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“So...you’re a Sands now.” Josh clinked his champagne glass with Gem’s who stood next to me, my arm possessively around her waist. “Random last name. I like Ashford better.”
“Me too,” Katie piped up, her eyes once again full of hearts and rainbows wherever she looked at Josh. “I’d be a happy Ashford.”
I snickered at her less than subtle hint.
They’d been together for seven months now, and he still hadn’t asked her to marry him—even though it was obvious to everyone that he was a goner. Unlike me, when I’d proposed to Gem when we’d first returned to society, he was afraid. Afraid of commitment. Of putting himself out there in case it delivered pain.
I pitied him really.
He didn’t know the meaning of pain. If he did, he’d understand that he was causing himself more by denying the depth of his feelings for Katie and should just man up and claim her already.
Gem sipped her champagne, her gaze trailing over the happy crowd of friends and family as people mingled on our back lawn. We didn’t have a dance floor or DJ. Food had been placed on tables in the shade for grazing all day long. Picnic blankets dotted the grass, and a few lawn games had been set up for when alcohol lowered people’s self-consciousness, and they were ready to have some silly fun.
“I du
Josh scowled. “That’s way too soppy for me this early in the afternoon.”
Gem laughed. “Well, you know as well as I do that the police haven’t had any new leads on Kas’s biological or adoptive parents. There’s no mention of him going missing, and no one came forward.”
Josh narrowed his eyes at me. “And you’re really okay keeping the same name that that bastard gave you from a book?”
I nodded, drinking my own champagne, eyeing up the simple wedding cake with vanilla sponge and strawberry frosting. I had visions of smearing that sugar all over Gem’s perfect body and consummating our marriage in as many sticky, delicious ways as possible.
Pushing thoughts of ravaging my new wife aside, I answered my brother-in-law. “Gem and I did toss out a few names when I needed to register for social security and taxes, but...” I shrugged. “As much as I have a complicated relationship with the one I have, I want to keep it. It’s no longer a name they gave me. It’s a name I fought to free.” I gri
“You can still be scary, you know that?” Josh shuddered, but his eyes crinkled with mirth. “Just because I let you marry my sister doesn’t mean I approve of you yet.”
“Oh please, you practically booked in the date.” Gem giggled. “You guys hang out more than I hang out with you, Joshy-kins.”
Josh pulled her blond hair. “Hush up, Gemstone. Just because you’re a married woman now doesn’t mean I can’t still chase you around the garden and throw you over my shoulder.”
“You wouldn’t dare.”
“Try me.” He crouched. “Go on...call me that again.”
Gem scurried behind me. “Kas, you have my permission to punch my a
“Don’t put me in the middle of this.” I laughed, freezing as I fully took in this simple moment. I’d wanted this for so fucking long. I’d wanted banter. I’d wanted family. I’d wanted to have the safety and peace of mind to play with those I loved.
My heart panged thinking about my other family. Jareth had vanished ever since Tony told us that Quell was his daughter. I’d stayed in touch with the cops who’d been assigned to my case, requesting them to let me know if any other Fable survivors appeared across their desks, but so far...nothing.
Guilt was still a permanent piece of my heart, even if I did give back to others who might not have endured our particular brand of horror but had endured their own personal hell. I was helping as many survivors as I could, but I still had a broken piece inside me, knowing I’d failed those I’d pledged to save over twelve years ago.
Gem, Josh, and Katie kept volleying loving insults at each other, and my mind wandered, drinking in the wonder of today, ru
The fulfillment that gave me was incomparable.
My gaze caught on Maggie, my new mother-in-law, as she waved at me from the food tables, a dainty plate filled with grapes and tiny pastries in her hands. She blew me a kiss, once again welcoming me into her family.
I waved back, noticing the sadness in her eyes from losing her husband was still there, but some of her grief had faded since I’d first met her.
She and Gem were closer now.
We often had di
As glad I was that she was happier now, I doubted her loss would ever fully go away—just like mine wouldn’t. Loss wasn’t just gnawing emptiness; it could morph into a dull throb thanks to time. It would be easy to push that throb away eventually, but I didn’t want to. I wouldn’t...not until I knew every one of my siblings was safe.
The cops had officially closed the investigation on Fables a few months ago. Their combing of the valley had turned up no other facts in order to prosecute Storymaker and the other faceless men who’d stolen so many children. I’d been torn getting that news. I was glad that they’d stopped digging before they’d found the graves, but I was also sad that they hadn’t delivered justice to those who deserved it.
