Page 493 of Once Upon a Fable
Ever.
Because Gem wouldn’t allow it.
Iwouldn’t allow it.
We made our own rules because we were together and had each other’s backs for the rest of our lives.
Wow.
It was like a massive boulder rolled off my back.
Air had never tasted so sweet, even laced with perfume and cologne, slipping into my lungs and stealing some of the darkness still inside me.
I studied the crowd in a new light. Sure, there might be some monsters in there, mingling with innocents, taking advantage, and plotting ruin, but that didn’t mean I would be theirs.
They couldn’t come and touch me without my permission.
I wouldn’t be forced to stand there while they took liberties that made me want to die.
Only Gemma could touch me because I’d given her that right, all while taking my own rights over her.
“Kas?” Gemma asked quietly, looking over her shoulder at me. “Everything okay?”
A broad smile broke out over my face.
Fuck yes, things were okay.
I’d finally accepted what I’d been trying to tell myself all along.
I wasn’t a scrawny kid anymore.
I wasn’t some amnesiac animal from the valley.
I was a man who fully deserved to be beside the woman he loved and had a power that no one could steal again.
Wrapping my arms around her from behind, I pulled her close, held out my hand, and waited for Tony to shake.
Gemma froze.
I shivered just a little.
Tony frowned and glanced at my palm before he slowly grinned and placed his into mine.
Dry and papery, cool and strong.
Our fingers wrapped around each other.
Parts of my psyche crashed and scurried in my head, screaming for mercy, begging not to be hurt. While the new side of me, the part that recognized I didn’t have to put up with pain anymore breathed a huge sigh of relief.
I can do this.
See, I’m fucking doing it.
Gemma sucked in a breath as Tony and I let go, our hands falling to our sides, our gazes catching. I waited for some residue of fear. Some ghost to whisper in my head. Some phantom pain to torment me.
But nothing.
He was just a man.
