Page 314 of Once Upon a Fable

Nope.

The shutters came down. The memory flickered out.

And I was left panting, holding the book as my gaze fell on something that explained my current circumstances and left me doomed all over again.

Severe concussion:

Can last for days, weeks or even longer. Common symptoms after a concussive traumatic brain injury are headache, blurred vision, dizziness, nausea, and loss of memory (amnesia). The amnesia usually involves forgetting the event that caused the concussion, sequences following after it, and sporadic deletion of day to day life.

I stopped breathing, snapping the page over, searching for a cure or at the very least a time frame on how long I’d have to deal with this shit.

But nothing.

Just a stupid footnote that the patient should see a qualified practitioner and be prepared for up to a few years of rehab.

Years?

Years!?

I threw the book at the fucking wall and howled.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

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HIS HOWL TORE RIGHT through me.

I flinched on the couch in the games room, gripping my hands together between my legs, staring at the many animal skins and chessboards with tears in my eyes.

He sounded absolutely wretched.

God, I’m sorry.

He howled again, reminding me of the night in my tent when I’d heard an animal suffering. It wasn’t an animal that night.It was him. I’d heard Kas that night and somehow, without even knowing it, I’d been searching for him to put him out of his misery ever since.

I’d found him.

Yet I’d only increased his misery.

I hugged myself, rocking on the couch.

My heart pounded with pain. I was too bruised to even cry. Goosebumps prickled down my spine each time I thought about last night. How incredible it’d been to be touched by him, kissed by him, wanted and adored and appreciated by him.

But now...all of that is gone.

He’d proven that very eloquently.

He had no memory. None. Zip. Not a spec.

I alone had the precious recollection of how it’d felt to lie with him in hot water and know I’d found the one person I belonged to.

I was lucky, I supposed.

Lucky to haveuswhen Kas was back to thinking we were enemies.

I’m not your enemy, Kas.

Never again.