Page 237 of Once Upon a Fable

Christ, I’d do a hell of a lot more than just self-harm.

“Shit, Gemma!” I ducked under the water and swam until my entire body burned. I grabbed the shore and hauled myself up, ignoring my staggers, my injuries, my goddamn concussion and fell to my knees beside her.

I went to shake her, to snap her awake, but at the last second, I froze.

If she was dead...God—

I pulled back, hesitant to discover my worst nightmare. Staying back, I reached shaking fingers, softly, reluctantly.

“Gemma...” I grazed her cheek, dripping wet beside her.

Nothing.

Gritting my teeth, I dropped my unwilling fingers to her throat. Her skin was mottled from my strangulation. I snarled as I waited for her pulse.

Please. Fucking, please!

There.

Thud-thud, thud-thud.

Not faint, not flickering. Strong and bold and the entire embodiment of the brave girl who continued to fight me head on.

I collapsed, giving in to the swirling pain inside my skull.

Thank God.

Just asleep.

She’s just asleep.

Why she hadn’t woken and why she lay so disturbingly still didn’t matter. If she was half as exhausted as I was from the past month of existing together, I could understand her body had finally reached its limit.

I was very familiar with that limit.

I’d reached it multiple times over the years when trying to prepare for winter all by myself. I’d reached it while living at Fables and having to serve for fourteen hours straight. Sleep wasn’t a luxury when you were worked to the bone and terrified to your core. Sleep was a necessity that could only be ignored for so long before it snatched you anyway.

Slowly, my panic receded and I lay on my back, soaking in the sun, grateful for the heat and comfort. Funny, that I’d lay on this embankment a thousand times over the past eleven years, yet this was the first time I’d felt...safe.

Some days, I’d spend all day here, just watching the clouds scatter and letting dozy oblivion keep all my memories locked away. Sometimes, I even found true peace. I could breathe better out here. I could relax instead of staying on my guard inside that prison turned home. Yet, no matter how many birds came to investigate my prone form or wildlife slinked out of the grasses to sniff me after I’d been still for hours on end, I’d never felt so content.

The only difference between this autumn afternoon and all the rest, washer.

Gemma Ashford who slept so silently and still beside me. Whose mind was currently unattainable and her body so bare and blisteringly beautiful. The girl who somehow managed to give me slivers of happiness inside my eternal hell.

I sighed.

My body relaxed.

My cock remained hard, my belly tight with desire. It would’ve been a physical impossibility to lie beside her nakedness and not want her. But in the companionable silence between us, the peace she gave me was infinitely more precious. A peace that was so damn rare. A peace that I’d never tasted before.

It was different to sleeping beside my family in the dormitory.

Different to sleeping on my own.

Sleeping beside her was like being gifted her trust even while I knew I could never earn it. The pressure in my chest increased with something I couldn’t name, followed by black fear that she’d wake and figure out shewas still unbound and leave.

As much as my thoughts had softened and I was suffering new emotions I would never confess to her, I was still far too selfish to let her go.