Page 376 of Once Upon a Fable

Jareth struck again and sprang to his feet, acting as if the beating Kas had given him had miraculously healed. Backing away, he flexed his hands, looking down at Kas who didn’t get up.

Panic replaced my racing pulse. “No.” Crawling toward Kas, I felt arms hook around my waist, stopping me. I fought as Jareth pulled me back, putting distance between us and Kas who lay on his back, his arms spread, legs splayed, lips parted, and eyes closed. His long hair was crowned with leaves, his beard covered in pieces of bracken.

He didn’t open his eyes.

“What did you d-do?” I coughed, shoving Jareth off me with a burst of fury. “Let me go!”

He released me, towering over me while his blue and brown eyesstayed locked on Kas. He didn’t answer, just kept staring with a blank, harsh expression on his feral face.

Tears flowed down my cheeks as trembling hijacked my body.

How had all of this happened?

Last night had felt like a turning point. Kas had meant what he’d said. He’d been ready to step into the light and allow me to help guide him toward happiness. Yet now...now he lay in the dirt, and I sat at the feet of the man who’d knocked him out.

He saved your life.

I flinched as my gaze flickered to Jareth.

His jaw clenched as he continued looking at Kas, his fingers opening and closing. Where had he been? Did he follow us? How had he found us so quickly?

Regardless of what he’d done to Kas—possibly setting him back forever in his concussion recovery—I owed him. If he hadn’t stopped Kas from strangling me, would I still be breathing? Would Kas have stopped or would my premonition have become self-fulfilling? Proving I was right to worry that Kas, no matter his affection and desire for me, wasn’t strong enough to stop the true darkness and chaos inside him.

Jareth suddenly dropped to his haunches beside me. He made no sound. Not a breath of air, not a creak of clothing. Unlike when he’d first arrived in the valley with his leather jacket and bulky backpack—a man walking through the night—he now seemed not entirely real. A figment of some twisted imagination. A phantom that’d saved my life but might just require that life in payment.

His hand landed on my chin, pushing my head sideways as his eyes locked onto my neck.

I shoved him away, coughing slightly. “Don’t touch me.”

He sniffed and dug an index finger into the ground for balance. “There’s old bruises as well as new on your neck.”

I glowered at him, already seeing where he was going with this.

Jareth wasn’t a normal person. He wasn’t like my brother. He wasn’t like all the other men I’d met before Kas. He’d shared the blackness that Fables had given. He’d been indoctrinated into whatever nightmares Kas still lived.

Of course, he would see pain that others would not. Of course, he would know what caused that pain without needing to ask.

His voice dropped to a gruff rasp. “How many times has he tried to strangle you to death?”

I arched my chin even though it made my throat tingle with the lingering pressure of Kas’s fingers. “None of your business.”

“Oh, I think it is my business.” He cocked his head at Kas who groaned and showed signs of coming to. “He loves you. You know that, right?”

I gritted my teeth and crossed my arms. “I’m not having this conversation. Let me go tend to him. Who the hell knows what you’ve done to his head by knocking him out again. He needs help.”

“Perhaps it will knock him out of the past.” He rubbed his mouth. “Tell me something, Gemma Ashford.”

My ears pricked. How did he know my full name? Had Kas told him when I’d been warming up the pasta? I was aware they shared a past that made their brotherhood impenetrable, but Kas seemed...protective of me. I doubted he’d give up everything about me so soon.

Would he?

When I didn’t reply, Jareth continued in a cold, almost bored voice. “Why are you still here?”

I shivered.

He wasn’t the only one who would ask that question. When,if, I ever made it back to my mother and brother, I would have to answer that. I would have to be able to look people in the eyes and either lie and make Kas sound like an inescapable villain or tell the truth that I stopped trying to leave the day I fell in love with him—which made me sound weak and stupid because who the hell would fall in love with a man who kept trying to kill her?

“He loves you, but it won’t stop him from hurting you when all he can see is the past,” Jareth muttered, picking up a pinecone and throwing it deeper into the woods. “He’s always been angry. I wasn’t the only one who lay awake in our dorm and sensed his rage. It was so thick it filled that small room. It grew worse as he got older. His hatred grew bigger each time one of us was summoned, and his volunteering to take our place was refused.”