Page 386 of Once Upon a Fable

Jareth turned his head and pinned me with his bi-colored eyes. “He hasn’t told you any of that, has he?”

Kas stiffened beside me. “I wasn’t ready to share.”

“And you are now?” Jareth asked, his lips tipping up in a cruel smile. “You ready to tell hereverything, Kassen? The way Storymaker had a hard-on for you even though he never stuck it in you? The way he made you watch when he’d fuck Quell—”

“Shut it—” Kas hissed.

I stepped in front of him, almost brushing my chest with Jareth’s, acting as a shield between him and Kas. “He doesn’t need to tell me. I know enough—”

Jareth rolled his eyes. “You don’t know shit.” Backing up, he drank a large mouthful from his glass before sprawling into the chair by the fireplace. He winced in pain, revealing Kas’s beating still affected him; even if he was so layered in coldness he seemed impenetrable. “See, the thing about my brother and me is...we don’t need to talk about it. He looks at me, I look at him, and we know. Most of the time, we were in the same room while shit happened.” He took another large mouthful. “Remember, Kas? Remember that time Storymaker bound us together. Our wrists together, our asses up. It was one of our first times serving together, but definitely not the last.” His eyes tightened as if he deliberately relived all the pain of that night. “We held fucking handswhile they raped—”

“Enough!” I shouted. Fear siphoned through me. If he pushed Kas too much, he’d snap. He’d black out. His mind would trip, and self-preservation would delete every topic he couldn’t handle. “Whatever you think you’re doing, stop it.” I balled my hands, defending Kas from someone I never thought would become his enemy.

What the hell was Jareth doing?

Couldn’t he see that Kas was fragile? That he needed psychiatrist help not to be forced down a monster-filled memory lane.

“You want to go there, Jareth?” Kas threw back his entire glass of alcohol, sitting on the couch behind him. “Fine.”

I spun with my mouth open. “What? No...you know what will happen.” I sat beside him, sloshing the strong-smelling liquor onto my hoodie. “You’ll black out again. You’ll—”

“It’s okay.” Kas patted my leg, squeezing me tight before reclining into cushions. He looked oddly resigned and...ready.

Oh, God.

Was he truly going to do this?

“It might trigger you again—” I rushed.

“I can guarantee most of the shit inside my head will trigger me for most of my life.” He tipped forward with his glass as Jareth shoved to his feet and poured another round, sending amber liquor right to the top.

“Then why?” I asked, shaking my head as Jareth tried to top off my own untouched drink.

“Suit yourself,” Jareth muttered under his breath, stalking back to this seat and pouring an equally generous second glass for himself. “You’ll be begging for some liquid courage once we get to the good stuff.” He winked. “It’s not your typical bedtime tale, Gemma Ashford.”

I squared my shoulders. “Then I don’t think it’s necessary. Kas can work through whatever triggers he has on his own time. We were doing fine before you came along.”

“Oh, please.” Jareth laughed hard, mocking and rude. “You weren’t doing fine. From what I gather, it’s been a monotony of him trying to strangle you—which, by the way, was Storymaker’s thing with Kas. Did he tell you that?” Jareth’s eyes shot with evil, glittering brown and blue ugliness. “Want to know the reason he has such a fascination with your elegant little neck?”

I held up my hand. “No. Not unless Kas is ready—”

“He might never be ready. Consider me doing you a favor, silly girl.” Jareth wedged his elbows onto his knees, his fingers turning white around his glass between his spread legs. “Kas was the favored one. And by favored one, I mean the most mentally fucked over.”

Sickness rushed up my throat. I held up a shaking hand, looking at Kas. “You’re seriously going to let him spill everything? All the stuff you couldn’t say to me? The past that has such a hold over you?”

Kas licked his bottom lip, his face pensive and wild. His long hair lay tangled over his shoulders. His scruff made him look more suited for living in the woods than drinking expensive alcohol in a decadentmansion, but beneath it all was a stranger.

A man I’d fallen in love with; a man I both feared and fawned over. A man who wasn’t just waking up but had woken.

His eyes met mine.

He held my stare until my heart jackhammered and my chest was too tight, and then he whispered with a wisdom I hadn’t heard in his tone before. “You asked me why? Why talk about the things that will trigger me? The things that I doubt I’ll ever forget? The things that bind me and Jareth past blood, past family, past hell itself?” He took my hand in his, his fingers cool from the glass and strong. So, so strong. “It’s simple, Gem.”

I swallowed hard as he traced my knuckles with his thumb. “Nothing about this is simple.”

“It hasn’t been. I agree.” Kas nodded. “But it is. I didn’t understand before. But it’s so fucking simple.”

“I don’t...I don’t understand.” Goosebumps ran up my arms as he let my hand go and took another drink.