Текст книги "Fable of Happiness book three"

Автор книги: Pepper winters

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“You’re white.”

“I’m afraid of what I might do if they look at you wrong. If they move too fast. If they trigger a memory that I have no control over.”

“I’ll be there.” She turned her head and kissed my wrist. “I’ll stop you from doing something that might get you into trouble.” Her eyes flashed. “And I’ll also stop anyone doing anything that you’re not comfortable with, okay? You just have to trust me.”

I searched her gaze for any lies or uncertainty.

This was her world.

I was a complete stranger here. I might look and speak like the people in this place but thanks to my seclusion, I wasn’t like them. I was different. I was fucked up. I was a menace even when I didn’t want to be.

Gem rose and kissed my lips, distracting me.

A ragged breath escaped me. For the first time since Jareth set the fire, a cloak of calmness descended, and I kissed her back. I let myself sink into her, to forget, just for a second, that I was no longer in my valley and that my entire existence was now in question.

She kissed me slowly, longingly. Her tongue slipped into my mouth, successfully switching my heart rate from manic to wanting.

My shoulders relaxed, my muscles stopped bunching, and I pulled away, resting my forehead on hers. “Thank you,” I whispered.

“We’re together, Kas. Just because we’re no longer just the two of us, we’re still together. That hasn’t changed. That will never change.”

I nodded, breathing her in. “I love you.”

She blushed and pulled away. “And I love you.” Tucking my wild, smoke-laced hair behind my ear, she stood and returned to her chair.

Inhaling heavily, I let myself just chill the fuck out. After such a rush of noise, people, and sensory overload, the peace was just as mentally shattering as the rest of the mayhem of the night.

Time passed in silence as we both waited for whatever came next.

The clock on the wall ticked the seconds, showing twenty minutes passed while we just sat and digested what’d happened.

Eventually, Gemma cleared her throat, coughing a little from the smoke. “Do you need anything? I can see about getting us some food?”

My stomach gurgled at the mention of food but the thought of her leaving me to get it? No chance. I shook my head, coughing like she had, wincing a little at the pain in my lungs. “Stay. Please.”

“Okay.” She reached over and touched my hand. “We can eat later.”

I twisted to face her, catching a whiff of soot and acrid burning. Our skin was covered in it. We needed a shower and some sleep, preferably in that order. “What are we waiting for? Are we being held for something? Are we in trouble?”

Her eyes filled with sympathy. “We’re not in trouble.”

“Even for the fire?”

“That wasn’t our fault.”

“Blame is rarely fair.”

Memories of being punished just for sneezing came and went. A cane across my shoulders. The bite of leather against my ass. I glanced at the bed in the opposite corner of the room where Gem’s backpack had been placed.

How long would they keep us here?

How much longer would I be able to stay awake?

What would happen when I finally gave into exhaustion?

Would I have a nightmare?

Would I hurt Gem in my sleep?

Would I be caught hurting her?

Fuck, she’d be taken away from me.

I’d be locked up in a different type of prison.

I’d be hurt again, trapped again, used again. I—

Ah, fucking hell—

“Hey, Kas...” Gemma leaped from her chair and came to me. Sitting on my lap, she looped her arms around my shoulders and pressed her forehead to my cheek. Just having her in my arms soothed my racing heartbeat and shoved back the blinding white light just daring me to pass out. “Nothing bad is going to happen to you. I promise.”

I wrapped my arms around her, nuzzling into her neck.

She let me hold her for a while, her pulse calming me, her warmth making me drowsy. Blinking back tiredness, I pulled away and kissed her lips. “What is going to happen? Tell me what to expect and I’ll be able to handle it better.”

She licked her lips, giving me a kind smile. “Okay, sure. I can do that.” Threading her fingers through my knotty hair, she murmured, “I’m guessing a doctor will be by shortly. That’s how hospitals work. We have to wait to be seen as many places like these are very busy and understaffed. Once he or she has checked us out—probably listened to our lungs with a stethoscope, maybe arranged for a few X-rays to make sure there isn’t any smoke damage, then we’ll either be kept here for a night of observation or we’ll be able to go home.”

I tensed. “Go home?” I laughed sarcastically. “First, I don’t have a fucking clue how to go home and second, it’s gone. Who knows what’s left standing after Jareth’s party with alcohol and flames.”

She nodded. “I know.” She kept my stare, worry flaring over her face before she said quietly, “When I said home...I meant my home.”

“Oh.” My muscles locked beneath her weight. “Yeah, of course. I knew that...” I cleared my throat. “And, eh...where is that exactly?”

