Page 499 of Once Upon a Fable

God, please let him be okay.

Tony sat beside me on the curb outside the hotel where the gala had been dispersed. We were the only ones left. Others had offered to help search. Those who’d recorded the interaction between Tony and Kas tried to offer opinions on what’d happened. While others lurked around for the hell of it.

Tony had been the one to get rid of them all, and he’d not left my side since, patrolling the hotel grounds before taking me around town in his SUV, unsuccessfully hunting Kas.

We’d gone everywhere we could think of. We’d estimated how farKas could’ve run.

And now, we had no other plans. Slumped and weary, we were left wondering how the night had gone so wrong.

Slouching over his knees, Tony sank his hands through his salt and pepper hair. “I don’t know what I was thinking when I hugged him. I know how flighty recovering victims are. I’ve tried to hug Isabella, only to understand that having a man in her personal space is the last thing she needs—even if I am her father.”

Tony irked me using the words flighty and victims.

They weren’t flighty—they were wary. And they weren’t victims—they’re survivors.

But I appreciated his heart was in the right place, and he’d had a rough time the past month, too. Patting his knee, I smiled sadly as his tears came again. “I’m truly so sorry, Gemma. I’ve made this so much worse.”

“Enough apologies, Tony. Go home to your wife and daughter.”

He shook his head quickly. “No way. I’ll help you find Kas. It’s my fault he ran off. I should never have opened my big mouth. I hadn’t planned on saying any of that. It just...” He shrugged with a heartbreaking sniff. “I wasn’t prepared for the level of gratitude I’d feel when I met him. Knowing he looked after my little girl. Hearing from her own lips that Kas took most of the rapes—” He choked and wiped his mouth. “Fucking hell, I want tokill them all.”

“Don’t worry. I’m sure they’ll get what’s coming to them.” My voice was icy with knowledge and pride. I couldn’t tell Tony that the men and women who’d hurt Quell—I mean Isabella—when she was with Kas were now just a pile of forgotten bones, and I definitely couldn’t tell him that the more recent perpetrators were most likely strewn across some expensive carpet with their throats slit and entrails yanked out if Jareth had been the one to save her.

Just how much bloodshed had Jareth rained since we last saw him, painted in flame and tobacco smoke?

I shivered as the night chill settled over me. I peered into the darkness of the trees just past the hotel parking lot. I’d been grateful when we’d first pulled up here tonight. I figured it was an almost serendipitous location that the gala was being hosted outside the city, on the border where civilization met trees. I’d hoped it would help Kas feel less trapped. That we could go for a walk in the forest if it became too much for him before returning to the crowds and impressing enough key players to support a channel that would bring awareness and help to those who needed it.

But that was all over now.

Everyone had seen how Kas shoved Tony down. For a split second, I’d believed he was going to kill him. It honestly wouldn’t have surprised me if Kas had reached down and strangled him after the hug Tony had so stupidly given him. A hug while telling him about Quell, her trauma, and the real reasons we’d ended up invited to such a ritzy gala.

It’d been too much, too soon.

I was at fault for this too.

Ah, Kas. Where are you?

I looked at the clear sky, twinkling stars, and almost full moon.

It was cold tonight. If he slept outside, would he be warm enough in his tux? Was he even still wearing it? Or had he stripped naked, turned his back on his own species, and vanished?

Tears threatened again, but I swallowed them back.

I’d cried enough.

My tears hadn’t brought Kas back before, and they wouldn’t bring him back now.

With a bone-weary sigh, I stood and offered my hand to pull Tony to his feet. He took it, swaying a little as he righted.

“It’s almost midnight.” I cleared my throat. “Go home to your family, Tony.”

He shook his head again. “I won’t leave you. This is my mess—”

“I want you to go.” I crossed my arms, hugging myself against the cold. “Truly. Ineedyou to go because he might not approach me if you’re still here. I have no idea what state of mind he’s in. It’s best for everyone if you’re not around me when he returns.”

“Willhe return?”

I straightened my spine, lying, “Of course. I have no doubt he’ll seek me out once he’s in a better headspace.”