CHAPTER SIX

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“KILL ME, BUT I beg you, please don’t hurt them,” he whispered. Broken, bowing, utterly submissive in every way. “They had nothing to do with it. It was all my idea. Cut me, whip me, starve me, do whatever you want, just promise me you won’t touch them.”

I stood frozen.

My tiredness evaporated.

Shock and dread made me tingle with awareness. This wasn’t normal. This wasn’t good. The man I’d fought with, slept with, and tried to save no longer existed.

He’d switched.

Changed.

His head remained lowered, his forehead almost touching his tied hands. His shoulders trembled, but there was a fierceness in him too. A burning fury that was barely hidden beneath his resignation and unbelievable defeatism.

I didn’t have a clue what to do.

How did you deal with someone who’d buried everything about themselves under the skin of someone you’d never met before?

My knees locked as I clamped both hands over my mouth. An ugly sob threatened to break free. I wasn’t equipped to help this man. I could make this situation a thousand times worse if I said the wrong thing.

“Say something!” he snarled. “Tell me you won’t lay a finger on any of them. Please!”

I jumped.

I couldn’t stop my tears.

Taking a jerky step toward him, I dropped my hands from my mouth and prepared to do whatever he needed. I would give anything, absolutely anything, to take away the stark terror draping him and replace it with peace.

“Please...” he moaned, swaying in place and once again fighting the rope. Two sides of his personality warred. The dominating man I already knew struggled to be free, but the humbled prisoner kept begging. “It was all me. I did it. You have to believe me. Leave them alone.”

I didn’t know who they were, but instinct guided me. They said if you caught someone sleepwalking, not to try to wake them. That it was best to go along with their delusion, gently guiding them back to bed and preventing the mind from cracking any further.

That was how I’d deal with this.

I would go along with his story until he either fell back asleep or woke properly.

“I—” My voice cracked, and new tears rolled. “I promise I won’t touch them.”

Instantly, his shoulders sagged. His bow turned into a prayer, his body rocking over his hands. “Thank you.” His whisper was barely noticeable, so lost, so quiet.

Keeping a safe distance from him, I tried to prevent myself from asking. But curiosity was fierce. Urgent. “Now that you know I won’t hurt them,” I breathed. “What did you do?”

He flinched and shook his head. “I killed them.”

It was my turn to flinch.

I hadn’t expected an answer.

And the ease at which he confessed murder ought to have horrified me. Instead, it solidified pieces I’d already suspected, already accused him of. “Who did you kill?”

He moaned under his breath. “All of them. Every member of Fables.”

My heart raced, desperate for more, hungry to know everything before he stopped answering. The more I could uncover, the better chance I had at helping his fractured mind. Also, beneath my urge to help lurked a sick inquisitiveness.

“What’s your name?”

He licked his lips. “Kas. I mean, Kassen.”

I sucked in a breath. My blood heated and sang.

Kas.

I didn’t know how much I needed to know his name until the second he gave it to me. “Kassen.”

He nodded once.

“And who are they? These people I’ve promised not to hurt?”

“My family.”

“Your parents?”

He shook his head. “No. My brothers and sisters.”

He had siblings?

And they all lived here? In this house?

“How many brothers and sisters do you have?”

He squirmed in the rope. “Is this some sort of trick? You know. You’ve paid your membership to play with us. To abuse us. You know all of us intimately.”

I choked on disgust.

So that was what this house was?

A sexual playground for bitches and bastards? A prison for innocence?

My hands curled in rage.

That was why it was hidden.

Why it had an aura of defeat and debauchery.

I couldn’t go along with this anymore. I couldn’t let him think of me as one of these heinous guests. He had to know he was safe. That he would never feel pain again.

Kneeling in front of him, careful to stay out of reaching distance, I murmured, “I’m not a guest. My name’s Gem. No one is going to hurt you or your family ever again. You have my word.”

His head shot up. Doubt widened his eyes...then suspicion clouded his face. “Is this another trick?”

I stayed as calm as I could, squashing the urge to grab his cheeks and force him to wake up. To listen. To remember. “It’s not a trick. You’re safe.”

“If I’m so safe,” he spat. “Why am I tied up? Where is my family?”

I glanced at the rope knotted securely around his wrists. “You had an accident. You fell off the cliff surrounding this valley. I think you have a concussion, and I doubt you’ll remember this conversation. I don’t know if I should be telling you this, but I can’t pretend that I’m one of those monsters in your past.”

I sighed and swallowed, forcing myself to go slower, to try to make him see sense. “I don’t know where your brothers and sisters are. You’ve been living alone for a while now. No one else is here but you.”

“You’re here.” He bared his teeth. “You’re not telling the truth. I can see right through you. You’re here, and you’ve trapped me. You’re the same as them. You think you can control me, use me—”

“I’m nothing like them.” I hugged myself against such a notion. It made my skin crawl with vile disgust. “We met when I entered your home unannounced. We, eh...we’re friends.”

“I don’t have friends.” He twisted his hands, trying to get free. “You’re lying. This is some new game. I’m done, okay? I’m fucking done!” His twisting grew to yanking at the rope. He scrambled to his feet, only to be jerked down again from where I’d tied the leash to the couch leg.

His breathing accelerated, his stare drenching black. “Let me go. If what you say is true, let me the fuck go!”

I shoved upright and stepped back. Fear returned. If he got loose in this condition, I wouldn’t stand a chance. But if I left him tied up, if he didn’t snap out of this fantasy, what harm would it do to him long term?

“Let me go!” he roared.

“I’m sorry!” I wrung my hands. “I can’t untie you. Not yet.”

“Let. Me. Go.” He bit at the rope, looking unhinged and not entirely human. “Do it!”

“It’s for your own protection. And mine.”

He chuckled under his breath. “Of course, it’s for yours. You know what you’re doing is wrong. You know I will do anything to protect my family. If that means being hurt by you or finding a way to end you, I’ll do it.”

“Kas...” I breathed his name, uttering it like it was magic to end this curse.

It didn’t end the curse, but it did do something.

It made him crumple to his knees again.

His fury extinguished. His fight erased. He bowed before me, shut down and submissive. “Christ, I’m sorry. I’ll behave. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—” He choked. “Just please, I don’t understand what you want from me. Tell me, and you’ll be pleased. I’ll be whatever you want. As long as you keep my family out of this.”

Oh, God.

I rubbed at my aching heart as I watched such a strong, scarred man come apart.

I fell in love in that heartbeat.

Not because of his damaged mind or his aggressive ability to make me come alive beneath him...I fell in love because of his selflessness.

It wasn’t a romantic form of love.

It wasn’t a platonic form of love.

It transcended all of that.

It was love that bloomed in my chest like it would for any creature willing to put themselves in the path of pain for the sake of others.

I fell in love with his sacrifice.

And I couldn’t be there anymore.

Backing away, I mumbled, “I’ll...I’ll go find you something to eat. You need to eat. You’ve been asleep for a long time.”

I ran before he could reply.