“A few hours’ drive from here.” She straightened in my arms but didn’t try to leave, which I appreciated. “I’ll hire a car. You can stay with me. My place is private, even if it is in suburbia. I have a garden at the back and neighbors that stick to themselves. It’ll just be me and you, just like in the valley. You don’t have to worry about a thing, okay?”

I shivered. “Worry about what?”

Shadows filled her eyes. “I don’t know. Whatever worries normally fill your head.”

“Worries like food gathering and wood collection? How to weatherproof a mansion in time for blizzards?”

She laughed under her breath. “Nothing quite that dramatic. We have supermarkets with unlimited food. My house is kept warm by central air. The only thing you need to worry about is staying calm enough that you don’t pass out and hurt anyone.”

I opened my mouth to admit that I wasn’t so sure that was possible, but she added, “When the doctor comes, you need to tell them about your concussion too.”

“What?” My eyes flared. “No way. They’ll keep me here. They’ll—”

“They’ll what?” A male voice ripped my attention to the doorway. A young man stood in a white overcoat, a screen in his hands with a black pen hovering over it. Nodding at Gem, he stepped into the room. “Hello, you two. I hear you’ve had quite an adventure.”

My urge to protect Gem rose again, fighting against the desire to hit this man before he could grant pain. Gem patted my arm, keeping me inline before answering for both of us. “It’s definitely been a night we won’t forget.”

The man laughed, his blue eyes switching from me to Gemma, his stare calculating and shrewd.

I didn’t like him.

I wanted to strike him.

I wanted to ensure he was more afraid of me than I was of him. To let him know that I might’ve once been a toy for men to use but not anymore. I wouldn’t let anyone fuck me that way again.

My breathing sped up.

Gemma wedged her ass harder on my thigh, bringing me back to her.

I inhaled, doing my best to stay calm as the doctor grabbed a spare chair from the corner of the room, brought it closer to us, and sat down. Resting the screen-notepad thing on his lap, he crossed his legs. “Okay, start from the beginning. How are you feeling?”

Gemma fidgeted on my lap, but she still didn’t try to move.

I was grateful for that.

Having her weight on me kept me conscious and present. It made me stay with her instead of spiraling into the mess of memories, worries, and violence inside me.

My nostrils flared as Gemma said, “The beginning isn’t really important. What is important is we were in a house fire. We tried to put it out but were unsuccessful.” Her tone turned sophisticated and informative, capable and strong.

I fell a little more in love with her.

“We both might have smoke inhalation, and I have a few bruises from my career as a professional climber.” The ease in which she explained all the injuries I’d given her—willingly and unwillingly—blew my mind.

It made me doubt, just for a second, that she wasn’t still playing a game to win my heart. She seemed a proficient liar. But then her hand reached for mine and her eyes trapped me, and my heart finally took a deep breath.

She was with me.

She was mine.

It didn’t matter that all of this was shit-fucking scary. I’d once been ripped from this world and placed in a forest, and now I’d been dragged back just as brutally.

I belonged here, not in the wilderness.

I could be normal.

It would take a long time for me to be comfortable around people. To willingly talk and not want to give into the murderous rage to hurt before being hurt, but for now, I had Gemma.

She’d protect others from me, so I didn’t do something dangerous.

She would keep me sane.

I let my mind go quiet as her comforting voice told the doctor a story that took part truths, part lies, and made such a convincing tale, I began to believe it myself.

“I’m Gemma Ashford, and this is Kassen Sands.” Her hand squeezed mine. “We met in the national park. He, eh...he was hiking while I was looking for rock formations to climb. We joined up to, um, travel together, but he slipped off a cliff.” Her eyes flickered to mine before going back to the doctor to spin more of her fiction. “We found an abandoned house, and I, eh, treated him from his fall. He had a bad concussion. Still does. I did what I could to help, but that was a good month ago now, and he still blacks out, has occasional hallucinations, and suffers from short-term memory loss.”

The doctor looked up, his head cocked. “So, you were climbing and you...” He looked at me. “You were hiking?”

I nodded. “Yeah, I, eh...like birds.”

“Birds?” He frowned, making me fear I’d said something wrong. That I’d given away something I shouldn’t.

Fuck.

My heart pounded faster, hissing with the need to protect myself before it was too late. My hands balled.

Gem stiffened in my arms, no doubt feeling my rapidly rising pulse.

