Her heart screamed inside of her chest. It raged against her ribcage. It pulled in her bruised pride, nursing it back to health inside of the safety of her steel shell.

It was only at this moment, staring down at the coffee table full of dozens of magazines of various love affairs of Nikos Altana, that she realized there was a crack in her perfect defense. The truth was unkind. It came with teeth and claws, and Fable's walls weren't enough to fend it off.

It was ...