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CHAPTER TWELVE
I LEARNED SOMETHING NEW about myself as I sat in the back of a noisy helicopter, flying above trees that’d been my protectors and prison guards for most of my life.
I’d read about these machines. Many heroes in the fictional thrillers at Fables enlisted the aid of such transport at some point in their tales, but to actually fly in one myself? To feel the drop in my gut as we hit air pockets and the rattle of power keeping us airborne—it all threatened to knock me out.
Everything had happened so fast.
Everything had changed.
All of it.
My body fought against it.
My mind threatened to snap because of it.
I was lost at how everything had happened so quickly.
Fuck, this was past change and had gone straight into the terrifying unknown.
This was noisy and overwhelming, and I didn’t think I could cope.
My instincts went into survival mode.
I needed everything to slow the fuck down.
I needed a moment to breathe, for Christ’s sake.
Raking a hand through my tangled, sooty hair, I did my best to stay human and not resort to the animal I’d been. I tried to stay calm for Gem. If I let go and slaughtered everyone in this flying machine, I doubted she’d look at me with love anymore.
More like stark fear and bone-chilling disgust.
Sucking in another breath that tasted of metal and gasoline, I forced the whiteness back from my gaze, commanded my heart to stop trying to sledgehammer its way out of my chest, and locked my muscles so I stayed sitting like a trustworthy person.
It cost everything I had to act as if being hauled from the valley, thrown into a small cylinder with countless humans, and flown at warp speed away from the only home I knew was perfectly normal to a man like me.
A man who hadn’t spoken for over a decade before Gem arrived.
An ex-slave who watched these new men and women for any sign that they were about to tie me up, cut me, rape me, and leave my blood drying from their fun.
My nostrils flared as I glanced at Gem, my head throbbing.
She caught my gaze, her hair wild and ash smeared on her cheeks. Her hazel eyes looked black in the darkness of the cabin, wide and worried, her uncertainty merging with mine.
What was she uncertain about?
Hadn’t she wanted this?
Didn’t she want to be found? To go home to her family? To take me with her?
Christ.
I bent forward, digging both thumbs into my eye sockets as the helicopter banked and straightened out. Her hand landed between my shoulder blades, rubbing gently. Her touch both amplified my need to run away but also soothed the razor-sharp edges of my jumpy temper.
I sucked in a breath.
I let it out slowly.
I allowed life to drag me forward even while I howled inside to return to the valley.
How had this happened?
For fuck’s sake, one moment I’d been having sex with Gemma.
The next, I’d been fighting a fire that Jareth started.
Then I was eating a cookie, watching my home burn, all while Jareth admitted to mass murder and a hunting expedition that would take him years to accomplish.
And now...fuck, now I fought against another wave of white blankness as it teased my vision, whispering that all of this could be deleted. I could let go and pass out and forget.
I could forget and wake up fresh without the nightmares of today.
I groaned under my breath.
But that wasn’t true.
I’d forget, but that would be the true nightmare, not this. If I forgot everything that’d happened—forgot that I was able to touch myself, sleep with Gemma and truly be with her, and that Jareth was alive and well—that would haunt me.
I never wanted pieces of my life lost to me again.
No matter the current cost.
My ears popped as we climbed higher into the sky.
I still couldn’t understand how I’d gone from standing in the forest, studying the black night where Jareth had vanished, and then grabbed by the arm and hauled toward the helicopter. Two men had thrown me inside before I’d even had the chance to fight back.
Gemma had been thrown in after me, the crew who’d grabbed us yelled something into their earpiece, then we left the ground in a dizzying, sickening swoop.
Nausea bubbled in my gut as the pilot added speed. Rotor blades crashed above me, making my head pound with pain. Headphones were shoved over my ears, followed by a pair placed around Gemma’s.
My protective instincts roared to life. How dare they fucking touch her? How dare they fucking throw her against her will into a flying contraption that—
“Are you the only survivors?” a female voice filled my ears. I narrowed my eyes, looking at the crowded helicopter, counting two women and two men all watching me and Gemma as if we’d crawled from some alien ship.
I swallowed hard as a rush of fury siphoned down my arms.
I didn’t like these people.
They’d come in, torn me from my home, and now looked at Gemma as if she was in danger from me. Grabbing Gemma’s hand where she sat beside me on the bench, I bared my teeth.
If they dared to touch her again, they’d be flying out the door and into the clouds.