Placing a gentle hand on my shoulder, she inhaled quickly. “Actually...” She rubbed her mouth with her free hand before pinning the doctor with a determined glower. “That’s a lie.”

I jerked. “What? No, it’s—”

“Kassen isn’t his real name.”

“Gemma—”

“He was abducted when he was a child.”

“What the hell are you—”

“The house that caught fire belonged to a faction of people who terrorized and molested boys and girls. It’s been going on for decades.”

“Shut up,” I snarled. “He doesn’t need to know—”

“The fire wasn’t an accident.” Gemma totally ignored me. “And the other kids who were trapped were taken over eleven years ago to different locations.”

“Gemma, what the fuck—?”

She shook her head and held my livid stare. “I’m sorry, Kas, but I want you well. I’m sick of trying to cure you on my own. Call me selfish for wanting you healthy. Call me stupid for telling a complete stranger about your past. But I’m not going to lie because it’ll be detrimental to your treatment. You deserve to be happy, Kas.” Her eyes glossed with tears. “I love you. Please trust me when I say...telling people is the right thing to do.”

My heart crashed, and my lungs struggled to breathe. I didn’t know if I wanted to strike her or hug her. All my life, I’d been hidden and taught to stay quiet. Now...the woman who’d ripped me from that threatening silence had just confessed my entire sordid history.

Without asking my goddamn permission.

I gritted my teeth, struggling with my rapidly building rage.

The doctor reclined in his chair, leaving his notepad on his knee as his eyebrows came down, never looking away from me. “Now, that’s quite the claim.”

“He’s been alone for a long time—”

“Gem...” I growled. “Stop it. No more. Not another damn word.”

“He’s a doctor. He won’t hurt—”

“Quiet!”

How dare she give up my tale so quickly?

How fucking dare she share my past with a complete fucking stranger? “Don’t listen to her. I’m not a slave. No one touched me. I’m—”

“I didn’t say you were a slave,” the doctor murmured, his eyes filling with pity.

Fuck him and his pity.

I went to push Gemma off me, ready to punch this bastard in the face, but Gem looped her arm around my neck, wedging her ass deeper onto my thigh again. She swallowed, wariness all over her face. “I’m sorry, Kas. I didn’t mean...” She swallowed again. “I know you’re not used to being so open, but not everyone is your enemy.” Her voice hardened as she looked at the doctor. “I won’t say any more....It’s not my story to tell. But...he has lived on his own for eleven years. I’m guessing he’ll be deficient in vitamins and minerals from years of enduring a basic diet and surviving harsh seasons on his own. It’s probably best he’s evaluated—”

“Goddammit, Gemma!”

“I’m done.” Her head lowered in contrition. “Sorry, my first-aid training kicked in. It’s a relief to share all your symptoms with someone qualified. Someone who can actually help you.”

“I don’t need help.”

“Sounds as if you might.” The doctor inhaled calmly, his gaze locking onto me. “How did you survive this entire time out there, on your own?”

Fuck.

Questions.

So many fucking questions.

He’d ask, and my memories would answer, filling me up with screams, pain, and history. I couldn’t drown beneath the past. I wouldn’t. I had enough shit to endure in this new reality.

My hands fisted harder.

I prepared to go to war.

Gemma tried to defuse me by stroking my cheek.

It helped, but fury still bubbled in my blood.

The doctor noticed.

He coughed and tore his gaze from mine, locking onto Gemma. He chased a different line of questioning. “And that’s how you met? You found the house, and what...became friends?”

“She’s mine, asshole,” I hissed between my teeth.

“Okay, then.” The doctor narrowed his eyes. “You found each other and began a...relationship.”

My own eyes narrowed to slits. “She’s. Mine. That’s the relationship.”

The doctor scribbled something on his annoying notepad-screen.

Gemma shifted uncomfortably on my thigh, her voice slipping back into smooth business. She glossed over our initial few days together and all the shit I’d done to her, even after she’d been stupidly honest with everything else. “I found something online that hinted at a good climb. It’s what I do for work. I make money from posting my climbs online and am always on the lookout for something new. But instead of finding a boulder, I found the house where Kas was living. It’s been a secret since it’s construction.”

“No one else was there?” the doctor asked, scribbling again.

“No. Just him.”

“And you were happy to be found?” The doctor kept his voice deceptively quiet, waiting for me to answer.

Storymaker’s voice echoed in my ears.

Nyx’s screams.

Maliki’s cries.

I shoved it all down. I swallowed hard and tried to get through this. “Yes,” I snapped.

