“You said my friend would bring help. What kind of help is she bringing?” I feel slightly paranoid that whoever comes will wind up mirroring my own fate.
“She will bring exactly what is needed. She is capable.”
She sounds so certain, her tone soothes away my worries.
We sink into silence. It’s peaceful and still. If I was any good with meditation I’m sure this would be the ultimate experience. I’m sure my mother would have loved it. She was so chill. At least, I’d thought she was. What does an eight year old kid really know about their mom though? Adults are so adept at hiding things they don’t want the world to see. I didn’t even know Clinical Depression was a thing until I heard people in town talking about what my mother did. I couldn’t understand. My mom was always smiling. I didn’t know that was a mask. I thought she was happy, and maybe sometimes she was, but there was a crushing illness inside her that eventually won the war it was waging inside of her. I’ve learned to remember the good times, but some part of me always wonders if those were real and that hollows me out inside. If her smile was only to make me think she was okay, I don’t know how to tell if the good times actually existed for her like they had for me.
I only know how they felt. How I felt when we sat together, holding hands, taking the journey down that yellow brick road together. She loved that movie, and she made me love it too. If only she could know that it really exists. That this magical place that could make her laugh and sing through the pain was where her daughter was always meant to wind up.
If I could tell her, I’d have to leave out the part about my guys. Too much information.
Right now it doesn’t look like I have a choice over staying here. I’m trapped in this frozen abyss with no way out. But if I get out of this? I’m not sure I ever want to go back to the city I was calling home. There’s a mysterious foe to defeat, I guess, before I can make my decision. But I think I’ve already made it. Even if it does mean...
“Wait. Was that creepo right about me being knocked up?”
Aster chuckles. “The pride can smell such things from miles in the distance. So, yes, I believe you must be with child.”
Chapter 36
I’m still reeling from Aster’s confirmation when I start to feel oddly light-headed. Something’s happening in the real world. I can feel it. I just wish I could feel my stomach. See if anything’s different. Common sense tells me it won’t be. It’s been days not months. Not even weeks.
“Your friend has returned with help.”
“About time,” I say, ready to get back. Another minute and I might have started on the slippery slope to insanity. There’s only so much self-reflection a girl can handle.
Another chuckle. I seriously can’t wait to see what this witch looks like. The mental picture is already so strong I’ll be confused if she doesn’t look anything like that actress.
The cold feeling returns and I gasp in a sharp breath as I blink open my eyes. The spell is being broken. It’s dark, but I can see a pint-sized Pearl weaving her fairy-dust around me carefully. Okay, I may have lost my mind after all, because I’m pretty sure my dark-skinned friend was human-sized the last time I saw her.
I glance around and realize to my horror that all of the captives of the ice are being released alongside me. Including the creepy lion-man who masturbated over my imprisonment. He is so about to get his ass ripped out.
Crystal is back in tiger form and paces in a small circle beside me. I watch Aster being freed and the breath is knocked from me. She’s stunning. Vibrant blonde hair tumbling in waves around her shoulders. Big green eyes, clear sun-kissed skin, and a slender figure with an ample chest. She looks like she’s in her late-twenties, at a push. I was way off base.
She smiles at me. “You freed me, Ruby Diaz.”
“My friend freed you,” I correct her just as Pearl stops flying around me and drops to the ground as she returns to her normal size.
Aster shakes her head as she steps down onto the courtyard. “You are the one who took action to come here and free me. The rest is semantics and I will not argue those.”
I hug Pearl and she smiles wryly at me when I step back.
“You get yourself into so much trouble, Ruby.” She shakes her head. She looks a little more polished in a slinky green dress and golden heels, and I notice there’s an emerald pendant around her neck.
“Thanks for coming to my rescue,” I tell her, glancing at Crystal in her tiger form. “Both of you.”
Crystal growls and takes off when the lion-man starts to run. That can’t be good.
“Crystal,” I call out.
She lunges at the running creature and knocks him to the ground.
“Ouch,” Pearl says with a wince.
“He’s a pervert,” I tell her, shrugging. Crystal can do what she likes with him. Just as long as I never have to go near the disgusting creep again.
“So, can I go?” Pearl asks, that same tone in her voice that she had when she talked about Simon before.
“Is Simon waiting for you?”
She flushes. “Not exactly.”
I quit my teasing before I can irritate her, watching Crystal snap at the creep’s shoulder. He groans loudly and I see blood drip from her jaw. I remember the shard of mirror piercing the lion-man’s skin and I call out urgently, “No, Crystal. You can’t.”
She stops, looking confused. He doesn’t get up when she moves off him, but he starts crawling away once she’s moving back toward us.
“You don’t want murder on your conscience,” I say, catching Aster nodding at me wisely.
Crystal sits down and yawns. Pearl raises her eyebrows.
“So, can I go?”
“Uh, yeah, but how did you get here?” I realize she showed up long after I called on her and with Crystal in tow. She was the help Crystal went to get? But how?
“I guess we all drank both cocktails,” Pearls says, shrugging. “We can each call on the other once. You’ve called on both of us now so I guess you can’t anymore. Crystal called me here this time.”
