Page 277 of Once Upon a Fable

Shit.

My heart spasmed painfully. I raised a hand and massaged my chest, gasping at the agony of even contemplating watching her climb out of my valley.

It’s the right thing to do.

Theonlything.

The only way to keep her safe.

Gritting my teeth, I did my best to stay quiet as Gemma slept. She’d been so selfless in her kindness tonight. She’d given me more than just her body...she’d given me something intangible, something far, far too fragile and priceless not to deserve the biggest reward in return.

Therefore, I should have the same strength to free her, right? So what did that say about me that I couldn’t?

That I physically wouldn’t be able to survive if she left. Dramatic? Probably. The truth? Absolutely.

She can’t leave.

Even knowing what I did of my unraveling mind and tendencies of harming her. Her imprisonment was for life, purely because my reasoning for trapping her kept evolving: from physical needs and believing I could take from her whenever I damn well wanted to now acknowledging that I’d started tofeel. Started to fall. Started to slip and slide, dive and drown each and every moment I was with her.

Rubbing my throbbing heart, I glared at the chain binding us as it glittered in the moonlight. Even if I physically could release her, I’d lost the key.

It was a poor excuse, but my damaged mind latched onto it with claws.

I couldn’t free her because I had no way of doing so. Therefore, keeping her was understandable, logical...necessary.

Accepting my sins, I ducked beside her and reached for her shoulder. My shadow fell over her. A sinister shape looming over an innocent, beautiful girl.

I shivered in fear. Fear of myself. Fear of my mind, my intentions, my past.

I hesitated, hovering my fingers over her delicate body.

I should let her rest. I should leave.

I should stay the hell away so I don’t—

“Kas?” Her eyes flew wide, locking onto my hand inches away from touching her.

I snatched it back, rocking on the balls of my feet as a crush of imbalance made me wobble.

Sitting upright, the silver blankets fell from her body, revealing she’d slept in the same shirt she’d worn all day. The same one she’d unbuttoned in the river when I’d dragged her in behind me. The same one she’d pilfered and wore so elegantly as she’d brandished a knife in my face—was it just this morning?—before dropping it by my feet in the conservatory.

My memory flickered, delivering a partial recollection.

“The moment I kiss you back, Kassen Sands, you’ll be at my mercy, not the other way around. Take me against my will, and I won’t just takeyour body in return. I will take your heart. I will unearth all the love that you’ve suppressed so, so deep inside you, and I will make you curse the very day you decided to trap me. Take me against my will, and I will show you what heartbreak can do to a man like you.”

I gasped, swooping to my feet with a grunt.

Fuck, was that what’d happened?

I’d taken her against her will. I’d hurt her—made her fight with fear and tears. Yet she’d somehow had the strength to touch me afterward. Toforgiveme. She’d ridden me as if shefeltsomething for me. She’d let me come inside her. She’d kissed my cheek and sent lightning bolts through my blood.

That lightning had struck my heart.

It was still smoking, still charred, and entirely lost because of what she’d made me feel.

But...how true was it?

Was this her plan all along?