“He welcomed me,” Gem lied. “I’ve stayed with him since summer. Oh, and he broke his arm at the same time he became concussed. It’s, eh...it wasn’t his first concussion.” She winced in my direction. “He had another. It granted amnesia for five years.”

“Gemma,” I hissed. “Stop.”

“I see.” The doctor scribbled some more, privy to my history when he shouldn’t be.

Gemma flinched and caught my narrowed stare. “I’m sorry, I’m done.” She kissed my cheek and turned back to the doctor. “The rest we don’t have to discuss. I only told you this much so you can do a full examination and help him get better. But...” She licked her lips. “You have to understand that he’s been on his own for a very long time.” She lowered her voice. “I’m repeating that part so you have empathy if he struggles with company. He hasn’t had the chance to work through his trauma, let alone the physical condition of a concussion I wasn’t skilled in treating. He needs...space and time and...understanding.”

Goddammit, this woman!

“If you’re so concerned about his condition, then why didn’t you come for help sooner?” the doctor asked sternly. “Multiple concussions of the magnitude you’re describing can come with serious long-term complications.”

“I didn’t seek help because I wasn’t fucking ready to be near people,” I snarled. “Enough. I’m done with this. Either let us go or do whatever you need to do. Either way, storytime is over.” I clamped a heavy hand on Gem’s hip, ensuring she knew I wasn’t kidding.

My temper was frayed.

My patience was done.

If she shared another shred of my history with this stranger, I wouldn’t be responsible for what I’d do.

“Fine.” The doctor sat straighter, clearing his throat as he wrote yet another something on his screen.

Gemma threw me a look before saying calmly, “Whatever tests and treatments he needs, can I ask that we stay together? I think it’s best if I’m in the room when Kas is...examined.”

Examined?

What the fuck did that mean?

“Of course.” The doctor nodded. He stood and smiled down at us. “Can I call any next of kin? If you’ve been gone as long as you say, I’m sure your family will be worried.” His eyes met mine. “And yours? The police will want to talk to you, Mr. Sands. Your family will also need to be notified. They’ll be very relieved to be reunited after so long.” He grinned, warming to his cause. “You’re home now. Both of you. And I’ll do my best to ensure you’re both healthy and ready to begin this new phase of your lives.”

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CHAPTER THIRTEEN

FOR THREE DAYS, I did my best never to leave Kas’s side.

That first night, they performed the same tests on us—X-rays on our lungs and general checkup on superficial burns we’d endured from fighting the fire. We were given a course of antibiotics just in case the smoke inhalation turned into a respiratory infection.

The doctor who treated us kept his true thoughts to himself, but I saw his gaze lingering on Kas’s scars, on the many, many mementos of a life trapped in abusive servitude. Kas had been unwilling for most of the tests, only undressing if I helped, refusing to let them inspect his still-healing arm, vibrating with fear and fury whenever the hospital staff came near.

His eyes never left the doctor and his assistant, flinching if they moved too fast, muscles bunching if they came too close. The aura of possessiveness and violence pouring off him put the doctor on edge. Ensuring his interest in Kas’s injuries—both recent and old—turned sharp with suspicion as he noticed the fading bruises around my own neck. He didn’t ask questions on how I’d earned such a necklace, but I saw where his mind had gone.

He saw the tension Kas gave off.

He put two and two together and probably came up with ninety-nine.

I wanted to assure him that whatever had happened between Kas and me was done and forgiven. I didn’t want the doctor running off to the police with opinions of a domestic violence case.

But I couldn’t voice those concerns with Kas in the room. I couldn’t give him yet another thing to worry about. He was already borderline snapping. I didn’t know how much more he could handle, highly aware that if he didn’t rest soon, all his goodness might once again be drowned out by the horrors in his past.

That first night, it took a long few hours before we were cleared of immediate medical concerns. The doctor mentioned a specialist appointment in the morning for Kas’s concussion, and his gaze once again paused on me as if wanting to bring up my finger-sized bruises. But then he’d been called into the ER, and thankfully, we’d been escorted back to our private room—courtesy of my ability to afford such a luxury—and told to get some sleep.

The moment the door shut and it was just us, Kas let out a bone-deep sigh, swaying on his feet with exhaustion.

I tugged his hand and guided him into the bathroom.

We needed to sleep, but first...I wanted to rinse away the pungent smell of smoke and everything that’d happened.

I’d undressed Kas gently, doing my best to bring peace to his chaotic mind. As we stepped into the shower together, the heavenly euphoria of hot water made me groan.

