Page 528 of Once Upon a Fable

Not even Gem as she went to stand next to Tony, their eyes trained on us on the grass.

Only Quell.

Isabella.

We stared at each other for an eternity.

Whispers crawled through my head. Images of her bloody and crying. Memories of us curled up in the corner. Recollections of me sneaking her food when she’d been punished.

I’d done my best to protect her, but it hadn’t been enough.

I’d used my body as her shield, yet her own still bore scars that I hadn’t been able to stop.

My eyes dropped from hers to her bare forearms and the silvery lead tattoos that matched the fine lines on my own arm. Unlike mine, she had a word. A three-letter talisman that I’d done my best to live up to and failed.

My name had been with her the entire time she’d been missing from me. It’d been on her skin every rape she’d endured when I wasn’t there. Every night she’d been hungry. Every day she’d curled up in a corner on her own.

Fuck.

My heart cracked.

Fang howled beside me.

And tears flowed hotly down my cheeks.

She reached for me.

Our arms flew around each other, and we did what we’d done as kids. We curled into each other, finding sanctuary in one another. We blocked out the outside world, returning to the only safety we had. The short-lived, fragile protection we found in each other’s arms.

All our coping mechanisms. All our distrust and terror wrapped us up, and we rocked together.

We hugged so damn hard.

Tears mingling.

Pasts blending.

A reunion I didn’t think we’d ever have.

She sobbed in my arms.

“Make it stop, Kas. Don’t let them touch me anymore.”

“I’m trying, Quell. I’ll do better next time.”

“I’m sorry you have to hurt for us.”

“Don’t be. I’ll gladly be hurt if it saves you.”

A panic attack unfurled in my chest, making it hard to breathe as darkness descended and I fell back, back—

Fang licked my face, his whine bleeding through the crashing memories inside me. He howled again as my mind struggled in darker places, returning to Fables, slipping back into the dorm, remembering things I’d worked through, let go of, and willingly put to rest.

“I want them to die. All of them.”

“They will,” I vowed. “I’ll do it myself. You’ll see.”

“And then we’ll be free?”