Page 286 of Once Upon a Fable

“Gemma, I...” He sighed. “I give you my vow; I won’t hurt you. I don’t have any way of proving that vow, and I understand if you don’t believe me, but...” He swallowed and added almost shyly. “I care for you, so please...let me try to show you.”

I hugged myself as my heart grew so big it crushed against my ribs. His openness and honesty made dangerous things bubble inside me. All those questions I’d swallowed, all those subjects I daren’t chase, clambered for freedom.

Could I ask?

Would he answer?

“On one condition,” I whispered.

He flinched but nodded. “What’s the condition?”

I paused, gathering up more courage from the stars twinkling in the dark. “That you talk to me.”

“Talk?” He frowned.

“That you tell me about...” I pushed toward him, settling with my back in front of him. “Your family. Why you’re alone. What they did to you. Why you never left.”

I felt him tense behind me, but I didn’t look back. This was his choice. He had to know how poignant this moment was. If he chose to give me those pieces of himself, then...we would never go back to what we’d been.

We’d be friends.

We’d bemore.

There’s no going back, Kas.

If you speak to me, I won’t stand a chance against you.

Give me your past, and that’s it. You’ll have a champion in me forever. You’ll never be alone. You’ll be loved and—

“Okay,” he breathed, almost choking on the word. “I’ll try.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

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I’D AGREED TO DO something I didn’t know if I had the strength to deliver.

Terror siphoned through me. I didn’t want to hear her first question. I needed time. I needed distance and space, and why the fuck was the night suddenly burning up with connection? Why couldn’t I breathe without her scent flowing into my lungs? Why couldn’t I look at her without my entire body hardening?

It took fucking everything not to give in to the screaming in my heart and take her.

She’s mine.

I wanted so fucking much to believe that, todeservethat.

But if I told her what I was, what I’d done, it would be over.

Panic made my thoughts scramble.

I was right when I’d believed I was schizophrenic.

I was even more sure now.

That was why my mind sought emptiness in brief flashes. Why one moment, I wanted to be vulnerable and open with her, and the next, I wanted to shove her away from me and keep her tied up in the dark.

I couldn’t cope, and all these steps toward boundaries I wasn’t brave enough to cross were pushing me into sporadic forgetfulness.

Fuck, I was weak.