Kas pressed me against the wall and kissed me hard and deep, wedging our naked bodies together, slipping inside me with no other foreplay apart from the overwhelming connection we shared.

We broke all hospital protocol as we rocked and thrust, drowning beneath hot rain, finding a release that was sharp and slicing. Placing me on my feet and withdrawing after the final pulse of his orgasm, Kas had reverently washed me—just like he had before Jareth set Fables ablaze.

I washed him back, rinsing away soot and ash, baptizing him back into society after being stolen for so long. I’d grown so used to his shaggy scruff and knotty, wild locks that I no longer saw a valley monster with no manners and too many memories. I was desensitized to the wild man everyone else would see.

But, as Kas turned off the shower, dried himself with a bleached white towel, and tossed his hair over his shoulders, I saw how others would see him.

His silvery scars. His tortured eyes.

His long hair and powerful, lean body.

He was a man who’d stepped out of the jungle but still carried it in his heart.

He didn’t look safe.

He looked dangerous and unpredictable, and I hoped upon hope that he wouldn’t have any blackouts while being treated. If he hurt anyone or lashed out against medical staff, the chances of him coming home with me were slim.

He’d be admitted to a psychiatric facility.

They’d keep him until his mind was deemed “fixed.”

They’d ruin him even further.

That night, after sharing a meal of hospital-prepared potato salad, meatloaf, and raspberry Jell-O, we fell asleep in the same room for the first time. Eating food with flavor—even if it was bland hospital fare—ensured both of us couldn’t keep our eyes open.

It was such a novelty to have a belly full of warm, hearty food. And judging by how quickly Kas passed out, reclined in a black pleather chair with his legs propped up on a stool, his body had accepted food he hadn’t had to hunt or gather and finally shut down to heal.

I watched him for as long as I could, comfy and safe in the single bed he’d gallantly given me. A part of me worried he’d wake in the night and his mind would be somewhere else entirely. He’d forget how he came to be here and hurt himself or me. Those fears kept me awake even as my eyelashes drooped. Each time the squeak of sneakers sounded in the corridor or a nurse popped her head in to check on us, I worried that Kas would wake and snap.

But he slept soundly.

No thrashing, no mumbling, just a dead weight in the corner with his arms crossed over his chest and his handsome face slack with exhaustion.

And I’d slept too.

The next day was similar to the first.

We ate breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast together—Kas moaning with every buttery mouthful—before indulging in yet another hot shower. After, we were once again poked and prodded with tests, questions, and had our blood drawn. Kas finally let them examine his arm, submitting to yet another X-ray. The bone hadn’t been too badly broken after all, and the minor fracture had already healed enough not to require further casts.

I wondered if Kas would also mention the backyard vasectomy he’d undergone as a young boy. Or if he’d ever be open enough to give the true story of what his body had endured.

I couldn’t voice the absolute obscenities that’d been done to him, but his scars spoke for themselves, ensuring the doctors were extra diligent in their tests.

The results came back in the afternoon, revealing Kas was (like I suspected) deficient in key minerals and vitamins.

The doctor, whose name was Kenneth Wright, administered an injection with boosters of each requirement he needed, explaining calmly and quietly that it would help his body heal as Kas went stock-still, his nostrils flaring as the needle sank into his skin. That the vitamin cocktail would give him the best chance of repairing the damage his concussion had done.

That night, Kas didn’t sleep as well as the first night, but he didn’t have a nightmare or give the nurses any reason to restrain him, either.

I stayed jumpy for any sign that he wasn’t coping, and the strain of being highly aware of him slowly took a toll on my nerves. I’d been on my guard ever since arriving in a public place with him. And I stipulated I’d stay close by for the safety of others’ as well as mine.

I knew how Kas would come across to people.

They’d judge him for being overbearing, dominating, and swift to anger. I caught them looking at me occasionally, their thoughts obvious, but no one said anything while they nursed him back to health. As long as he didn’t come across as too threatening, then they had no reason to stop him from going home with me once we were cleared.

On the third morning, the concussion specialist finally called Kas up for an appointment. He apologized for the delay and waited for both of us to follow him to his office, but Kas caught my eyes and shook his head.

Kas hadn’t admitted it, but I’d guessed the truth of why he wanted to attend the consultation on his own. He’d accepted that his vertigo and headaches were part of his concussion, but I knew they scared him—yet another thing that took away his control.

So, I let him go.

I trusted he’d be able to keep his mind in the present, and we were separated for the first time since leaving the valley.

