The Seeker's Magic by Isadora Brown

Author:Isadora Brown [Brown, Isadora]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Isadora Brown

14

That night, I dreamt about my attack.

It was the night Anna was killed, at the party Stephen Charming threw. I didn’t remember it. In fact, I still didn’t know how I knew I had been raped other than the heaviness in my pelvis.

The problem was, the dream didn’t show anything I didn’t already know. There was no grand “aha” moment that revealed who my rapist was. I barely remembered that night at all, only that my phone died shortly after getting there and that Jack and I kissed at some point. Everything else was a blur.

I remembered being helpless, being emotionless, as my muddled, magicked brain tried to make sense of what was happening to me. It knew that something bad was going on, but it couldn’t quite understand how to stop it.

I could feel the cold sweat wrap around my skin like a child desperately clinging to their mother, and I hugged myself. It was difficult for me to breathe. My heart squeezed painfully and I sucked in one breath and then another, almost as though I was trying to make sense of why I’d had a dream like that at all. I didn’t remember even thinking about that in nearly a year, until Ella Byrne was raped in a similar way. It wasn’t as though I had any evidence. It wasn’t like I could go to anyone about this.

That isn’t true, a voice pointed out. You could tell Rumple.

I hesitated, sucking in a breath at the thought. Rumple? I didn’t want to tell Rumple. I didn’t want him to look at me with pity in his dark eyes. It was why I never told anyone about this. Not my father, not Jack, not Peter, no one.

I pulled my legs up to my chest and rested my cheek on the top of them. I needed to calm myself down. I needed to get ahold of my beating heart.

Maybe if I called Rumple…

No, he’ll ask why. And then you’ll have to lie, and he can tell when you’re lying.

I closed my eyes. I needed him though. That was the thing. And that was more important than anything else right now.

“Rumpelstiltskin, Rumpelstiltskin, Rumpelstiltskin.”

I said the words like a chant, before I could talk myself out of saying them at all.

A pop reverbated through my room, and there stood Rumple in a simple black T-shirt and charcoal pajama pants I was certain were made from silk. He looked at me, concern evident in his dark eyes.

“Alice, are you—”

I burst into tears at the sight of him. I didn’t know why. I wouldn’t have blamed him if he disappeared right then and there just so he wouldn’t have to deal with my shit. I was emotional, a wreck. I had no idea what I was doing. All I wanted was to make sure I was okay, that I was safe, and it didn’t feel like I was any of those things unless Rumple was close to me, if he was touching me in some way.

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