’d woken as if a bullet had been fired into my brain. I’d shot awake to an empty room with ghosts from another time haunting the pages of menacing books, and I’dknown.
How I’d known, I couldn’t explain. Perhaps it was the withdrawal of her presence, or her choice to go where I couldn’t follow. It could’ve been her backpack missing from its usual spot in the corner. Or it could’ve been the missing piece of my goddamn miserable heart.
Any of those reasons could’ve woken me in a cold sweat.
But she didn’t deserve answers like that. Answers that made me vulnerable because there she was, foot out the door, her mind already climbing the cliff to get as far away from me as possible.
Yet another betrayal.
Another whip of torture she just loved to wield.
Choosing a derogatory and impolite answer to her convoluted question, I rubbed my forearm above the splint she’d strapped to my broken arm. My voice was soft but lethal, unable to fully hide the rage burning in my veins. “I needed to piss.” Looking up through my lashes, I added, “Funny that. For the first time since you pushed me off that cliff, I was strong enough to climb out of bed without you carrying me to the bathroom, and what do I find? You skipping out on your duties.”
She shivered, her hands fumbling at the bag buckles around her waist. Excuses darted over her face. Reasons I fully understood and even commiserated with. We both knew she had a life outside of my valley. We both knew it would be prudent she returned to it before I either smothered her in my desperation or my rage.
She wasn’t safe with me.
And I wasn’t safe with her.
Too fucking bad she isn’t going anywhere.
“Well?” I clenched my jaw and pushed off from my doorway crutch. My head sloshed, and the sickness that seemed to have taken up residency in my belly roiled. With deliberate, careful steps, I crossed from my side of the kitchen to hers. “Are you going to share why you were just going to vanish? To leave without so much as a goodbye?”
She gulped. “I, eh...” Her shoulders swooped back with courage, but she couldn’t fight her natural instincts to avoid me. As she inched backward, her feet left Fables altogether, stepping into daisies and crushing their petals just like she’d crushed me. “It’s the right thing to do.”
“Is it now?” I cocked my head, my eyesight flickering. My nostrils flared as I halted in the middle of the kitchen, swaying with damn vertigo. Glancing at the mess-free countertop, I stilled.Huh. “You cleaned up.”
She nodded. “I did.”
“Why?” I scowled, hating that my face had once again given her clues about how I felt. I hadn’t even been aware she’d seen my annoyance as I’d dragged her out to the garden this afternoon. And if she had...why had she bothered to clean? It wasn’t like she cared enough to stay. It made no sense that she’d abandon me but wait long enough to return my home in a tidy condition.
Who the hell is this infuriating girl?
“Because I knew how it upset you to see how I’d left things out of order. I’m not usually so messy. I was just so worried about you to care about a few dishes.” She shrugged. “But it’s clean now. You don’t have to stare at a dirty kitchen.”
“Remind me to shield my expressions around you.”
She smiled sadly. “That’s not necessary now, though, is it.”
“Because you’re leaving.”
