Ruby tossed her head back to rest on the bench rail and looked up at the glass domed ceiling of the station. The morning light poured in heavy beams, brightening sections of the station and its occupants like a prison flood light. She felt trapped. In this station. In her role. In her entire life, really. Sitting in a prison of her own creation, waiting for a runaway train that might never show. Maybe her dad was right, and she should just walk away before it was too late.
“Shouldn’t be long now,” Nola elbowed her in the side, shooting a jolt of energy through her. “You might want to be less of a bore on the train, though. It’s a long enough ride as it is.”
“Right. Sorry. Just tired I guess.” She straightened up and hugged her knees into her chest, her right hand lightly holding the bulge in her pant leg that disguised the dagger holster. Zag’s mold worked like magic and despite its new size, she could feel the immense power of the sword in the dagger she now carried. Small but deadly, he told her when he handed her their creation. He wasn’t kidding, she could do a lot more damage with this blade now that she could use it discreetly.
“Didn’t sleep much?” Leah slid next to her on the bench, her eyebrows dancing while she pointed to Liam. “Long night, huh?”
“Maybe we should separate them for the rest of the trip? Make sure they get their beauty sleep.” Nola laughed.
“You two are idiots,” she scolded them and got up.
Ruby walked closer to the edge of the platform, her attention settling on the tracks below. Shifting her gaze across their metal and breathing deeply in and out. They seemed to go on forever, all the way out of the station and to the end of the world. She wished she could hop over the edge and follow them to wherever they might lead. Another life maybe. One where she didn’t have to wake up in cold sweats worrying about someone else’s safety. A life that didn’t include Demas or his beastly vengeance. Where she could spend her days worrying about classes and fighting with Liam about foolish little things like what to eat for dinner or who did the dishes last. A happy ending of sorts.
Her fingers traced around the scars on her arm, the memory of them pushing its way from her stomach, to her throat. Choking her from the inside. She hated them. She hated them and the man who gave them to her. The demon who stood in the way of the life she so hopelessly craved. The bastard. Filthy, disgusting prick.
Heat caressed her veins, tingling to jump out and burn everything around her into ashes. The same ashes they found around Sam’s body. The ashes she would make sure surrounded Demas when she finally dealt with him. The color in her fingers started to turn to a maddening, fiery red. She was burning, here in front of everyone, and she didn’t care. She was over all of it. As the fire within her intensified, threatening to expose her, she felt a different heat wrap around her waist. Ruby leaned back as strong arms tightened themselves around her.
“I got you,” Liam whispered into her ear from behind. His breath as quiet and as sweet as she remembered. “You’re okay.”
She let him rock her back and forth until the flames were nothing but small puffs of smoke, barely visible to anyone but them. They must have looked like two lovers on a trip. Rocking like fools to a non-existent song that played only for them. Maybe we have no happy ending, she thought and rested her head on his shoulder. Maybe all we get is this.
The blaring horn of the train coming into the station intensified the rushing of passengers on the platform and as the tracks disappeared beneath its shadow, she closed her eyes. Whatever ending she was meant to have; she was glad it was with him.
Chapter 14
Fight
“Oh my God, what is that?” Nola chirped, gawking at Leah’s full plate of food.
Ruby had joined them in the dining car a few hours after they left Westerlake in hopes of getting rid of the claustrophobic feeling circling her chest. The new surroundings did not do much to calm her, offering instead a dimly lit, Dineresque lunchroom packed to the brim with passengers. She scooted closer to Leah on the faux-leather bench seat in order to avoid the three kids running up and down the aisle. The space was only big enough to fit two rows of booths on either end, and every time one of the children ran through, they hit Ruby’s elbow with a loud, unapologetic thud. She usually liked children but, in this case, she found herself wondering if she should dare stick her leg out on their next round.
“Lemon-pepper cod, mushroom lasagna, and a sugar free Jell-O.” Leah answered with a tone resembling that of a butler from the movies. “What?” Her arms flailed up in question.
