Bound || A Twilight Fanfic

Chapter 9

Time seemed to move differently in the face of eternity. A year passed by in a flash and Ruby would not have noticed had it not been for the absence of Beatrice.

She had been preparing for a morning class when the mailman slid a letter through her door's mail slot. She knew it was something that would arrive anytime soon, but she still wasn't ready for when it did. In her hands rested a forest green envelope with gold lettering and her name staring back at her. Of course Ruby knew what it was. But the witch didn't want to believe it had arrived.

"You are cordially invited to the soulbinding ceremony between Beatrice Cabot and Russell Morgan," Ruby said with a scoff. "Guess I should have seen this one coming."

As the spiteful words left her mouth, the witch found herself regretting them. She had said it in solitude, yet she still felt they had reached her raven-haired friend. The wedding was inevitable. After she had left them behind, it was the normal trajectory of their life. Bea would live, she would marry, she'd have children, she would live. They were all things Ruby could not give her, could have never given her.

The wedding was only a day away when the envelope arrived, and it made her think maybe they didn't truly want her there. She had probably been invited mostly out of a formality, but by sending it so close to the date, she believed they were hoping she would show up at all. And maybe she wouldn't. Ruby believed that until she turned the paper over. Behind the thick cardboard, in the same perfectly crafted calligraphy, the words 'Come home' were written. It was a beacon back, a desperate cry for a last solace. Bea hadn't pushed her away; she never had. They had merely become victims of time and space, of busy schedules and raying lifestyles.

But the love? Oh, the love burned bright and hot, lying patiently waiting for the moment it could blaze through everything in its path. Beatrice was Ruby's eternal love. She didn't know there would be another far greater and far grander. But for the time being, Beatrice was love incarnate for the witch. She was the girl's first taste of a love so intense it surpassed societal boundaries and predetermined limitations. A love so pure it wasn't jealous or selfish, greedy or impatient—just love in its most pristine form.

Before she could think twice, Ruby was running through her apartment, searching for that one piece she needed for the celebration. She had been saving it for a special occasion; not that many came around. And this was the most special event of them all. The love of her life had found a version of happy ever after, and that was all she could ever hope for. Bea was going to be happy, and that was enough.

There, in the very back of her bedroom closet, is where she found it, still enclosed in the box her mother had stored it in. It was the most expensive piece her mother had owned, and it wasn't even designer. She pulled the sapphire blue gown out from the tissue paper layer, coughing slightly at the smell of it being stored away. Yet, even after so many years, it was as beautiful as the day her mother had made it.

In those times, the coven had not been doing well financially—no one was—and her mother's younger sister had caught the eye of a particular rich bachelor in the city. Her wedding was set to be grand. It would even appear in the papers. Her mother was happy for her sister, of course, but she would never be able to afford the dress she had picked for her matron of honor.

Ruby had been twelve then, and she'd witnessed her mother have a discussion with Margaret regarding the matter. The rehearsal dinner alone would put a dent in their finances they didn't want to spare. Her mother had thought she would either have to ask her sister's new family for help or not go to the girl's wedding at all.

But the older woman had done something neither Carmine had thought. "I don't have the money for a new dress," she had said. "But I do have enough for fabric. Go ahead, get yourself however much you need, and make yourself the most gorgeous gown this coven has ever seen, Nellie. Make those rich people weep with how beautiful you are."