Page 259 of Once Upon a Fable

I fought for him.

Because no one else ever had.

“Kas...look at me.Seeme.” I dug my fingers into his scruff, latching my nails into his soul and dragging him back from ghosts and demons.

He blinked.

I whispered, “Please...see me.”

And then, the world imploded.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

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SOMETHING WASN’T RIGHT.

Something was...wrong.

So very fucking wrong.

But even as my mind tried to understand, my body was too far gone. Too drunk on lust and full of desperate frustration to finish. My hips continued working against my control, chasing that ever-elusive release.

Ihadto come.

I had to feel happiness.

Didn’t she see?

Couldn’t they give me that tiny shred of joy before they took everything else from me?

“Kas...look at me.Seeme.” Trembling hands cupped my cheeks, warm and gentle, so different from how others touched me.

I blinked.

“Please...see me,” she murmured, sounding so sweet and so, so far away.

I blinked again.

I slowed.

I tried to see.

And slowly, the black fog lifted.

Snow flurries and blood-soaked carpets vanished, incinerating like pieces of paper chewed up by the fire.

And then, I saw clearly.

And I gagged.

I retched.

I died.

“Oh,fuck!FUCK!” I jack-knifed up and withdrew. I skidded back so fast, I fell on my ass and sent a lance of agony through my broken arm.

That was why I had that contraption around my forearm. Why I was hurting in places that hadn’t been touched in my nightmare. Why I suddenly realized how badly I’d messed up.