“Nothing,” Nola’s face scrunched, “looks like a hot mess, is all.”
Leah’s face was stern at first but moments later her mouth twirled upward, and a loud giggle filled the car. She scraped the fork across the top layer of the lasagna with a disturbed look, “It was literally the only three things that looked like actual food. I feel like I’m eating on the set of The Martian or something.”
“I’m pretty sure they didn’t have lasagna on Mars,” Ruby teased, finishing the last bite of her chicken salad sandwich. “Why didn’t you just get the pizza?”
“Oh, you know. When in Rome.”
“Leah, what the hell does that even mean in this case?” Nola’s voice pierced through the dining car.
“I’m just saying, it’s on the menu for a reason. Geez. Are you always this hostile?”
Nola rolled her eyes and turned to stare out the window, her face holding the usual stern expression she wore when she wanted to tell someone off but thought better of it. “Keep pushing me and you’ll find out.”
“Okay, let’s just calm down,” Ruby said. “Save that for when we get to Dalhurst.” She waited until the kids made another pass by them before grabbing her plate and sliding out of the booth. “I’m going to walk around, stretch my legs a little. You two behave, please?”
She didn’t bother looking back to see if Leah and Nola had started speaking again, dumping her plate in the cleaning dock at the back and rushing into the next car. As she walked down the cramped hall of the train she wondered if Liam was still sleeping. When Leah came to get her earlier, he was out cold. In fact, if Ruby hadn’t seen his chest move up and down occasionally, she would have been worried enough to check for breathing.
Her footsteps slowed the further she got from the noise of the dining car and she marched forward with a calm intensity, spying bits and pieces of life outside of the train windows as she passed them. Blurred, rapid shapes that came into view one second only to be gone the next. Walking down the train hallway, Ruby felt like she was walking through a memory, trying to grasp onto parts to puzzle it together but being too slow to make sense of the entire picture.
“You feeling trapped too?” A familiar voice rang from the right, and she turned around to see Jake reclining in the seat of his cabin, the door wide open for anyone to come in. His golden hair sparkled from the passing light of the world in the window behind him, making him look like a cat playing with its food. “Wanna keep me company?” He purred and patted the seat beside him.
Ruby shrugged her shoulders, walking into the cabin and positioning herself onto the seat across from him instead. No point giving him the wrong idea.
“It’s really stuffy in here, huh?” She smiled, “I know we spend a lot of time underground at the center, but this is like, next level.”
“Yeah, I know. I can’t wait to get to Dalhurst.”
Her face twisted at the name.
“I take it you’re not?” Jake asked, picking up on it instantly.
“Just wish I knew what to expect.”
He quieted for a moment, shifting his gaze to the door as if someone was going to walk in any minute. “Dad says Elena is pretty upset. She won’t show it, of course. But still, she’s devastated.”
“I wish I could help her somehow. Make it all better. I mean, she hasn’t seen them in how many years? I don’t even know. And for such a dumb reason.”
“It wasn’t a dumb reason before. Even you were willing
to give up everything for it.” He watched her with the intensity of a well-trained sniper, and she knew immediately what he meant. When she was willing to give him up to save the Elementals.
“Regardless, family should stick together.”
“Well, with that I actually agree,” he smirked and reached into his blazer pocket. He pulled out a long vape pen that looked like a mix between a ballpoint pen and a rocket ship and brought it to his mouth, taking a deep inhale. The smoke that puffed from his lips filled the cabin until only his blue eyes were shining across from her. Two sapphires in a room full of smoke.
“You know you can get fined for smoking that crap in here, right?”
“I doubt that’s our biggest problem right now.” He said, gesturing at the bulge from the dagger in her pant leg.
Ruby rearranged her legs across the seat, instinctively wanting to be closer to the sword strapped to her. “You think we’ll have to fight? At Dalhurst, I mean.”
