Fable of Happiness (Fable #2) by Pepper Winters

Wait.

Something caught my eye, drawing me toward the first bed by the door. The closest to danger. The one in the path of anyone who walked over the threshold and into the bedroom.

That was Kas’s bed.

I know it.

It wasn’t even debatable.

I didn’t need to smell the neatly folded blankets or fluffed pillow to know it was his. It wouldn’t smell stale like the others but lived in. Slept in. Knowing what I did of him now, he would’ve taken this bed in order to protect everyone in this room.

He was their gatekeeper, their first defense, their martyr.

The bed was so small. So uncomfortable.

Kas was tall and lean with wiry muscles. He’d struggle to be comfortable in a queen bed, let alone a single. He lived alone and would rather sleep in a tiny cot in a room rigged with locks instead of one of the decadent suites upstairs.

He’d chosen to stay in this room where he’d once watched over his friends.

Friends who’d abandoned him.

My feet carried me to Kas’s bed even as my mind scrambled with his past. The more I learned about him, the more I hurt for him. I would never accept his aggression toward me, but it made everything so much easier to understand. It made me painfully empathetic. I would go to the ends of the earth for my younger sibling. And Kas would kill anyone who laid a finger on his.

We were programmed the same in that respect.

We had the protective gene. The only difference was, mine hadn’t twisted me up into a thousand undoable knots like him.

Stopping by the bed, I sucked in a breath.

On the floor beneath the iron frame rested my smashed phone and PLB. I ought to snatch them up and run out of the room. But I had to know. Had to read what fable Kas chose his name from.

It’s not even his real name, just an address from a book.

I’d been so grateful to finally know his name.

But it wasn’t his.

Not truly.

Lifting up his copy of the identical book, I shook as I opened the front page.

Kassen. Chosen from the Fable of Happiness. Chapter Twenty-Three: The Poor Cousin & His Wishes.

Racing to chapter twenty-three, I read with tears streaming down my cheeks about a selfless, poverty-ridden man who gave up his magical wishes to benefit his villagers, friends, and even his enemies. He gave away each one without any malice or expectation.

And in return, he earned the greatest gift that couldn’t be wish-given. Something that had to be fought for.

Happiness.

My knees gave out, and I sat on his lumpy, squeaky bed.

I allowed wetness to streak my face as I hugged the book to my chest and vowed upon a vow that one day, someday, Kas would be happy.

He would smile.

He would laugh.

I’ll make sure of it.

* * * * *

I never did go check on Kas.

Guilt coated me like tar every hour that I stayed away, but I had my reasons.

My personal locator beacon being the main one.

After I’d left his bedroom, closing the door on the awful books and painfully neat beds where only ghosts slept now, I carried my broken PLB and cell phone back to the main level. I’d fully intended to return to Kas. To hope he was a nicer version of himself and would be amenable to me assessing his arm. However, as I’d headed toward the library, I’d stopped.

I’d looked at the smashed screen of my cell and the snapped antenna of my PLB and I’d grown angry, frustrated, and full of burning rage that we were stuck out here.

I wasn’t capable of giving Kas the medical treatment he required. He needed a doctor—multiple doctors. And, instead of giving him an hour of my time—time that was utterly useless in fixing him—it would be better spent trying to fix my locator beacon.

Changing course, I’d cut through the foyer and headed outside. Walking down the neat vegetable rows, I’d entered the garden shed where seedling pots, watering cans, and other propagation paraphernalia existed. Tucked in the back were tools. Drills protected in plastic, hammers hanging off nails, measuring tapes, screws, saws—everything a handyman required to keep a hidden house like this running.

And that was where I stayed until dark.

I’d moved outside as it grew gloomier, hunched beneath gray clouds, and done my best to use tools I wasn’t familiar with. Carefully unscrewing the casing of my PLB, looking at wires that made no sense, and fiddling with computer chips that looked complicated—blindly hoping I had enough dumb luck to somehow repair the piece of technology and send an invisible signal bouncing into space for help.

Once I’d poked and prodded my PLB, I turned my unskilled attention to my cell phone. The screen was past salvageable, so I worked on removing the rest of the glass. None of the touch functions worked without the pressure-sensitive glass, and the side buttons merely turned the device on with a soft chime but none of the features needed to call home appeared.

Not that there’s reception out here anyway.

The phone was pointless, but my PLB still held a minuscule amount of hope.

Once it was too dark to see any longer, I grabbed an eggplant, two courgettes, and a small head of frilly lettuce before heading into the kitchen to prepare a lackluster dinner. The other ingredients I’d picked earlier went into the ancient fridge.

I needed something warm.

Something that felt like a meal and could give comfort.

It didn’t take long to grill the veggies, grateful that the old oven still worked. My mouth watered to taste something cooked. The last hot food I’d had were the french fries Kas had made for me in the basement.