Half of Ruby

Chapter 48

"I—what—"

Ruby jerked away from the ghastly man as he strode towards her, eyes bright and exhilarated, sickening in their brightness.

"Your present. Do you want to see it?"

She swallowed, unable to hide her trembling as she stared down at the earthen floor. Blood pounded through her ears as she knit her hands together, trying to still her shaking form.

Thyrema and Delcah. The two sisters. The sight of Vaelan's crumpled body, the blood splattered on the flawless mahogany floor burned through her as a scream curled in her throat, choking her as she tried to force away the images.

Vyella and Kalahn...they had only been around eight, nine. They stood no taller than Ruby's elbow. And yet they had seen their father killed before their eyes. And yet Vyella...Vyella had been mauled.

With a jolt, she remembered something from her Regeneration—something Ember had heard from the Ombretroix Coven about Constance's story.

Vyella and Vaelan had both been mauled. But Vaelan hadn't been mauled—he'd been killed. Murdered.

And the baby Queen Delcah had held—her baby—she'd looked at with such contempt, such hatred. Ruby shuddered as she realized that she had been that baby, that infant....

She reached over her right shoulder and touched her back.

Dr. Merlan. Hadn't he, before her Regeneration, found something strange on her back? A strange flame-like pattern....

A chill swept through her.

Delcah—my mother—had burned that into me.

Queen Thyrema had refused to reveal Constance's—Ruby's—whereabouts even at the cost of her husband's life. But why was she so...so paranoid now? Why did she want to kill Ruby?

Was she really afraid that Ruby would usurp the throne?

She pressed her eyes shut as spots swam through her vision, nauseatingly bright against the darkness.

And Astaria, too...pain lurched through her as she remembered the woman with eyes as blue as sapphires, lips as red as garnet, hair as dark as onyx. That had been her mother.

No, her adopted mother. Thyrema was her aunt and first adopted mother. Astaria was her second.

Astaria. She'd lost her biological child, her husband, and had somehow found the will and strength to take in Ruby. To raise her as her own.

Tears blurred Ruby's vision as she opened her eyes.

I miss you, she thought. She had never known how much power those three words could bear, how much weight and pain. I miss you beyond what words could possibly express.

"Do you need more time?" asked the man before her. "We have plenty."

"No, no, I'm fine—"

"Or would you like to return now? I understand that your past is harder to bear than others'. Though, I admit, Vyella's was pretty cruel too."

Ruby shook her head vigorously. "No. I need to see what's going on in the present and future. You have to show me."

The man shrugged. "If you really wish for it."

"I do."

He nodded. "Are you ready?"

"Yes."

Ruby took a deep breath as he gestured silently towards the door in the middle, an intricate silver carving of a labyrinth. The thin lines dizzied her as she fixed her gaze on the knob in its center.