“Does anyone else live in that house?” the woman asked again, touching her headset and nodding at the pilot behind her. I couldn’t hear the question she’d been asked, but the woman turned again and narrowed her eyes. “Do we need to turn back? Are there more of you?”
Gemma cleared her throat, her voice loud down her microphone. “No, it’s just us.”
She lied.
Jareth was down there.
He was invisible in the darkness, dressed in black, slightly drunk, partially burned, his heart full of revenge and murder.
The woman glanced from me to Gem and back again, her face showing obvious discomfort and judgment.
I tensed.
Gemma squeezed my hand.
I did my best to stay with her and not let my headache make me pass out. I couldn’t afford to black out. Not just because I didn’t want to forget but because Gemma’s life was in danger.
I had to protect her. At all costs.
I had to be prepared to hurt and maim and—
Another woosh of noise flew past us, followed by another.
Two more helicopters, soaring back toward Fables with swinging buckets of water.
Would they succeed in putting the fire out?
What was left of the expensive, sadistic place? Drowned in water, covered in ash, melted into indistinguishable sins?
“Are you both okay?” the woman asked, her gaze once again lingering on Gemma as if looking for any sign that I should be put in chains.
A snarl crawled up my throat.
Gemma untangled her fingers from mine and placed them on my thigh, answering for both of us. “We’re fine.”
“How did the fire begin?” The woman narrowed her eyes. “We weren’t even aware there was a residence so deep in the park. There’s no building permits or government documents.”
Gem flashed me a look before squaring her shoulders. “It’s a long story.” She arched her chin. “A story we’re happy to share once we get on stable ground.” She coughed, her lungs most likely still sore from smoke inhalation. “How did you know to come?”
The woman laughed, revealing slightly crooked front teeth. “You’re kidding, right? The fire lit up the sky. Our nightly patrol called it in. It’s not the height of summer anymore, but the ground is dry and perfect conditions for a wildfire.” She shuddered and adjusted her headset. “We weren’t about to take that chance. We have another two helicopters inbound with drop buckets, and the first to the scene has already been refilled from a local water source. It’s not under control yet, but we will preserve the park the best we can.”
Gem nodded. “Thank you for coming so quickly.”
“You’re welcome.” The two women shared a look before the stranger asked, “You sure you guys are okay...apart from the fire of course? No other injuries? Did you live out there?”
I froze at her questions.
Each was a loaded gun if Gemma answered incorrectly. Ha...not incorrectly. Truthfully. All she had to say was I’d thrown her in the cellar and forced her into sexual servitude, and I’d be the one flying out the door into the clouds.
Gem felt me shift beside her, throwing me a look. Her lips twitched into a smile, affection glowing in her stare. Fuck, how did I get this girl to fall for me? It left me breathless and my head swimming for entirely different reasons.
Glancing back at the woman, Gem shook her head. “We’ll be okay.”
Her answer was more for me than anyone else.
I swallowed hard, doing my best to believe it.
The woman studied us another moment before nodding and glancing at the pilot, sharing whatever conversation they had on a different radio cha
My hackles rose.
My thighs bunched to stand.
But Gemma curled her fingers deeper into my leg, holding me down as she nodded with a gracious smile. “Sounds good.” With a warning look at me, she laid her head on my shoulder and kept her hand on my body.
It was enough.
Having her lean against me, trusting me, touching me, was enough to keep my mind with her and not unravel into chaos.
Even the ghosts of my past and horrors I’d endured stayed silent as we flew farther and farther from my valley, freeing me once and for all from Fables.
* * * * *
“Kas, you have to relax. It’s fine.”
I glanced over at Gem, where she sat in a matching chair in the hospital room where we’d been taken. It’d been a mess of landing, being shuffled from the helicopter, and ferried into a giant building that smelled like bleach, blinded with far too many lights, and had an aura of sickness and death.
I’d allowed my mind to shut down, permitting us to be guided down long corridors, letting Gemma speak on my behalf, finally breathing when we were left alone after a nurse barked off questions, noted Gem’s answers onto her notepad, and then darted from the room.
I wouldn’t lie and say any of this shit was easy.
I was one trigger away from a full-blown attack.
But Gemma never stopped touching me. Each time she glanced my way, she noticed the frantic edge I hovered over. If I wasn’t already head over fucking heels in love with her, I would’ve fallen just for her kindness and understanding.
I had no doubt that if it wasn’t for her, I would have blood on my hands already.
I would’ve killed the orderly who escorted us to this room.
I would’ve strangled the nurse who tried to take our temperature.
I would’ve murdered anyone and everyone who dared look at me.