Page 348 of Once Upon a Fable

I left before she could argue.

I broke into a run, crashing off a wall, struggling to stay standing through my horror.

Wrenching open the front door, I bolted from Fables, from her, and myself.

I didn’t stop running.

CHAPTER FORTY

I RAN.

Barefoot and dressed in a nightgown and hoodie, I ran as if the hounds of hell were on my heels.

“Kas!”

What the hell happened?

Why on earth had he left like that?

“Kas!” I ran harder, leaping over long grass, flinching as debris hurt my soles.

Nothing.

No sound of him.

No sight of him.

Just an empty, pitch-black night.

Slamming to a stop, I planted my hands on my knees and sucked in air. I tried to calm my galloping heart and rapidly building fear.

Where had he gone?

Why had he run?

“Kas! Where the hell are you?”

Holding my breath to listen better, I closed my eyes for sounds of his footsteps. The only thing that came back were the low rush of the river, the soft scurryings of animals, and the crushing hushness of darkness.

I pushed off again, jogging into shadows, doing my best to see the track we’d used to walk to the river when I’d helped him with the hydro generator.

Not that I’d helped him that day.

But maybe tonight? Perhaps tonight, I could finally help him.

He’d remembered something, I was sure of it.

He’d been on the brink.

He’d pushed me away because something had changed inside him.

I’d felt it.

And if I didn’t find him tonight—if I didn’tpush...then it was over.

I didn’t know how I knew that, but it wasn’t false or fancy. I had a soul-deep conviction that Kas had reached a point of no return. He’d touched me as if he was saying goodbye, all while he bound me to him forever. He’d been full of inconsistency and defiance.

I would’ve given anything for him to speak to me.