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Needing to fix what I’d ruined, I pushed past my body’s aches and pains, softening my voice with apology. “Before we go to sleep, let’s go find Jareth before we have no choice but to leave because he’s eaten all our food.”
She laughed sadly. “Sure.”
I marched from the bathroom before she could say anything else.
* * * * *
“I’m sorry,” I murmured as Gem appeared from the bedroom. “I didn’t mean to shut down and get pissy.” She’d dressed in black jeans and a heavy knit beige jumper, pilfering the guest wardrobe. “You look nice.”
She shrugged and smoothed the front of her sweater. “I didn’t have any clothes up here, and I didn’t feel like going downstairs in just a towel. Not with Jareth roaming about.”
I held out my hand, my heart skipping a beat when she took it. “If it makes you feel any better, he is honorable. He wouldn’t do anything, even if you were stark naked.”
She sniffed and squeezed my hand. “I know. I get that he’s loyal, and you guys trust each other with your lives, but...”
“But?”
“I can’t get a read on him.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Unlike you being able to read me from the moment we met?”
She laughed under her breath. “Exactly.”
“You took advantage of my lack of interaction and saw things I wasn’t even ready to see.”
“Perhaps.” She fell into step with me as I pulled her down the corridor toward the staircase. I’d never thought I’d willingly come up here and spend time in these bedrooms, but thanks to Gem, the curse of this place had lifted just a little further, giving me more than just rooms but layers upon layers of freedom.
“I’m sorry too, by the way. I got a little ahead of myself. You seem...better. And I grew impatient for everything.” She smiled softly. “Instead of being impatient, I’ll just be grateful for the progress you’ve made. If it’s okay with you...perhaps, I could figure out a way to let my mother and brother know I’m okay, and then I won’t have such a need to rush back.”
I stumbled on a step, halting us. “Of course, that’s okay. I’m not keeping you from them.”
Her eyebrow arched as if calling me out on my bullshit.
“Not anymore at least,” I growled.
“Good to know. Then I’ll try to give them peace of mind without leaving.”
“How? How could you do that?”
“I’m not sure. My PLB perhaps? That black piece of technology you broke on my first night? It’s a locator beacon. If I could figure out how to fix it then—”
“More people would arrive.”
“Yes, but they wouldn’t take me away if I told them I wanted to stay. They could relay a message.”
I snorted with scorn. “You honestly think they’d just turn around and leave you here, in a house of horrors with a guy who looks like me.” I ran my finger along her neck. “With bruises signaling to the world what I’ve done to you?”
She shivered as I dropped my touch. “You might have a point.”
Fresh anger spilled through me. “You’re free to leave at any moment, Gem. If you miss your family, then you should go. I want you to go. I was going to make you go—”
“But I want to stay.” She shook her head, tugging me the rest of the way down the stairs. “We’ll figure something out, Kas. I’m sure of it.”
I pursed my lips, mind racing, head throbbing. After everything she’d given me, I couldn’t stomach the thought that she still felt trapped. That she was still effectively my prisoner, even if we had fallen for each other.
But how the hell was I supposed to give her what she wanted? I wasn’t ready to face the outside world. If I was honest, I didn’t know if I’d ever be ready. The thought of men surrounding me? Women touching me?
Fuck me, it was enough for me to pass out cold in the foyer.
“By the way, you look nice too,” she added almost shyly as we reached the bottom of the stairs. Her attempt at switching the subject wasn’t lost on me.
I deliberated ignoring her and continuing with our argument, but what was the point?
There was no easy answer; not tonight at least.
“The choices are getting limited these days,” I said, glancing down at my latest wardrobe choice. “I used to wear something until it fell apart, but...it’s cold tonight, and my skin still burns from the icy shower, so I indulged.”
She nodded. “You look hot.”
I rolled my eyes, wincing as my head hurt. “I’m sure I still look exactly what I am. A heathen.”
I’d chosen a similar sweater to the one Gem wore, only mine was navy with dark jeans. I’d even put on boots for the first time in years, wanting to feel more human than animal, recognizing that only animals had feet worn enough to run in a forest without footwear.
She deserved a man, not a beast.
Eventually, I hoped to be that man.
Glancing around the foyer, my ears pricked for noise.
Nothing.
“Wonder where Jareth is?” I asked, pulling Gem forward to peek into the games room, dining room, and library.
All empty.
My stomach sank.
He wouldn’t...would he?
“He better not be in the fucking veggie garden.” Yanking Gem forward, I made a beeline for the kitchen, my heart racing with fear.
Our existence was already compromised in so many ways. I still wasn’t at full capacity. The thought of traipsing through cold forests trying to hunt filled me with dread, and the seedlings Gem and I planted wouldn’t yield anything edible for months—if they even sprouted.
Jareth had the power to kill us just by being reckless with whatever food we did have.
Walking past the small staff staircase heading toward the dormitory where I’d slept for most of my life, I stumbled to a halt.
The sounds of boots on bare floorboards came from above.
Gemma heard it too, her head tilting toward the landing. “He’s in the dorm?”
Letting her hand go, I bolted up the steps, bursting into the bedroom where sad, neat beds ringed the room, complete with gray blankets, gray sheets, and a book about fables left neatly on each pillow.
Jareth didn’t turn as I entered, his focus locked on a book open in his hands. I didn’t speak. I didn’t need to.
I knew that he read his own copy of The Fables by Stuart Page. Morals for all occasions. I knew that he’d chosen Fable of Monsters as his namesake, turning it into a premonition rather than just a name he’d been forced to take.
He’d read it aloud often enough for me to be as familiar with his fable as I was with mine. The moral was that love was the worst curse of all, destined to bring death to anyone foolish enough to claim it.
Once upon a time, a dragon named Jareth lived in a cave all by himself. He had no memory of family, friends, or company. Always alone. Forever unwanted. Scaled and horned, winged and feared, he was constantly hunted and tormented by the villagers who lived in the valley below.
For centuries, he survived alone. No other dragon. None of his kind to ease the unbearable loneliness of being a monster everyone hated.
As the years passed by and old age swept in, the villagers died one by one. A flood washed away their empty homes, erasing him from their history books.
Once again, he was forgotten.
A myth slowly turning to stone all alone.
But then...finally, on a rare summer’s day when the sun enticed the monster from his cave, he was caught su
He tried to disappear.
But she saw him.
He waited for a spear or a lance, but she merely smiled and opened her hand in welcome. Instead of trying to kill him, she tried to touch him, stroke him, and offered him a fish she’d caught from her new home below.
They spent the afternoon together.
He fell in love as she snuggled into his side, protected from the twilight breeze by his wing, watching the sunset together.
But he couldn’t keep her.
And when she left, his heart broke in two, believing he’d never see her again.
But the next day, she returned.
And for two years, she visited every afternoon.
She became his everything.
The dragon slowly began to believe. He willingly and wholeheartedly did something only fated mates were permitted to do. He gave her his heart and sealed the bargain that would forever link her life to his by making her drink a thimble of his blood that he disguised as blackberry juice from a nearby bush.
The moment she drank, his life was hers, and hers was his.
It was meant to be the perfect begi
But she lied to him.
She wasn’t his to claim.
She was married to another, bound by vows, and taken in body and soul.
Jareth had committed an unforgivable act. One that demanded payment in the cruelest of ways. He’d taken her from another man. He’d bound her to him when she wasn’t free to be bound.
Therefore, the blood bond between monster and maiden took away what he coveted.
Her heart stopped.
She dropped dead at his feet.
And her bones adorned his lonely cave ever after.