Page 467 of Once Upon a Fable

Yet...I couldn’t shake the memories that struck the moment I fell unconscious.

Gem had been undeniably patient with me. She didn’t ask me to sleep with her, even on the nights where we ended up in her bed after enjoying rather aggressive sex. Those nights were the hardest to banish myself to the couch when all I wanted to do was stay curled up around her.

I’d changed a lot in the past few weeks.

I’d read new books, learned how to exist outside the valley, and became acquainted with pieces of myself I’d never really met.

Gradually, the sex Gemma and I shared evolved too. I would never be fully tame when it came to physical gratification, and I still couldn’t touch myself any longer than a few seconds, but we shared a range of pleasures these days.

Aggressive and explosive, along with slow and meaningful. The firsttime we’d had gentle sex, we’d both fought to get closer. To touch everywhere at once, to kiss and drown in each other’s taste. But I forced myself to stay gentle, to fight the anger inside me, and justbe.

That night was the first night I’d had a dream instead of a nightmare.

A dream of Gem. Of us. Of our simple, stress-free life together.

As far as our lives were going, they were pretty fucking amazing.

Yes, it remained just the two of us—apart from the regular pop-ins by Joshua and her mother. And yes, I felt the beginnings of a panic attack at the thought of going somewhere crowded, but I was no longer the Fable kid or the monster from the valley.

I was...Kas.

Gem’s fiancé, recovering slave, and a guy who’d finally accepted that freedom didn’t have to mean leaping into the world straight away. I didn’t have to be comfortable with music festivals and noisy restaurants. For now, we were in our own version of normal. And that was more than okay.

Lately, even my headache didn’t seem quite so bad. Whiteness didn’t flicker as often, and I felt...stable.

Stable in my love for Gem and her love for me.

Stable in my mental and physical safety.

I still thought about my family and what sort of pain they were enduring. I worried about Jareth and his bloody mission. I felt guilty and useless, but I also felt grateful.

Grateful to be stable, sane...normal.

And the faster I was normal, the sooner I could do something meaningful and try to help—not just my family but so many other kids who’d been trafficked, abused, and stolen.

As the days passed and I improved, Gemma returned to her usual routine that’d been neglected since she’d found me. She returned to work, going to her local climbing gym and filming technical videos to post on her channel.

Those evenings were my favorite. We’d go to her gym when no one else was around, I’d sit and watch her scale walls so effortlessly, we’d go home, have sex the moment we slammed the door, and then curl up together. Me reading a book, her editing raw content, adding voice-over, music, and teaching me how to upload, surf online, and do a bunch of stuff I never imagined was possible.

I’d always loved books and the knowledge they gave. But her laptop? Fuck me, it was as if I had the entire world at my fingertips without ever leaving her home.

After I’d accompanied her to the gym a few times, she invited me to go with her to the supermarket. To see all the cans, cartons, and jars full of food I used to have in the valley before I’d run out.

However, I’d declined. In all honesty, I wasn’t quite ready. Her house had become a sanctuary to me. The online stuff was helping me figure out my place in this new existence.

I was doing good.

I hadn’t had a relapse where I became a danger to her, and the longer Istayed sane without flashbacks or panic attacks, the less inclined I was to upset my new balance.

The only other outing I’d done with her had been to a local plant nursery. It’d given me a headache that lasted for days afterward, sending my heart rate sky high and my protective instincts into overdrive. The sales assistant had smiled a bit too friendly at Gemma. He’d stood too close. He’d laughed too loud at her replies to his gardening questions.

I’d wanted to plant my fist in his face.

By the time we’d arrived home and unloaded the trays of seedlings Gem had purchased, I had better control over myself. But it didn’t stop me from snatching her around the waist and carrying her into the house.

My sudden need for her came from stark fear of losing her.

My aggression as I ripped off her jeans, bent her over the couch arm, and slammed inside her was my way of assuring myself she was still here, still safe, still mine.