“I doubt it. If it really is Demas, we both know he’s not that much of an idiot.”
“So, you think he has something bigger planned?”
“Doesn’t he always?”
“And what does Cyril think?” she asked, genuinely interested in the answer.
“I’m not sure. I think he thinks that he has to help you no matter what. To make up for things, I guess. I told him it won’t be that easy!” He laughed, “Once you have your mind made up, it’d take a miracle for someone to change it.”
She tipped her head to rest on her own shoulder, sighing deeply. “I’m trying, you know. To get over it.”
“I know. I still don’t know why you’re so upset with it though. My dad, I mean. It wasn’t just him who had the sword before. Elena was there too. And a lot of others.”
“It’s hard to explain,” she lied, knowing full well why it was Cyril she despised so deeply. “Maybe because I’ve known him so long.”
“You’ve known me just as long. Do you hate me too?”
“Don’t be an idiot. You’re my best friend. There’s no changing that.” Ruby shoved the sole of her shoe forward, nudging his knee playfully. “Besides, if I hated either of you, you think I’d let you tag along at a time like this?”
“So, I take it you do think we’ll have to fight?”
Her brain swirled the words around, swooshing each syllable over the cells until she made sense of it. She reached for the vape pen, ripping it from Jake’s hand before he could object. “I honestly have no idea.” She said, breathing in the chocolaty flavored smoke into her lungs. The smoke coated her throat in an intoxicating grip, holding her until she was ready to let it go. She watched the smoke that left her mouth rise around them and felt nothing but emptiness.
“You can get fined for that you know,” Jake teased, waving his hand around to flush out the remnants of the smoke.
“Let ‘em try,” she said smiling and handed him back the machine.
Her gaze turned to the window as Jake blew out another cloud of smoke that lingered for a moment before disappearing. She watched the landscape outside roll by, her eyes unable to focus on any distinct detail. Let them try, she repeated to herself. Let them all just try.
Chapter 15
Dalhurst
Dalhurst Central Inn was a sight to take in. Ruby’s mouth salivated as soon as they unloaded the cab and stepped foot in the front foyer. The grand entrance was even larger than her old theories classroom and that place was big enough to fit almost five hundred students. Everything in the hotel screamed luxury and she felt awkward chugging through it in her ripped jeans and rock tee. The hotel customers were no different, dressed to the nines and covered in jewels and designer labels. She caught sight of herself in one of the oversized, golden mirrors near the check in counter and immediately regretted not waiting outside while Elena checked them in. With her hair a braided mess, she was an ugly duckling in a sea of swans. The rest of their party was as wide jawed as her, and she was relieved that out of all of them, only Elena and Cyril looked like that belonged here. Even Jake paled in color as he slouched on a leather two-seater in the inn’s grand reception room.
When Elena finally signed the paperwork and handed her their room keys, she almost sprinted to the elevator, eager to hide from the inquisitive and judging eyes of the staff.
Their rooms were spread randomly across the hotel’s fourteen floors with hers and Liam’s being on the top floor, facing the pond. Of course, there’s a freaking pond here. What would we do without a pond? She thought and clunked her bag on the king-sized bed, pushing one of the ten pillows unto the floor in the process.
She star-fished herself diagonally on the bed, letting out a tired and defeated sigh.
“Well, this place is something, huh?” Liam asked and hopped on the bed next to her. “I bet we can both stretch out and still not touch each other in this bed. It’s huge!”
Ruby pounced on top of him so quickly that he had no time to react. She pushed her bag off the bed with her leg and pinned his hands to his side. “Wanna bet?” she teased, wiggling her eyebrows.
Without answering, Liam spun them around until her back was flat on the mattress and she was pinned beneath him. She wriggled her hips to get out from under him, but it was no use and the motion only made his grin wider. When she realized that there was no escape, she stopped and stared into his playful green eyes, leveling her body to face him straight on. “Oh, don’t stop trying to get away,” he hummed, “I was enjoying that.”