It made me grateful that he was calm enough to visit with the doctor without me. I’d been prepared to be his crutch for however long he needed me, but watching him march down the corridor next to a complete stranger, his back ramrod straight and hands balled, squeezed my heart.

Maybe Jareth had been right.

Perhaps, by burning Fables and removing Kas from the boneyard the valley had become, his mind was already more stable, more removed from the past and ready to step forward into a future where he could finally be happy.

God, I hope so.

As he left in the escort of Dr. Jones, Kentucky’s concussion expert, I headed toward the nurses’ station to use their phone.

I didn’t know if they’d called my mother or brother yet, but getting in touch with them was well overdue. A female doctor with graying blond hair and a kind smile stopped me in the middle of the lemon-painted corridor. “Ah, Ms. Ashford. I was just coming to visit you.”

“Oh?” My eyebrows rose. The whiff of smoke still swirled around me, even after a couple of showers. My clothes needed to be washed—even the spare set I had in my backpack reeked of smoke.

“Yes, do you mind?” She opened her arm, indicating I should return to the room I’d just walked out of.

Impatience filled me, but I nodded and backtracked. “Is everything okay?” Kas had only just left. Surely, he hadn’t hurt someone this quick without me by his side.

She stepped into our private room, closing the door. My hackles rose a little, but I forced myself to stay smiling as I sat down in one of the three chairs provided.

The doctor copied me, sitting down and brushing away a lock of silver-blond hair. With another kind smile, she said, “I’m Dr. Mary Channing. I typically deal with partners of domestic violence and help arrange safe houses for wives leaving abusive spouses.”

I tensed.

I’d been expecting a visit like this. I’d known Dr. Wright knew what the bruises on my neck meant. I just hadn’t expected it to come the second Kas was taken for an appointment—ensuring he wouldn’t be around, leaving me to spill the truth.

What did she expect? That I was some browbeaten woman in a Stockholm situation?

Give me some credit.

Staying calm, appreciating her role in helping women who needed support, I asked, “And you think I’m one of those?” Keeping my shoulders relaxed, I didn’t give in to my initial reaction to assure her, loudly and abruptly, that Kas was the abused one and I was the strong one in this scenario. She was only looking out for me. I was grateful women in awful situations had her.

Dr. Mary cleared her throat as she settled into the chair. “I hear your boyfriend...” She glanced at the paperwork in her hands. “Kassen Sands has had a tough upbringing.”

“It wasn’t exactly an upbringing.”

“No, it doesn’t sound like it was.” She gave me a guilty smile. “Wrong words to use. From the notes Dr. Wright mentioned, Kas was kidnapped and abused over the course of many years, correct?”

I nodded, not adding more to her details. I’d given up Kas’s truth a few days ago to ensure he received proper treatment. The urge to lie had been strong. To stick with my story that we’d met on the trail and fallen in love. But if I did that, then Kas wouldn’t have been tested for deficiencies or given what his body sorely needed. I’d take him being pissed off at me if it meant his depleted system was given what it needed to heal.

It was the right thing to do then...but now? Without him here, it felt like I shared things behind his back.

“Normally, children who have lived a life of abuse and sexual molestation can sometimes mimic what they’ve learned from their oppressors,” Dr. Mary said clinically. “With that in mind...has Kas ever hurt you? Are you safe with him? Have you ever felt or do you feel that you’re in danger from him?”

I chewed the inside of my cheek.

How did I answer that without blatantly lying or getting Kas into serious trouble? She gave me a few moments to think about my answer, her eyes shrewd and insightful. Before I could reply, she murmured, “You don’t have to fear he’ll get in trouble from me. I’m not interested in what he has or hasn’t done. I’m here for you. I want to help you.” Her eyes gleamed. “You can speak to me freely, Gemma. Everything we discuss is strictly confidential.”

I reclined and crossed my legs, deciding to tread the line between truth and lies. “He has hurt me in the past.”

She sat up stiffly. “Did he put your life in jeopardy?”

Flashbacks of Kas’s fingers on my throat came and went. There was no guarantee he wouldn’t do such things again. But...I fully believed Jareth had helped push Kas toward healing. The way he’d been able to touch himself in the games room. How he’d stayed with me when we had sex. How he fought against the blackouts and chose to remember instead of allowing his mind to wipe out his present and fill it with his past.

Kas wasn’t fully cured yet, but he’d taken the first few steps, and...I no longer feared he’d slip. He loved me. His heart was now mine, and I had no doubt that loyalty would keep me safe, even if he had setbacks.