Fable (Fable, #1)

by Adrienne Young

He was opening a door that we wouldn’t be able to get closed again. And he was waiting to see if I was going to walk through it. What he was saying—the things he told me—was his way of showing me he trusted me. It was also his way of giving me the match. If I wanted to, I could burn him down. But if we were going to do this, I would have to be his safe harbor and he would have to be mine.

and he was so beautiful to me in that moment that I felt as if my chest might crack open.

I hooked my fingers into his belt, waiting for him to look at me. Because it was a wave that would retreat if I didn’t say it. It was a setting sun unless we could really trust each other. The words wound tight in my throat, more tears sliding from the corners of my eyes. “Don’t lie to me and I won’t lie to you. Ever.” And when he kissed me again, it was slow. It was pleading. The silence of the sea found us, my heartbeat quieting, and I painted each moment into my mind.

Like light cast over the morning water, it became new. Every moment that lay ahead, like an uncharted sea. This was a new beginning.

I pushed my hood back and stared into my own face, my hands raising to press against my pink cheeks. I looked even more like her than I did when I was at Saint’s post.

On the other side of the window, Saint sat at a table before a white teapot. He looked up at me, the look on his face stricken, as if he could see her too. Isolde.

“You’re going to get yourself killed, Fable,” he ground out as he leaned on the table, looking at me. “Just like she did.”

I knew she was dead. I’d felt it in my bones when we rowed away from the Lark. But on my father’s lips, it became a different kind of truth.

“Then explain it. Tell me!” I shouted, my voice echoing in the empty room. “I know you don’t know how to love me. I know you’re not built for it. But I thought you loved her. She would have hated you for leaving me on that rock. She would have cursed you.” A cry slipped from my chest, but I kept myself from slamming my fists into the table. He stared into his tea, his body rigid. “I swore to your mother that I would keep you safe. There is nowhere more dangerous in this world for you than being with me.”

He looked up then, his eyes meeting mine, and I thought I could see the glimmer of tears in them. “You were made for a far better world than this one, Fable,” he rasped. “I was young. I hadn’t learned the rules yet when Isolde came asking me to take her onto my crew.” The words turned to a whisper. “I loved her with a love that broke me.”

I tucked the picture into my heart, no matter how badly it would make it ache. The chair scraped over the stone floor as I stood, and I leaned down, kissing him on the top of his head. I wound my arms around his shoulders for the length of a breath, and two tears slipped down his rough cheeks, disappearing into his beard. When I opened the door, I didn’t look back. Because I knew I would never see my father again.

necklace

It was a bracelet she traded not a necklace she got

He laughed, his head tilting to the side so that he could see me beneath the rim of his hat. “You look just like her.”

It was a love that broke us all.

I stood on the deck below, fitting my small feet into her dancing shadow.

and a woman with cropped hair sat in a pile of nets on the quarterdeck.

The pain in my body was nothing compared to the slice and sting of recognizing him.

Fuck its clove

Clove.

Maybe hes a double agent of sorts... Or he will be