Page 353 of Once Upon a Fable
I swallowed hard. “I don’t...whoareyou?”
He stood taller, cricking his neck and never taking his eyes off me. “I think the more important question is who the hell areyou?” His knees bent, giving me a one-second warning.
My body braced to run.
I wasn’t fast enough.
He launched forward, catching me mid-flight.
His hand latched around my arm, squeezing painfully. Dragging me against his powerful body, he bent me back as his face pressed close to mine. “Time for a little chat, don’t you think? And if I don’t like your answers? Well, tonight seems like a perfect time for you to die.”
BOOK THREE
––––––––
PROLOGUE
––––––––
STICKS AND STONES MIGHT BREAK my bones, but words will never hurt me.
I’d first heard that chant from Wes a few weeks into our captivity. He’d whisper it in bed, hidden in the dark, his voice barely audible in the heavy silence. I’d follow along, repeating it silently in my mind, changing the words to fit my current level of hell.
Cuffs and chains might steal my freedom, but they will never own me.
Some nights, I’d twist the chant into whatever nightmare I’d lived through that day. I’d ball my hands and hiss at the night, trembling with pain and rage. Sometimes they’d rhyme, sometimes they wouldn’t. Sometimes other Fable kids would join in, but most of the time, it was just Wes and me, muttering the words like a vow of retribution.
It was one of the many things we turned to in order to survive.
A way of reminding ourselves that this couldn’t last forever.
Either death or escape would eventually save us, and I built my entire existence on those two possibilities. Even while living alone, I still trusted in those two inevitabilities.
Untilshearrived.
A trespassing girl with a heart of fucking gold who showed me a third possibility.
One that successfully shattered me into irreparable pieces.
Love.
Death, freedom, or...love.
It wasn’t physical or mental abuse that destroyed me but her.
Her selflessness and her strength.
Her drive to save me from myself.
She pushed me until I cracked.
Perhaps I’d die striving to be worthy of her.
Or maybe...maybe I’d finally find a way tolive.
Kindness and kisses might’ve destroyed me, but she...she might finally set me free.
CHAPTER ONE
