I sighed heavily, wrapping my arms around myself.
Jareth sighed too, glancing at Kas.
It seemed we all had to sigh, releasing the fear and panic, adrenaline and shock of what’d just happened.
Twenty minutes passed while we all watched the biggest bonfire I’d ever seen. The roar of the fire settled into more of a crackle and hiss instead of explosions, methodically chewing through everything in its path.
Jareth tapped a cigarette out of his packet and lit it with a match.
I waited until he’d inhaled, narrowing my eyes as he coughed against smoke from Fables and smoke from tobacco. My tone was sharp. “I’m not going to point out how unhealthy it is to add tar to your lungs after walking through a house fire, and I’m also not going to care that you have a few burns up your arms, because frankly, you deserve them. But I am going to ask what happened to your lighter.” I smiled thinly. “Did you drop it?”
He tensed, throwing me an annoyed look. Inhaling again, he blew smoke in my direction, the burns on his arms glistening in the orange light. “I gave it to the fire. It was something I stole. A memento of sorts. And now it’s gone, just like its previous owner.”
I hadn’t been expecting him to gift up a part of his history. It made me want more.
Immediately.
Shifting a little, I opened my mouth to ask what’d happened to him. To understand how he could be twisted into something so different to what they’d twisted Kas into, only Kas beat me to it.
“You never got free...did you?” Kas balled his hands on his knees, his legs bent and caging his body.
Jareth froze. A few heavy seconds passed before he shook his head and sucked on his cigarette. “No.”
“Any of you?” Kas kept his stare on the fire, his features full of torment. “Did any of you get away?”
“Quell was the only one who managed to run.” Jareth coughed. “That I saw anyway. She might’ve been caught after.”
“After?” Kas cringed.
“After they took us.”
“Where? Where did they take you?”
Jareth raked a hand through his hair, shaking his head, looking more human and more hurt than I’d seen. “They were waiting for us on the other side of the cave. I suppose there was always a guard. Either way, they knew. An alarm perhaps? A phone call just before you murdered everyone?” He spat a wad of black gunk onto the ground. “Who the fuck knows. All I know is, we ran from one hellhole into another. But this time, we didn’t have each other. We were separated. I was taken to one place, and the others...I’m guessing they were taken to different locations. It wasn’t for a few years before I finally learned that Fables isn’t just this place.” He hissed that word. “It isn’t just a playhouse thought up by Stuart goddamn Page who fancied himself an author of fucking morals and sadism. He was just the manager of this particular funhouse.”
Jareth braced himself and looked at Kas.
Kas shuddered and met his stare, the two men locked together in matching horror.
“It’s a worldwide faction, Kas,” Jareth said, devoid of emotion. “Foster kids, just like us, all groomed and taken. Never missed. Rarely wanted. Nameless and forgotten, serving motherfucking bastards. Shit, the place I ended up in...” He shivered and snapped his lips together. “Anyway, I got out. I’m finally fucking free.” He slapped Kas on the shoulder. “And now, you are too.” Pointing at me with his glowing cigarette, he added, “Go with her, brother. Trust that she has your back like I once did.”
“Once?” Kas asked swiftly. “You’re saying you no longer have my back?”
“I’m saying, you don’t need me anymore. Others do.” Pulling his backpack closer, he unzipped a front pocket and pulled out sheets and sheets of papers. Passing the one on top to Kas, he added, “This is how I found you.”
I peered closer as Kas scanned the page.
It was familiar.
The photo of the boulder and the name of the climber—
“Oh, my God.” I ripped it out of Kas’s hands, my eyes scanning as fast as I could, trying to figure everything out. “You’re a member of Climber’s Anon?”
“Climber’s Anon?” Kas frowned, looking between Jareth and me.
Jareth stubbed out the end of his cigarette and pulled out a bag of oatmeal cookies from his bag. “I have a computer technician scoring the web for keywords I’ve given him.”
“What keywords?” I snapped.
“Places that I remember. Names I’ve heard. Locations where others are being kept.”
Shivers shot down my back. “Kentucky Khalessi triggered one of those keywords?”
Jareth took a bite of his cookie. “I couldn’t remember exactly where this particular Fables was. I was young when I was first brought here, and they knocked me out when they took me away. While living here, though, I always kept my ears open for any details when Storymaker was feeling chatty, but it doesn’t exactly have an address you can punch into Google.” He smirked. “Kas and I used to play a game, drawing maps in the dark, doing our best to choose which way to run if we ever escaped.”