The Ruby (The Hidden Gems Book 1)

by R. Getsee

  18

  Alex

  The music blasted in my ears as I searched the huge house for signs of my date. After an hour of waiting for him to pick me up, I’d texted him, wondering where the hell he was. He texted me back that he was already at the party, having come early to help set up and stayed with his friends as they started to drink.

  He apologized profusely, asking me to come anyway, and I was about to say no when Emi rushed into my room and practically dragged me out of the house. Though she was no longer on Team Ralex and hated Drake with a passion, she said that idiotic boys were no reason to waste a great outfit.

  I decided to let her drag me out the door, content not to let some inconsiderate jerk ruin my evening, especially since we seriously needed to blow off some steam. After a couple of shots of tequila that burned my throat all the way down and a solo cup of the punch that was set out on the table, I was feeling warm and tingly, ready to get out on the dance floor as Emi dragged Jared towards the space in the center of the floor, the beat of the speakers drowning out the noise coming from my cellphone.

  My phone buzzed against my leg and after a couple of attempts, I was finally able to fish it out of my dark-wash blue jeans, swiping the screen to find another message from Drake apologizing and asking me to come find him. I leaned against a doorframe by a room where a couple was making out, about to tell him to get bent when they finally separated and my stomach sank.

  I caught Roman’s eye as Torah leaned back, breathing heavily as she fixed her lipstick. He looked like he was about to come over to me, regret etched on his face, but I turned away, letting myself get lost in the crowd as my heart shattered.

  I tried to ignore the painful feeling and took another deep drought from my cup as the room started to spin a little. I decided that I needed to find an empty room to lie down in and sober up before driving home. I started opening doors, apologizing profusely as I caught several couples in various stages of undress.

  I caught sight of Drake standing with a group of guys and cursed under my breath as I turned, knocking into a table and drawing attention to myself. Large hands steadied me as the world started to tilt.

  “Hey there,” he said, his words starting to slur. “I was wondering where you were.”

  “I was just trying to find Emi,” I lied as I shrugged off his hands. “I’m not feeling great and need to go home.”

  “That sucks, I wanted to spend some time with you,” he roared over the music as his arm wrapped around my shoulder. I smelled the alcohol on his breath and fought the urge to gag at the stink of stale beer.

  “I really need to find my friend,” I said, trying to untangle myself from him and back away.

  “I think I saw her up here,” he said, finally getting the message and releasing me. “I’m pretty sure she was lying down in there.”

  “Thanks,” I said as I walked straight into the dark room.

  “Emi?” I called as I fumbled for the light switch.

  My fingers searched along the wall until I found the switch and flicked it up. I had to blink a couple of times as light flooded the empty room, my eyes darting around the opulent furniture, looking for signs of my bestie. I stilled when I heard a click and whirled around to find Drake leaning back against the door, his fingers resting on the lock.

  “I thought we could use some alone time,” he said with a grin, his words slurring even more as he swayed a little on his feet.

  “Drake,” I said, trying to keep my voice level and not show my fear, “I’m not comfortable with this. I want to leave.”

  “But you just got here.” His voice held a little whine.

  “You knew Emi wasn’t in here.” I kicked myself for my gullibility as Emi’s warning from the first day of school echoed in my mind. ‘Most of the guys are your typical knuckle-dragging jocks, but some of them can be kind of dangerous, so never let yourself be backed into a corner with one of them.’

  “Yeah.” He smirked, looking me up and down. “I just thought we could have a little fun, you know?”

  My blood ran cold as goose bumps broke out along my skin. My alcohol addled brain instantly sobered as I took in my surroundings. Drake was standing between me and the door, and by the hungry look on his face, he wasn’t about to let me past in a hurry.

  “I’m going to have to take a hard pass on that,” I said, trying to stop my voice from shaking.

  “Come on, Ali,” he said as he edged closer like a predator to its prey. “I know you like me… you should loosen up a little.”

  His face was so close that I felt his breath on my face, but I refused to back up, knowing that my knees would soon hit the bed. The music downstairs thrummed loudly, reminding me that no one would hear me if I screamed.

  I felt as weak and powerless as I had during my vision when I’d met the Jet. No, I thought. This was nothing compared to everything I’d been through and what I was probably going to have to suffer if that thing ever got free. I wouldn’t let myself be a victim to this brainless idiot.

  “I really need to leave now,” I told him, giving him one last chance to realize that I was not into this.

  “Don’t be like that,” he purred, trying to sound alluring as he reached out to stroke my face.

  I slapped his hand away as he reached for my shirt. “Seriously, quit it and let me the hell out.”

  He sprang back as my knee came up and hit him squarely between the legs, making him roar in rage and backhand me so hard I was flung to the side on impact.

  “You really shouldn’t have done that,” he warned.

  I glared at him, trying to sit up as dark spots danced in my vision. I licked at my lip, wincing as it stung even worse and the taste of copper filled my mouth.

  I opened my mouth, intending to let out a blood-curdling scream in hopes someone would hear when Drake’s hands curled around my throat and squeezed, turning it into a mewl as I choked, clawing at his hands.