My hand curled tight around my champagne glass.
It’s not over.
Justice would come to those bastards.
I’ll make sure of it.
I had resources now. I had a name for myself online. I had money. I had power. Every day that my concussion healed and my sanity was stronger and not as easily triggered, I was one step closer to joining the fight that Jareth was currently enduring.
Gem suddenly froze next to me, her hand landing on my arm, her new diamond ring sending sparkles into my eyes. I squinted and shook my head, fear filling me at her reaction. “Gem...everything okay?”
Fang immediately appeared by my side as my anxiety spiked. My instincts fa
“Oh, my God,” Gem breathed, her fingers digging into my arm. “Tony’s here.”
I scowled. “Of course, he’s here. I saw him during the ceremony. A few rows from the front.”
“I know, but...he left early. And now, he’s back.... He’s back with...” Her hazel eyes met mine. “With a young woman. A young woman who looks like him.”
The world slammed to stop.
Fang nudged my hand as my eyes went tu
A girl I hadn’t seen in twelve fucking years.
“Fuck.” I stumbled, dropping my champagne.
Josh and Katie backed away as Gem covered her mouth, and tears shone in her stare. “Oh, my God. It’s her. It’s his daughter.”
Sickness washed through me.
Memories and mayhem.
I wanted to run.
Toward her.
Away from her.
As far as I fucking could.
Every part of me wanted to stay with my wife. To not approach a Fable sister with so many emotions suddenly raging inside me. I wasn’t safe. I couldn’t be trusted.
Fang knew that.
He glued himself to me, his body shaking to match mine.
I backed away.
But Gem grabbed my hand, dragging me forward, fearlessly, wordlessly. She dragged me all while I drowned inside, straight to a girl who looked like her.
Blond hair the same shade, hazel eyes that blended green and gold. However, that was where the similarities ended. Gem’s hair was long and lustrous. Quell’s was still dull and short from a lifetime of malnutrition. Gem’s eyes twinkled with pleasure. Quell’s were permanently blackened with the same fucking horrors I’d endured.
I couldn’t breathe as I closed the distance.
Tony stopped as he saw us stepping from the wedding crowd.
And then...Quell saw us.
Her eyes locked with mine.
Her knees gave out.
She collapsed onto the grass beside her father as tears spilled down her cheeks.
And then, I was ru
Gemma let me go, freeing me to fly to my sister. The family I’d loved and lost, the one I still suffered so much fucking guilt over.
Skidding to a stop, I dropped to my knees before her.
Nothing else existed.
Not the crowd.
Not the sudden silence.
Not even Gem as she went to stand next to Tony, their eyes trained on us on the grass.
Only Quell.
Isabella.
We stared at each other for an eternity.
Whispers crawled through my head. Images of her bloody and crying. Memories of us curled up in the corner. Recollections of me sneaking her food when she’d been punished.
I’d done my best to protect her, but it hadn’t been enough.
I’d used my body as her shield, yet her own still bore scars that I hadn’t been able to stop.
My eyes dropped from hers to her bare forearms and the silvery lead tattoos that matched the fine lines on my own arm. Unlike mine, she had a word. A three-letter talisman that I’d done my best to live up to and failed.
My name had been with her the entire time she’d been missing from me. It’d been on her skin every rape she’d endured when I wasn’t there. Every night she’d been hungry. Every day she’d curled up in a corner on her own.
Fuck.
My heart cracked.
Fang howled beside me.
And tears flowed hotly down my cheeks.
She reached for me.
Our arms flew around each other, and we did what we’d done as kids. We curled into each other, finding sanctuary in one another. We blocked out the outside world, returning to the only safety we had. The short-lived, fragile protection we found in each other’s arms.
All our coping mechanisms. All our distrust and terror wrapped us up, and we rocked together.
We hugged so damn hard.
Tears mingling.
Pasts blending.
A reunion I didn’t think we’d ever have.
She sobbed in my arms.
“Make it stop, Kas. Don’t let them touch me anymore.”
“I’m trying, Quell. I’ll do better next time.”
“I’m sorry you have to hurt for us.”
“Don’t be. I’ll gladly be hurt if it saves you.”
A panic attack unfurled in my chest, making it hard to breathe as darkness descended and I fell back, back—