Ruby Treasure (The Tales of Happily Ever After Series Book 2)

by K. E. Drake

  The stranger was clearly a noble woman. The luxurious, soft silk of her dark golden dress said as much. Gorgeous pearls decorated the hem of her heavy skirt and the front of her snug bodice, and multiple strands of the costly, white beads hung from her neck and lay just above the low cut at her chest.

  The lady looked to be about ten years older than Ruby. Her sleek, black hair was braided and elegantly coiled at the crown of her head, the dark color setting off the warm, honey-gold complexion of her porcelain skin. The noble lady narrowed her striking, dark-gold eyes, her full, red lips turning down in a sharp frown.

  “Can I, um... Can I help you?” Ruby swallowed, uneasy with the heavy feeling that settled on her chest.

  “I’m Duchess Contessa Sinclaire,” the woman began. She didn’t have a moment to waste, so she got right to the matter at hand. “Several months back, I witnessed something having to do with Prince Samuel. I am sure that you are aware of this development, judging by the way the prince was looking at you while you two danced a few minutes ago. You two appeared quite... close.” Duchess Sinclaire wrinkled her nose in disdain.

  Ruby froze. Her heart simultaneously fluttered and began to race at the duchess’ words.

  “I am aware of a certain power the prince possesses, with which he can change into a dragon,” Contessa continued with a haughty smile.

  Ruby tried to breathe, but found it suddenly hard to draw air into her aching lungs. “W-what do you mean?”

  Contessa scoffed. “Come now. You know exactly what I’m talking about.”

  Ruby swallowed hard and wrapped her arms around her stomach as it rolled. “What are you going to do?” she asked, although not sure she wanted to hear the answer.

  “I am going to use this unexpected little twist to my advantage, of course.” Contessa’s lips twisted into a cold smirk. “Now, you have a choice: leave before your precious prince returns from the wild goose chase I sent him on, or I’ll announce to the entire kingdom about their royal’s magic. And even you must know what would mean...”

  At the duchess’ cruel threat, thoughts filled Ruby’s mind of the dragons of old that were hunted down and slaughtered. Thoughts haunted her of Samuel and his family being feared, cast out, or even killed for their power, and her blood ran cold.

  Ruby slowly shook her head, trying to calm her painfully pounding heart. “No. No, I can’t let you do that. I’ll tell the prince what you told me.” Samuel will know what to do. I just need to find him, she thought, trying to reassure herself. She stepped past the noble woman to go and try to find Samuel.

  Contessa shook her head once and stepped in front of her with one fluid movement, blocking Ruby’s path. “You misunderstood what I said. I told you to leave before Samuel came back. If you even attempt to seek out the prince to inform him of what happened, I will not hesitate to tell this entire room of guests about their beloved prince’s dirty little secret.”

  Tears pricked the back of Ruby’s eyes, but she straightened her shoulders, forcing her quiet voice not to waver when she spoke. “Why? Why are you doing this? What could you possibly have to gain by hurting him?”

  Contessa’s golden eyes narrowed. “Let’s just say that by being here, you’re standing in the way of something that I want. Now, if you want to protect your prince’s secret, you will leave now without seeing him again. If you don’t comply, the entire kingdom will know of his magic before the evening is over.” Her warning given, the duchess turned on the heels of her golden shoes and flounced away from the quiet girl without another word.

  The air rushed from Ruby’s lungs and she wrapped her trembling arms around her stomach as she struggled to breathe. Her legs became weak and she didn’t trust them to hold her. She slowly rested her back against the wall again and her shoulders pressed against the cold marble.

  What am I going to do? she frantically wondered. I can’t just leave him, but I can’t speak to him of what happened, or the duchess… Ruby breathed shakily and clutched the top layer of her skirt in her tight fists, still uncertain of what she was going to do, of what would be best for Samuel and his family.

  She pushed away from the wall and moved a couple steps towards the crowd, pensive. Her eyes swept over the throng of dancers, and her heart sank.