  I had never believed that your life could flash before your eyes when you died, thinking it was just something parents said to make you behave out of fear of seeing the shitty things you did in your life.

  But now I witnessed everything that had happened over the past couple of months in fast-forward. Images whizzed past my eyes faster and faster, and my head pounded as I struggled for breath, until I realized that I was having another vision.

  Three girls stood in a large clearing, their bodies in battle stance as they held their weapons at the ready. I jumped in shock when I recognized myself, my hair slightly longer, the emerald streaks shining in weak sunlight as I held a giant sword that crackled with lightning in my hands.

  One of the girls was blurred, and I knew it wasn’t time to see her yet, but the girl to my left stood out clear as day, her golden blond hair tousled in the wind and her glowing violet eyes hard as she held two long daggers in her hands. But what really drew my attention to the girl were the two huge freaking wings that protruded out of her back—the gold and black feathers matched her hair.

  I caught the me in the vision saying something, though no sound made it to my ears as the other me’s lips moved silently. The ground started to shake and black smoke billowed into the clearing, enveloping the scene.

  I lurched forward as if coming up from underwater. I gasped for breath, the air stinging my tender throat as I looked around the room.

  Drake was pinned against the wall, struggling against the golden waves of energy that was rolling off my body. My hands burned, and I looked down, my eyes bugging as I took in the huge-ass sword from my vision, tipped with the same crackling golden energy.

  I blinked in shock as the polarity changed course. Instead of going out, the energy was sucked back into my body, the sword disappearing once the last vestiges of color was sucked back inside.

  Drake looked at me in horror, shrinking back in fear. “What are you?” His whisper echoed around the silent room.

  “That’s none of your business,” I replied, though somewhat less scary as my v
oice croaked out my response. I stood, grinning as he shrank back even farther into the corner.

  “You might want to think about this moment the next time you try to corner a girl.” I strolled over to him and leaned in, delighting in the whimper that slipped through his lips as I whispered, “No really does mean no, tough guy.”

  My arm coiled and thrust forward, and pain radiated through my fist as it connected with his jaw, making his head snap back against the wall before he slumped, unconscious into a pile on the floor.

  I rose on unsteady legs and rushed out the door, bursting through the party like my ass was on fire as I shot out to my Jeep, slamming the door behind me.

  I slumped in my seat, my head falling back against the headrest as my hands came up shakily to clutch the steering wheel. As the adrenalin faded away, I was once again faced with the familiar hollow feeling, as if the well of power inside had been completely dried up.

  I started the engine, my movements slow and shaky as I drove home, before I collapsed in bed, the wave of exhaustion washing over me. The events of the night thundered through my mind as I fell asleep, but the last thing I heard was that now-familiar whisper.

  “The Ruby has awoken.”

  19

  Alex

  I woke up early the next day, opening my blackout curtains wide as the late afternoon sun poured through my windows, washing over me as I tried over and over again to recreate what had happened the previous night. Without the adrenalin rush, it was far more difficult, but long after the sunset and covered in sweat, I was finally able to produce the shining sword.

  I couldn’t replicate the energy wave that had rolled off me, but I was proud of my progress as I looked at the huge sword in my hands. The smooth metal glinted as golden electricity crackled in the soft light of my room.

  Sighing, I drew the energy back and almost immediately it blinked out of existence. I had a feeling that the vision I had was somehow connected to this new ability. There was no denying the possibility that I was, in fact, one of the three who would stand against the Jet, as I had with the other two girls in my vision.

  I knew on a baser level that the smoke filling the clearing was of his making, and the fact that I didn’t look much different in the vision than I did now meant that it was coming sooner rather than later. I couldn’t get the face of the other girl out of my mind, and I knew that I would need to find her as soon as possible.

  I grabbed a shower as I waited for Jared and Emi to wake up. From the garbled text I’d received from my bestie, I knew they’d been out pretty late. Since she was staying over with Jared, I really didn’t want to interrupt whatever they were doing—I didn’t need to risk that image being ingrained in my mind forever.

  They would be coming to my room to hang out and watch movies before we once again tried to decipher the scrolls and books we’d gathered. It was a long weekend, so we were planning to pull an all-nighter, and I was planning to reveal my new powers after I had time to chill out.

  It was already after midnight by the time the two of them showed up, and by the looks of their hungover faces, they probably could do with another day to recover.

  We all piled on my thick, plush gray carpet, pillows and blankets strewn all around us as we chose to do a Marvel marathon, starting with the Avengers movie before grabbing enough popcorn, soda, and confectionary to fill a movie theater.

  “You still look like crap,” I said cheerily as Emi plopped down beside me after putting on our fifth movie, looking a sickly shade of green as she shoveled popcorn into her mouth.

  She gave me a weak laugh before she clutched her head and groaned. “I feel like it, too. I have never regretted drinking Seth James’ infamous mystery punch more than I do right now.” I smiled at her in sympathy. “So, what happened after I lost you? Why did you leave so early?” she asked.

