Modern Wicked Fairy Tales: Complete Collection Read Online Free PDF Page A

mouth to speak, the first memory coming, the rest
falling like dominoes behind it. It was a horrifying relief, that
flood of memories, and all she could manage was a distressed
cry.
    Silas was by her side in an instant, pulling
her trembling body into his arms.
    “He killed my father,” she choked, hiding
her face against his chest. He wore a pair of white long-underwear
and moved like a ghost in the darkness.
    “Who?” he asked sharply.
    “Oh my god.” The tears came in a flood like
the memories and she clung to him, feeling his arms tighten at her
back. “Carlos killed my father! He tried to kill me too!”
    He prompted her like he had been for days.
“What do you remember?”
    “Everything. Everything.” It was
true. Her name, her life, her near-death, Jolee remembered it all
in one terrifying, mind-blowing instant. “I’m so afraid.” She
quivered. “I want to go home.”
    He stroked her hair. “You’re safe here.”
    “I don’t have a home.” She sobbed against
his chest. This realization was the worst. For days she’d wondered
about her family, the people who might be missing her, worried and
waiting for her to return. Did she have a husband? Children? A
mother and a father?
    “Your father’s dead?” he asked.
    “Years ago.”
    “So where is home?”
    “With my husband,” she whispered, closing
her eyes at the memory of Carlos, who he was, what he had done. Her
emotions hadn’t caught up with her brain, but they were coming—she
could feel them lurking in the shadows, ready to spring her limbs
and squeeze her heart.
    Silas stiffened at her response. “But you
said you don’t have a home…”
    “I can’t ever go back there,” she confessed,
realizing the truth of her statement. Home wasn’t safe. There was
nowhere in the world that would be safe from Carlos.
    “Why?”
    She realized how cryptic and strange her
words must be and tried to explain. “Because Carlos is my husband.
He’s the man who tried to kill me. Those men you found, they were
his. He hired them, told them, to kill me.” They both sat in
silence, letting that knowledge sink in. “What am I going to
do?”
    He sighed, rocking her in the darkness. “You
don’t need to think about it now.”
    “You found me,” she whispered, incredulous.
He had been her rescuer from the beginning, but she hadn’t
understood just what he had saved her from, and clearly he hadn’t
either. It wasn’t just the accident—in fact, the accident had been
part of her salvation. “You saved me from those men. They were
going to kill me.”
    “They’re dead.” His voice was like
steel.
    “If that elk hadn’t come along…”
    “But it did.”
    She tried to hide the sob rising in her
throat and it came out anyway. He tried to hold her but she
struggled, pushing at him. “I thought if I could remember,
everything would be okay again. But it’s worse. Everything’s
worse.”
    She twisted and buried her head in the
pillow, still hiding her tears, although they were coming, whether
she wanted them or not.
    “I’m sorry,” Silas murmured. She felt his
big hand pressed against her shoulder. “You’re welcome to stay here
for as long as you need to.”
    She turned toward the window. The moon was a
high, yellow, silver-lidded eye. “I guess I don’t have anywhere
else to go…”
    Silas stood. “I’m sorry,” he said again.
    “I want to go to sleep.” She closed her
eyes. “I wish I hadn’t remembered anything.”
    “Try to sleep.” He moved to the door and
then turned to ask, “Do you remember your name?”
    “Jolee Mercier.”
    He stood for a long time. So long she turned
to see if he was still there, framed in the doorway.
    “Silas?”
    “You should know.” He cleared his throat.
“Carlos Mercier is my brother.”
    Jolee gave a short, sharp laugh, but the man
didn’t return her mirth. He was serious. It wasn’t possible,
couldn’t be true. Carlos’s brother was gone, dead, that’s what he’d
told her, told