  Samuel came back into the ballroom from the same doorway through which he had left. The young prince looked troubled as his gaze swept over the crowded ballroom and the dance floor littered with couples swirling to the fast-paced music.

  He was looking for her.

  Ruby hurriedly retreated and pressed herself back against the wall to conceal herself from the prince’s sight. Stinging tears filled her eyes and her aching heart felt like it was about to burst from her chest. Her decision made, she clutched her skirts tighter and turned back towards the stairs. She darted out of the hidden space and wove through the throng of guests that lingered around the perimeter.

  Samuel spotted her though the crowd then and called out her name over the music and the noise, loud enough for it to reach her ears.

  He tried to go to her, but crowds of couples happily revolving to a lively court dance separated him from her.

  She kept going and she skidded, slipping and nearly falling on the polished floor. She heard Samuel call again, and she quickly recovered and ducked into the endless group of dancers. She muttered quick apologies as she wove around, sped past, and cut through each couple that had to stop in the middle of the floor as she darted past. Gasps and exclamations and the swoosh of displaced skirts surrounded Ruby, but she kept going.

  Somehow, she made it out of the crowd and came to the base of the staircase without Samuel catching up to her. She then poured every ounce of energy she had into her pace, hastily flying up the steps two at a time.

  As she neared the top of the staircase, Ruby slowed and braved a glance over her shoulder. Samuel was trying to push past a group of noble women crowding around him now that he was no longer accompanied by the young lady who had stolen his attention.

  “Stop that girl!” the prince shouted as more women positioned themselves in front of him, blocking his path.

  Ruby’s aching heart thundered and she turned and flew up the rest of the steps. She was just able to slip out the doors and past the doormen as they let a young couple enter the ball.

  The doors shut with an ominous thud behind Ruby, shutting out the sounds of the ball and leaving her in the solitude of the cool, candlelit foyer. She looked back and forth in a moment of uncertainty before she rushed to the main entrance of the palace. The doormen posted there were barely able to haul the doors open before she dashed out into the warm night air. She looked back as the doors to the palace closed firmly behind her and she promptly collided with something hard.

  With a startled yelp, Ruby stumbled backwards and almost fell, but a gentle pair of hands grasped her arms and steadied her.

  She looked up and gasped. “Mage Grimm!”

  “Where are you going, Lady Ruby? Is something the matter?” He tilted his head, though his lips were quirked slightly upward.

  “I need to leave now, or something terrible is going to happen.” Ruby’s words rushed out as she cast another quick glance over her shoulder at the eerily silent palace doors. She moved to step past the silver-haired mage, but he held out an arm, blocking her path.

  Grimm nodded. “Come with me.” He took her hand and ran with her, pulling her down the tall palace stairway. “Where do you want to go?”

  “To Omrie. To the Trent estate,” Ruby answered a second before the doors to the palace burst open and the prince emerged at the top of the staircase.

  She stumbled and her glass slipper fell from her right foot. “My shoe!” she gasped and looked back to where it now lay alone on the step.

  She tried to stop to go back for her shoe, but Grimm tightened his grip on her hand. “There’s no time,” he said at the same time Samuel called to the soldiers at the base of the staircase. “Guards, stop them!”

  Several un
iformed guards lunged forward at the command of their prince, and Ruby yelped and ducked closer to the mage.

  Grimm’s free hand shot into the air and silver sparks of magic danced about his fingers. He swiped his hand through the air before he and Ruby sped past the soldiers and into the large, cobblestone courtyard.

  Every last one of the guards suddenly froze in place, shock and surprise written on their faces as they tried uselessly to pull themselves free from the invisible bonds holding them.

  “You want to go back home, then?” Grimm pondered aloud.

  Ruby stumbled over her own feet at the magic user’s observation. “How do you...?”

  “There’s no time for me to explain now,” Grimm stated and led her through a maze of rows of empty carriages at the side of the palace. “I have a magic spell that can send you to your home, but I have to be careful when using it. If I’m not sure where exactly I’m sending myself or someone else, I could end up transporting them into the air or even to the bottom of the sea.” The mage explained the dangers of his powers with a gleaming grin, not even winded as he led Ruby deeper into the maze of lavish carriages.