“Maybe I’ll just fall asleep right here. Just to piss you off then,” she teased.
His lips reached for her neck and she arched her back at the touch. He kissed the indent between her neck and shoulder so slowly, running the tip of his tongue across the arch, that she couldn’t help but let a low moan escape her lips. He moved down her arm, kissing every inch of exposed skin until his lips were on the inside of her palm. “Still sleepy?” He whispered into her hand. His other hand lifted her shirt slightly as he moved on to gently kiss the top of her abdomen, slipping dangerously lower to where the zipper of her jeans was screaming to get undone. “How about now?”
Ruby waited until he let go of her other arm and twisted her legs tightly around him. Using all of the strength in her legs she twisted him to the side, landing herself back on top to straddle him.
“Let’s see how you like being teased,” she said in a commanding tone and ripped the snaps of his plaid shirt to expose his upper body. Her hands traced the contours of his muscled chest. Suddenly her breath grew shallow and she felt like someone had sucked the air out of the room. She reached a hand to the mattress to steady herself, hoping to steady the waves in her stomach.
The room spun around her, darkening with every passing turn. The darker it became, the more she was able to see the black fog surrounding her. It coated the room and seeped into each crevice until everything was pitch black under its weight. Ruby trained her gaze on the wall across from her, the painting that was above the bed just seconds ago was gone, replaced now by fog that oozed down in thick drips. Not fog, plasma, she thought, and looked down to the bed at Liam.
A gasp escaped her lips as she realized that he was no longer beneath her. She was completely alone. She turned her head around the room, studying it with disbelief but the more she looked, the faster she realized that she was no longer in the inn. This was somewhere else entirely. Somewhere darker.
The intricately wallpapered hotel walls were replaced by rocky edges. Black plasma oozed down their sides all the way to the fogged floor below. There was no light, no windows. Just a solid darkness that made Ruby feel like she was about to be swallowed whole by it.
“Aether Plane?” she whispered, knowing full well that there was no one there to answer her.
Something was wrong here. This wasn’t the Aether Plane. It may have had some of the same characteristics, the same plasma and shadows, but there was a darkness here that was unlike anything she had felt before. A consuming power that trickled from the ce
iling, to the walls, all the way into her bones.
Ruby reached down to her pant leg. Nothing. The sword wasn’t there. Dagger! Whatever. If the dagger wasn’t with her than this couldn’t be real. She must be having a vision. But of what? And why now? Why this place?
She threw her legs off the bed, splashing something beneath with her boots. When she was fully upright, she gathered the nerve to look down, afraid her vision had her planted in a pool of blood or something just as hideous. Her eyes slowly focused in the dark, looking below herself, then forward. There was no blood, no hideousness. Just water. Dark, still water stretched from her feet all the way to the door at the end of the room. She took one step forward, slowly and carefully. Even if this was a vision, there was no telling what would happen next. But her steps were solid, as solid as if she was walking on the ground.
I’m walking on water here and literally no one is around to see it! She yelled in her head and rolled her eyes.
Her steps quickened and she was at the door in moments, reaching a trembling hand for the handle and twisting it to open. The door creaked and swooshed the dark liquid beneath it as it slowly revealed the other side of the room.
Ruby’s face fell, her lips widening and her eyes growing in size. The oozing rock walls stretched down a never-ending tunnel in front of her with a dark river running through it. She tried to make out where the tunnel ended but her attention drifted to a thudding sound to the left. Her head spun to a small boat rocking at the edge of the tunnel, its hull hitting the rocks of the wall. Beckoning her to take a journey.
“Rue! Rue, wake up!”
Ruby opened her eyes groggily, lifting herself off the bed slightly to look at Liam. His face was drenched in fear, and he was still shaking her even though she was very much awake.
“I’m good,” she said and held her palm up to motion him to stop, “what happened?”
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