Page 408 of Once Upon a Fable

Wherever Jareth was now, he must’ve successfully poured liquor through each room, giving the fire a perfect path to destroy.

Everything was burning.

All of it.

Every decadent, monstrous inch wasburning.

“Kas, please!” I pulled again as another explosion shuddered the house.

Rubble fell over our heads, marble cracked, the painting of the valley fell off the wall and crashed onto the floor.

It snapped Kas out of wherever his mind had taken him.

He stood strong, he blinked with awareness, he grabbed my arm and ran.

He ran with me trailing him like a kite, pulling me out the front door, making me fly with his speed beneath a new moon and stars. My backpack bounced, and my legs tripped trying to keep up, but Kas never let me go.

He was inhuman in strength and stamina as we raced through the gardens, only slowing when we were far enough away not to be harmed by shrapnel.

Another explosion boomed.

Kas slammed to a stop and turned, breathing hard, coughing harder. Letting me go, he braced his hands on his knees, sucking in as much fresh oxygen as he could while his face glowed with fire from Fables.

I gasped as I looked behind us at the once ivy-covered, secret-shrouded camouflaged house.

It was no longer part of the landscape with its leaf-filled gutters and wildflower-dotted roof. It was ablaze. A beacon to anyone miles away that something awful happened here. Something that went on for far too long, hurt far too many children, and only now paid for its crimes.

Wiping away my stinging tears, I tried to focus and imprint the sight of Fables to memory as windows on the second floor exploded in a shower of glittering glass, letting furious flames dance up the windowsills and into the night. The fire flickered out the front door, letting us know that the library was devoured, the games room, the dining room, all the books, the plants, the tapestries—

All of it is burning.

“Fuck, Jareth...where are you?” Kas wiped his mouth, leaving a streak of black soot. He stepped toward the fire, only for me to place a hand on his arm and stop him.

“He’s fine,” I croaked, swallowing the grotesque taste of smoke.

“He might’ve gotten stuck. He could’ve fallen or—”

“He’ll be okay.” I balled my other hand with animosity toward Jareth.

Even now, even while watching his entire home buckle beneathroaring fire, Kas was more worried about his blood-adopted brother than his own future.

That was what Jareth hadn’t understood.

He’d thought he was doing Kas a favor by destroying something that had once been a prison. Yet he hadn’t seen what I had.

Yes, Kas stayed because of his amnesia and lack of ease around society.

Yes, Fables had allowed him to sink into his mind and slowly suffocate beneath unresolved horrors.

But he’d also stayed forthem.

He’d stayed to protect his family from ever being hurt again. He’d stayed because he felt closer to them in a home they’d shared than somewhere else far, far away. He stayed because he was loyal to the end. Loyal even if it meant he’d gone slowly insane.

Dropping my hand down his arm, I slinked my fingers between his.

He looked at me, his lips twitching into a bewildered half-smile. “How the fuck did this go so wrong so quickly?”

I shrugged, squeezing his hand. I wanted to say something wise and comforting, but I had nothing. Instead, I forced a low laugh, saying, “Jareth happened.”