  “Thank you.” Ruby asked the young magic user. “What about you? What will you do?”

  “Don’t worry about me. I only came to the ball this evening for you.” Grimm’s dazzling, silver irises sparkled brilliantly in the pale light of the stars. He brought them to a sudden stop between two carriages near the end of the rows and turned to face her.

  Confused, Ruby opened her mouth to ask the magic user what he meant, but Grimm lifted his hands and began murmuring a short spell under his breath.

  As he finished the transportation spell and lowered his hand back to his sides, Ruby quickly spoke. “Mage Grimm?”

  A slight grin quirked the corners of the mage’s lips up. “Yes?”

  “Thank you. For your help.”

  Grimm’s eyes thoughtfully searched Ruby’s face with a hint of a charming smile. He placed a cool hand to the back of her neck, and Ruby gasped softly as his lips met hers in a soft, surprisingly cool kiss.

  “It was my honor, my lady,” Grimm assured as he pulled back. “I hope that I may see you again sometime.”

  Ruby looked at the mage in startled surprise and then blinked against the nauseating wave of dizziness that overcame her as glimmers of silver magic began to swirl around her. She closed her eyes and swayed slightly as the spinning increased before suddenly falling away from her like a wall giving way. Her legs suddenly gave out and she crumpled onto a layer of soft grass, not the cobblestones of the palace’s courtyard.

  Ruby forced her eyes open, and her breathing came in short, shaky gasps. She sat on the ground at the front of a large, dark-brown building that was a faint outline in the silver light of the twinkling stars.

  A young woman with lily-white skin and soft pink curls tamed in a neat bun sat curled up with a blanket on the wooden swing on the front porch of the familiar estate, reading a book under the flickering firelight of a lantern. She looked up from the book and gaped at Ruby with rounded eyes. Her book slipped from her slack grip and fell to the wooden planks of the porch with a dull thud.

  Ruby closed her eyes again and released a heavy sigh. I’m home.

  Chapter Fourteen

  The Gilded Rose

  Samuel ran through the endless maze of carriages, checking every empty space between the parked coaches. The sound of his quick footsteps hitting the cobblestones echoed in the calm silence of the twilight summer night.

  He wasn’t able to stop and enjoy the peaceful quiet as the silver stars twinkled happily overhead. His lungs burned as he ran, but he kept going, determination fueling his steps. Panic caused his heart to race as questions raced through his mind.

  What happened? Why did she run away? The last time I saw her she was dancing with the mage. She seemed happy then.

  Samuel unwillingly slowed to a stop as he came to the end of the last row of lavish carriages. He sharply spun on his heel and drove his fist into the side of the nearest carriage in mounting frustration. He kept his fist pressed against the side of the carriage and fought to draw in a few ragged breaths of the night air into his tight lungs, trying to calm himself.

  At the ball, one of the young palace page boys had approached Samuel while Ruby was with the mage. The overwrought page had reported to the prince of a conflict between two lords of rival houses and a plea for the prince’s help. Samuel had reluctantly agreed and followed the boy to the study only to find it deserted.

  The remorseful boy had quickly admitted that the whole incident was a ruse and that a noble woman had paid him to lure the prince out of the room.

  When Samuel learned of the ploy, he rushed back to the ballroom, only to have Ruby run from him, ignoring him and his calls for her to stop.

  A thought nagged at Samuel. The only noble that would be so bold as to use one of his own servants to lure him away from the ball and his Ruby was Contessa Sinclaire, the duchess who had been in his life for years now, much to the prince’s regret.

  Contessa was at the ball. If she truly had been the noble who paid the page boy, it was almost certain that she was the reason Ruby ran away from him.

  Samuel abruptly pushed off the carriage and broke out into a full run back in the direction of the palace. He made his way through the cluster of carriages and broke out of the other side of the maze into the palace courtyard. He shortly stopped at the steps of the palace to address the guards posted near the bottom of the long staircase. “Is everyone all right?”