Horror fills me. “What? No. No way. This can’t be the last time I see you.”
She shoots me another wry smile. “So, I guess you’re staying instead of going home too?”
“You’re staying in Neverland?” I can’t believe I never even thought of that.
She nods. “I think Crystal’s staying where she is too.”
“Where is Crystal?” I ask as I realize we didn’t get much of a chance to talk. I glance at her and she shifts, looking sleepy and with blood coating her mouth.
Crystal glances at Pearl and a pinch of fairy dust later, she’s wearing a blue dress and the blood is gone. She looks back at me.
“I’m living in Cinderella’s Castle, and Pearl is right. I’m not going home either.”
“I can’t believe this is the last time I’ll see you,” I tell her, taking her hands.
She smiles. “You don’t need to believe that. Neither me or Pearl have called you to help one of us yet.”
“Well it makes me feel so much better that I’m the one who needs all the help,” I tell them.
“Everyone needs a little help sometime, Ruby,” Crystal tells me quietly, before pulling me into a hug. “I’ll miss you.”
“Me too,” I say, choking back tears.
I can hear the dazed voices of a dozen people all around us and the soothing tone of the good witch telling them all they’re free now. It becomes background noise to my own sobbing. I’m going to miss Crystal so much. I saw her every damn day for years.
“We’ll find ways to visit one and other,” Pearl says softly. “Once the dark curse is gone.”
I step back from Crystal and I wipe at my eyes, not quite believing that I’m the one in tears for once. I’ll blame the pregnancy, I decide. Even if it’s barely a day in.
“The Curse of Midnight,” Crystal says. “When darkness falls something comes to bleed the magic from the land.”
“It w
as just called the Darkness for me,” I reveal, wondering why it’s the same all over. “I was attacked by a shadowy creature under water. I’m not sure if there’s one or many.”
Pearl frowns. “We think the treasure on our ship is cursed, but we can’t figure out how to get rid of it without becoming cursed.”
Well, that’s different. I look at Crystal.
“It’s a possession where I am. Takes over the bodies of my suitors. It’s trying to get to me. To kill the last princess in the land.”
Okay, I don’t even know where to begin with that. “It sounds like we all have work to do.”
Pearl nods. “I’ll be on my way, if that’s all right?”
Crystal nods and Pearl disappears. Crystal folds her arms, as if she’s going into defense mode with me. Like she’s expecting me to say something mean.
“Sorry for anything mean I ever said to you, Crys. You’re my best friend in this whole world, or worlds now, I guess, and I just didn’t know how to stop being a bitch. I’m so fucking sorry.”
The shock on her face is so raw. It makes me feel even worse. Am I that much of a bitch that it’s this hard to believe when I’m not?
“I know you don’t mean it when you’re angry, Ruby. You get so mad you can’t think straight. It’s just hard to deal with sometimes when you lash out. Thanks for apologizing.” She hugs me briefly this time and I swallow the lump that’s forming in my throat. What the hell is going on with me right now? I’m turning into a weeping mess.
“I have to go. Will you be okay?” she asks.
Will I? Right now I feel torn to pieces. I ran away from my mates and I’m stuck in the Emerald City without magic and without a friend. What the hell am I going to do?
The Good Witch touches my arm and smiles reassuringly. Her soft voice is sharper in reality, but it’s still tonally soothing. “She will be just fine, sweet child. You can go back to your princes, Your Highness.”
Crystal smiles and I raise an eyebrow at her. “Princes?”
She shrugs. “You have lions.”
“I hope they know how amazing you are,” I tell her.
“Oh, they know,” she says, her blue eyes twinkling. “See you around.”
She blinks out of existence and a hollow feeling descends over me.
“You wish she could have stayed,” Aster tells me, entwining her arm with mine. “But she has her own path to walk, as do you.”
I let her lead me out of the courtyard. It’s not like I have anywhere else to go.
“Where are we going?” I ask, as if it matters.
“Home,” she says lightly, as we walk towards the gates out of the Emerald City. “There’s no place like it, after all.”
Chapter 37
I start to panic at the thought of being led back to the cottage in the woods. Aster’s home. Where I killed one of the members of the full-blood lion pride. My stomach churns as I fill up with dread.
I’m not ready to admit what I did. Not out loud. Not as a confession to someone I just met.
But it could be dangerous to go back there. If one of his pride brothers or sisters found him, there could be hell to pay. I can’t just lead Aster back there knowing this.
I stop before we veer off into the woods. She glances at me curiously.
“There is nothing to be afraid of, Ruby.”
The woods look dark, kind of spooky. That’s not what makes chills run down my spine though. It’s not why I panic at the thought of stumbling through the trees in my heels.
“We can’t go to your house.”
“We must,” she tells me. “I have potions there that will allow us to track your mates. It is very strange that they haven’t moved hell and high water to find you, Ruby. Lions take their mating bonds very seriously.”
Oh, fuck. “Are you saying they could be in danger?”
“I am saying it is odd that they are not at your side. Let us not make any assumptions until we cast our spells.”