  I cringed, I had been planning to tell them everything, but I was hoping to have a little more downtime before getting into last night’s events. I stared at my lavender wallpaper and tucked my short hair behind my ears as I thought of how to phrase it without causing Jared to get arrested for murder.

  “Well, Drake got a little handsy with me…” I started.

  “What?” Jared jumped to his feet. “What did he do? I’ll kill him!”

  “Calm down.” I flapped my hands at him, glad that my split lip and bruises around my neck had already healed. “I’m pretty sure I already scared him enough.”

  “Explain,” Emi demanded. “Now.”

  “I decided that I wanted to head home, I was bored at the party,” I lied, not wanting to get into the whole ‘Roman and Torah’ thing right now. “I bumped into Drake as I was leaving and pretended that I was trying to find you. He took that as a way to get me alone to ‘have some fun.’ I said no, and he got a little rough”

  “He’s a dead man,” Emi growled menacingly, and I cringed. Emi was scarier than Jared when she had a beef with someone.

  “Don’t worry, I already scared him off,” I said. “But anyway, it caused me to have another vision, and I discovered a new power.”

  The other two were finally distracted as I relayed everything I had seen and done, their expressions more and more dumbfounded the closer I got to the end.

  I closed my eyes when I finished, concentrating hard as I stood in front of my window. It was getting harder to draw the sword—my energy depleted from all the practicing I had done earlier—but eventually, I felt the now-familiar tingle of electricity in my fingers before a heavy weight landed in my hands.

  Emi cursed, gaping at it, her words tripping over one another. “It really is a freaking sword! It’s covered in lightning! What the ever-loving freak!”

  As she continued with a whole host of creative expletives that would make even the Devil blush, I looked over to Jared, who held a look of complete disbelief and utter reverence on his face as he stared at the metal in my hands.

  Emi’s strangled gasp brought us out of our daze. I looked over at her horrified face as she pointed behind me to the curtains which had blown open a little at the force of the sword’s energy. The sun had just crept over the horizon, and I was now bathed in its weak golden glow.

  “Oh yeah,” I rubbed the back of my neck awkwardly, “I forgot to tell you guys… Apparently, I’m sun-proof.”

  “How is this even possible?” Jared was pale as a sheet as he stood on the edge of the light, just shy of the golden rays touching him.

  I shrugged. “Just another weird thing to add to the pile of crazy.”

  “How long have you known?” Damn it, Emi looked like a kicked puppy, making my stomach twist in guilt.

  “A couple of months.” I nibbled my lip. “I honestly forgot you guys didn’t know, with all the other insane stuff going on.”

  Jared rubbed his hands over his face with a heavy sigh. “We still need to figure out how the hell you’re going to stop this thing. I think there’s no denying at this point you’re one of the three.”

  Emi nodded. “Based on your visions, we know that we need to somehow find two other women who are part of two races that have been hidden from us for years.”

  I shook my head. “I still can’t believe there are other supes out there. They’re going to have quite a shock in store for them when we find them.”

  I still had the feeling that the book would give us some answers, if only we could translate the thing. I reached out to pick it up, the worn leather cover crackling slightly as I opened it as gently as I could. My brow furrowed in confusion as I stared down as the faded pages.

  “This doesn’t make any sense,” I said in confusion.

  Emi rolled her eyes. “I know it doesn’t; it’s in another language.”

  “No,” I said, “I mean, the book has changed.”

  “What do you mean?” Jared looked over my shoulder. “It looks the same as it did the last time we read it.”

  “No, this part is different.” I shook my head, pointing to the paragraph in question. “See, it�
��s in English now.”

  Jared looked at me as if I had officially lost it. Hell, I probably crossed that bridge long ago. Quickly, I thumbed through the book, hoping to find more pieces of English in the text, but I came up empty.

  “Well, nothing else has changed,” I said, my shoulders sagging in disappointment. “Are you sure you can’t read this?”

  I sank onto the bed, the others careful not to sit near the golden beams of sunlight that now streamed through the window as they shook their heads in denial.

  “Well, what does the part you can read say?”

  I flipped back to the small paragraph that I was able to translate.

  The Prophecy of the Three:

  “The Ruby with the vision, past and future seen;

  The Sapphire with the knowledge, will reveal what has been;

  The Emerald with the courage, creates unity between;

  Three must stand against the darkness;

  Ancient power in their blood;

  The Ruby will gather together;

  Three women to stand for the world.”

  Looking up from the passage, my eyes meet the others. “It stops there, I can’t read any more.”

  The memory of the Ancient who spoke to me in my dreams flashed in my mind. The Ruby has awakened.

  “I’m the Ruby,” I said to the quiet room. “I must be… the one with the visions that has to unite the others somehow.”

  Fear and excitement raced through me, each warring with the other. I now had the answer as to why I was so different, but it only left me with more questions. How I was going to find these girls when a few weeks ago I didn’t even know other races existed? And if I managed to find them, would they even want to help?

  Even then, I had no idea how to be a leader or how the hell we would be able to stop the Jet if he got free. The vision of the three of us getting enveloped in black smoke danced in my mind, making me wish that I’d seen the end just as much as I wished I hadn’t seen that far in the first place.