  Each of the soldiers that had been affected by the mage’s magic had taken up their previous positions, weapons in hand and standing in formation. The oldest of the men nodded to the prince and answered, “Yes, Your Highness. We thank you.”

  Satisfied, Samuel only nodded in reply and started back on his path to the palace. He stopped, however, when he came to the sparkling glass shoe sitting by itself in the center of the stone steps.

  A sharp pain stabbing his heart, the prince knelt down on the step and lightly picked up the delicate shoe. He gently brushed a finger over the fragile glass petals of the diamond-like rose, shutting his eyes against the thoughts of Ruby that invaded his mind.

  Ruby was gone, and he didn’t know why. But if he knew the duchess, Contessa was lying in wait for him. Samuel’s eyes snapped open. He turned his gaze up to the doors of the palace, determination setting in.

  The glass shoe still safe within his grasp, the prince bounded up the rest of the steps two at a time, ran back into the palace through the open entrance, and burst through the doors before the men there had a chance to open them.

  The multitude of guests in the ballroom were quietly murmuring to one another over the startling events that had taken place only minutes before. The noblemen and women gasped, startled once more when the ballroom doors were thrown open and their prince ran back into the crowded room.

  The light tune that the musicians had begun playing quickly quieted and the murmurs began buzzing throughout the room again.

  Determination fueled Samuel’s steps as he flew down the stairs, his mind focused on Duchess Sinclaire. His eyes scanned over the throng of guests, searching for the noble woman.

  He noticed his mother and father across the ballroom, moving around the crowd, attempting to calm the ruffled guests.

  As he stepped off of the silver staircase, Samuel saw Duchess Sinclaire standing apart from a group of young noble ladies near the edge of the currently empty dance floor. She hadn’t been hard to spot. Her gaudy, golden ensemble and her haughty stature made her stand out from the rest of the ladies in the crowd.

  The guests quieted again and watched the prince with interest. The king and queen stopped when their son rushed back into the ballroom. They exchanged worried glances and edged closer when the prince approached Duchess Sinclaire.

  “Where is she, Contessa?” Samuel demanded, stopping only inches in front of her. “What did you do to her?”

  T
he smirk on Contessa’s lips slipped as she fixed an innocent look on her face. “Your Highness, I assure you, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “Don’t play coy with me, Contessa,” Samuel growled quietly. “You know what I’m talking about.”

  Contessa laughed lightly, a sound that grated on Samuel’s fraying nerves. “You don’t mean to tell me you’re worried about that girl, are you?” She glanced down and saw one of her young rival’s glass shoes in Samuel’s hand. She quietly scoffed in disdain and turned her golden eyes back up to the prince.

  Samuel clutched his fingers tighter around the slipper. “What did you do to her?”

  The duchess flippantly flicked her fingers through the air. “Samuel, darling, she was in the way, we don’t need her.”

  “Where is she, Contessa?” he demanded, losing all of his patience with the noble. Noble by birth, she may be, but there was nothing noble about her in Samuel’s eyes. His Ruby was more noble in heart than she could ever be.

  Contessa’s smirk returned to her lips. “Well how am I supposed to know? The girl ran out of here quite a few minutes ago. That was the last I saw of her.”

  The young prince used his extra inches to glare down at the duchess. “Contessa, you’ve been a trying part of my life for far too long now. You are to not set foot in this palace or to speak one more venomous word to that girl again. Leave, Contessa, and don’t return.”

  Though the duchess’ face remained impassive, something flickered through her dark eyes. “But I love you.”

  Samuel’s eyes narrowed. “Contessa, since we first met years ago, you’ve made it painfully clear that all you wanted from me was wealth and position. What you feel for me, what you want from me, that isn’t love. Love wants someone because of who they are, not because of what they have.”

  The prince’s mind drifted back to thoughts of Ruby. A feeling of warmth settled over his heart as he remembered the many, quiet nights of their journey that they spent under the stars. Ruby encouraged and shared his love for adventure. If not for this, they wouldn’t have met.