“I don’t have any magic right now,” I remind her.
She smiles patiently at me. “That will soon change. Let us be quick on our feet. The creature that cursed me prefers nightfall to visit these lands. I do not wish us to fall foul of his mischief.”
I follow her when she moves forward, not sure how to make my protests. I don’t want her to know I’m a murderer. At the same time, I can’t stay quiet and just hope that monster’s body vanished into thin air before his people could come looking for him.
“Aster, I need to tell you something.”
She turns, and her expectant gaze makes my stomach squirm.
“Yes?” she asks when I don’t immediately speak.
Ugh. This sucks. “I was in your house with Warner before. He brought me there. I’m wearing your dress because mine got ruined.”
She nods. “I assumed as much.”
“That’s not what I need to tell you,” I say, clearing my throat. “One of the pride was in the house when I um, awoke. I didn’t know what to do when he made it clear I was as good as dead.”
“The pride is not known for their subtlety. They do not like your mates. They would not like to see them breed. You must come into your full powers soon, Ruby. Or you will be in grave danger as long as you stay this close to the Emerald City, where they live.”
Okay, I was kind of expecting to find out they live here. No big surprise there. But the other thing?
“They’ll try to kill me because I’m going to have half-breed children?”
She nods. “They are vicious creatures who cannot suffer half-breeds to live.”
“I don’t feel so bad telling you I accidentally killed the one who came after me now.”
She smiles tightly. “It is just as well you did. Otherwise you would be the dead one.”
Well, that’s a weight off. Not saying it isn’t going to haunt my nightmares for a long fucking time, but at least I know it was him or me.
“How do you know all this?” I ask as we start to move again.
“I spend a great deal of time with your Warner. Or at least I did, until I was trapped by that curse.”
Explains how he was so relaxed in her house, I guess. “He doesn’t speak.”
“He believes it is a waste of time,” she says. “He is able to communicate in other ways.”
In other ways? Why does that feel seedy when her tone is nothing but ordinary? Suddenly, I’m wondering if he was so good at pleasuring me because he had a teacher?
“We were never physically intimate,” she tells me. “But he did have a short-lived romance with one of the pride. A very short-lived romance.”
“Oh.” I don’t even know how to digest that. “Um, what happened?”
“The girl was curious about the outcasts and became drawn to him because he used telepathy to communicate with her. Spoken words are not always highly valued among the pride. Actions are preferred. Telepathy is common. They use it to show each other what needs to be done. He used it to show her who he was, and it became something from there. So then the pride found out one of their females was running around with a half-breed. And they dealt with it.”
Okay, that doesn’t sound murdery at all. “That’s why he has the scars?”
“Yes. It’s also why he struggles with restlessness. He barely survived but he managed to protect his brothers from harm and kill the pride member they sent after him. I healed his wounds with a spell that required a price. He’s cursed now to never truly settle. He will always need to spend extended periods of time alone. That was the cost to save his life.”
Well, that’s a lot. “I did think it was strange that he took off after saving me from the poppy field and bringing me to your house. I know he’s prone to wander, but it seemed like an odd thing for him to do.”
“It was not by choice,” she says softly. “He has none when it comes to his restless spirit.”
She starts to walk again. We’re almost at her cottage. I can tell by our surroundings, even in the dark.
&nbs
p; Trepidation fills me when it comes into sight. I don’t want to see that dead body again. I don’t want to stare at it knowing that was my doing. I couldn’t stomach it.
“Can we use magic to move the body?” I ask, my voice trembling.
We walk to her front door. It’s ajar. I don’t remember if I closed it in my rush to leave. Still, seeing it like this makes me nervous. What if someone did come looking for the lion-man I killed?
Aster goes inside the house and lights the candles with a flick of her wrist. I hesitate to close the door behind us. The kitchen and living room are joined and they’re empty. Nothing looks ransacked. Relief is slow in sinking over me. Aster moves into the hallway that leads to the bedroom. I don’t want to look. I pace a little in the living room.
“Oh my,” Aster says as I hear her heels clicking across the floorboards.
She stops and I hear her mutter some inaudible words before she comes back down the hall and into the room.
“There was no body, but there was a lot of blood.” She frowns deeply. “What did the lion look like that came into this house?”
“Um, he was big and he had red eyes.” I shrug, crossing my arms. “He was fucking terrifying.”
“They have a few enchanted members of their pride. Lions who are basically immortal. If one of them was sent to hunt you, we can be sure he’ll continue to do so.”
“I threw a shard of mirror into his heart.” I don’t believe this. He isn’t dead?
“Someone must have removed it.”
“That can’t be possible.”
“There was a big shard of glass in the pool of blood in the hall. Someone must have removed it.”
Holy fucking shit. “So what you’re telling me is there’s an assassin out there who’s impossible to kill, and he’s going to keep coming after me until I’m dead.”
“Or until you leave this place,” she reminds me. “If you complete your task, you can go home to your own world.”
So my choice is dead or jobless and friendless. I’m not sure which is worse right now, to tell the truth.
Ruby’s Pride Page 16
