IN ANOTHER LIFE , josie saltzman ✔️

42. Into the Dark

In the last few weeks, Ruby and I have scoured the whole library. Read through hundreds of books that contained any mentions of the founding bloodlines, the Order of the Blue Moon and Ruby Hale herself. Cross-referenced any mention on the Order with the killing of the revilas of the founding bloodlines. We've been either in the library or in Ruby's cottage behind a clearing in the forest near the castle the entire time. I had made myself a cup of tea before continuing to read the book on the founding bloodlines. "Hale, Lilith which was changed later to Craven, and Chamberlain.. those are the only important surnames I can make out in all this. I don't get it... These are relatively new, traces back to six hundred years. But Sophia shouldn't be mentioned all the way back to this year. It should've stopped like three hundred years ago when she rejected the crown and got punished for it." I thought out loud. "Admittedly, being regent and then queen consul is far better than being queen herself, but who I am to say anything in this matter." I added and then continued to read. To me, much of this didn't make sense.

"No offense, but I get why the last name Hale traces back so long. I mean you're a pretty big deal." She suddenly interrupted me and snorted, "Pretty big deal..." She mumbled, chuckled and turned a page in her book. "But Sophia... Sophia's the best of us. The most intelligent, kindest." Ruby interrupted me again. "Prettiest." She whispered and I looked up. Raising an eyebrow at her statement, she looked up from the book after seeing my glance and shrugged, "What? It's true. The girl's a goddess." She mumbled again toward the end but I'd heard her anyway. I looked back down and traced a name with my finger. "Maybe." I whispered and looked up. Ruby raised an eyebrow and looked me up and down shortly, before she lowered her head again. "Yes, you're pretty, too. Now, go back to the books. There's still so much information that we haven't gone through." She said and I stood up. I thought about my words and the texts in the books again. "Ruby, snap out of it, that's not what I meant!" I said and she looked up again before she put the book away. "Okay, Miss Know-It-All, what do you mean?" She sighed and then a smile crept on her lips. "We know Sophia's the only Chamberlain left, right? But, and hear me out, what if we could get into the throne room and access the servers? That'd show us all dead and alive Chamberlain family members." Ruby sighed loudly and fell flat on her back. "The family name is as old as I am. We'll never be able to even find Sophia in all this." She said and I chuckled.

"I hate you, you know that?" She said as we walked along the hallway that lead us to the throne room. We took a right turn and then opened a double door before we continued our path in another hallway. "No, you don't." I said and she glared at me. But then she huffed out air and shook her head, "No, I don't. You're lucky." She told me and I laughed. "I am lucky. It's like I said all those times before. It's better to be friends than foes." We took a left and she groaned at the sight of another hallway. "You never said that. Besides, where the hell is that throne room?" She asked, now visibly annoyed that we walked along another hallway. I chuckled as we reached the bottom of a staircase. "Sophia told me they rebuilt the castle after an attack. I'm not gonna lie, I thought you'd be so stupid as to try and get in here." I laughed and then felt Ruby's elbow in my ribs. "Ow!" I shouted and she smiled like the doofus she was. We went up the staircase, took another few lefts and rights and walked through another hallway before we finally stood infront of the wooden double doors that led to the heart of the castle. "Remind me again, why not use portals?" She asked and my mouth opened slightly. "Um..." I stammered and she rolled her eyes. "It's been awhile since I used my magic, okay? I forgot about the portals!" I shouted after her as she walked into the empty throne room. I followed her quickly and pushed the doors shut. I turned around and looked around the great room.

"I mean, I've only been in here with shackles around my wrist and a spell on myself. But um, I think there were some monitors here before." Ruby told me and I looked from her stature to the throne. "Yup, someone cleared the whole wide room out." I said and took a seat on the throne. Ruby's silvery laugh echoed throughout the throne room as I pulled my knees to my body. "Feels weird." I whispered and put my hands on the armrests. "Shouldn't be. It's yours." Ruby told me and my eyebrows knitted together in confusion. "Please, I could never." I rolled my eyes. Ruby rustled through paper that were laid out on the big wooden table. "No. I mean it. Leah was all graceful, but not much of an executioner. The ones before her weren't so much as graceful. Olivia ruled with an iron first because she was ruled with an iron first, but she had the kindest soul." She said and I looked up to her. She returned my look and smiled before she stepped towards me until she was directly infront of me, looking up into my eyes, her own glowing in a much different way. "But you... you're absolutely-" I cut her off and chuckled bitterly, "A monster. I'm a monster. There's nothing graceful about me. Apparently, I'm judge, jury and executioner." I whispered and wrangled my hands together. "I've lived a hundred years and killed five times the size of that. I've left my family behind. I've intentionally made all the wrong choices! I'm a monster." I told her and shook my head. "No! No. I refuse to believe that. Yes, you killed people. Hell, you've tried to kill me a few times, but, really, at this point... who hasn't? I'm a walking target." She chuckled and I let out a silvery laugh that echoed through the room. "See? There it is. A smile. We all kill. But we're not doomed to be monsters. We fight when we're pushed. I fought when pushed!" She said and I nodded. "Yeah, the Elders." I whispered after a while and looked up. I saw a shadow which made me push Ruby away, causing her to fall to the ground. "What the-" She cursed. Ruby turned around and scrambled to her feet. The shadow threw something and only as it embedded into the wall behind me, I could make out that it was a dagger. "Stop! Please. She's..." Ruby held out her hand and had her back turned to me. "She's my friend." She said and the shadow stepped into the light before the dagger beside me got magically pulled back.

"She's ready to see her now." The unfamiliar woman in a heavy, black robe with dark red hair told Ruby and the latter looked back to me, a smile on her pink lips. "Only took five weeks." Ruby muttered and I stood up. "Well... better late than never. Let's go." The woman told us and I knitted my eyebrows together in confusion. We left the court and followed the woman into the nearby forest. "Does it have to be the forbidden forest? It gives me the creeps." I groaned and felt a tinge of a headache coming on. "So, what you need to know... redhead's name is Mia de Covazar." Ruby whispered in my ear as we continued to walk side by side behind the redhead. "She's the right hand and if anything ever happens to the grand magicae, she's next in line. She's a sanctus acolyte." Ruby whispered and I raised an eyebrow. "Sanctus acolyte?" I retorted. "Like she said, I'm next in line which means I'm sanctus." Mia turned around to us and Ruby grabbed my arm, pulling me back. "Wanna bet she's likely to die because of that?" I grinned and Ruby shook her head. "Don't." She hissed under her breath. "We're here." Mia said and I looked around before I wrapped my arms around myself. "In the middle of the creepy forest under a full... blue moon." I said confused and enlightened at the same time and looked up into the sky. A blue moon directly over us. "For the next part, I'm truly sorry. But you're not even a neophyte yet, Miss Hale, so you can't know how to get down there." Mia said and her green eyes flashed before she snapped her fingers and I was engulfed in darkness.