The Ruby Kiss (32 page)

“Maybe.”
Definitely
. His father would only summon him if he was.

“I hope so.” She paced back and forth, her fingers clenching and unclenching. “I hope he is writhing in agony. I hope he suffers an eternity of torment.” She stopped abruptly and stared into the golden flames leaping from the brazier. She pivoted to face Devin, the filmy scarlet silk of her pants billowing around her legs. “Go to him.” She spat the words out like poison.

Devin bowed low, his fingertips brushing the turquoise cushion at his feet. “Always at your service, my queen.”

He let his physical form dissolve, concentrating on the echo of Troy’s call in the ether. He sensed the cool wind, the whispering trees, and the ancient sleeping rocks of the Scottish Highlands. Finally, recasting in solid form, he found himself on the rocky ledge outside the lair of Dragon’s Welsh Red. But why would Troy be here? Why would he need help? Neither Dragon nor his beast could best him.

At a mewling sound that came from inside the cave, Devin crept into the darkness, his back to the wall. His night vision revealed the outline of the dragon at the back, and moving closer on silent feet Devin made out Dragon’s limp form in the crook of the creature’s body. Mixed emotions surged through him as he stared. He would not mourn Dragon’s loss, but it reminded him that Nightshade was also mortal.

He glanced around the cave, searching for his father. Troy had probably become involved in the fight with Dragon and his beast in order to protect Nightshade, but that didn’t explain why his father was dead. Why his father needed help returning from death.

He headed for a dark alcove at the back of the cave behind the Welsh Red. The dragon lifted her head, and her red eyes fixed on him. Tendrils of smoke spiraled out of her nostrils.

“Be at peace, shadowkin.” Devin sent a wave of tiredness over her. Those red eyes closed. He waited a few more moments to ensure she was asleep before continuing.

A heap of the dragon’s treasure filled the recess: soda cans, silver foil, colored ribbons, animal bones, dead flowers, colored pebbles, pieces of wire. The place was a veritable rubbish dump. On top of the spoils lay Troy’s lifeless body, and a band of pain tightened around Devin’s chest. He struggled to draw breath.

Devin knelt at his father’s side in a pool of cold blood; the sticky liquid permeated his trousers. Purple and yellow bruising mottled Troy’s pearly skin. Dark blood matted his golden hair. One of his arms was bent at an improbable angle, and Devin pulled open his father’s jacket to find a ragged, bloody hole with white bone protruding where his ribs were broken.

Devin’s heart thudded in his ears, and tears filled his eyes. He smoothed the crusted tangles of hair away from his father’s face and kissed his forehead. Why in the Furies had Troy allowed the dragon to kill him? His father could always choose to return from death as he had in the past, but lately Troy had seemed detached from his self-appointed task of keeping peace between the various fairy courts. More withdrawn and weary of life. Devin feared that one day his father would choose not to return, choose to not face the agonizing pain of recovery from mortal wounds. One day he would instead let himself drift into the mists of the underworld and forget.
Please, though, dear gods, let that not be this time.

He lifted his father’s shoulders into his arms and rocked him. “Father,” he whispered, “come back now, old man. Come back. I’m here.”

* * *

Ruby stumbled up the steps to the small jet aircraft at Glasgow airport, her coat hugged around her against the chilly wind. Nightshade followed. His hand tightened on her arm as she tripped. She dropped into the nearest wide leather seat, not caring where she sat.

“Ruby, love.” He squatted in front of her, fastened her safety belt and gripped her hands. “Only a few hours now and we’ll be home,” he said.

She stared at his large dark hands enveloping hers with strange detachment. His home. Not her home. Her home was a charred shell. Everything she owned had burned. All she had left in the world were her two beloved dogs. She just wanted to hold them, to go to sleep and never wake up.

She curled over, hugging her arms around her body as the plane vibrated and started moving. Usually she didn’t like flying, but she couldn’t care less tonight. Everything inside her was numb, as if all her feelings had been erased. Nightshade sat opposite her, and his voice droned low as he spoke to the cabin staff.

Once they were in the air, a cup of hot chocolate was placed on the table beside her. The sweet chocolaty aroma vied with the stink of blood and smoke clinging to her clothes.

Nightshade crouched in front of her again and held out the cup of cocoa. “Hot and sweet, love. It’ll do you good.”

She stared at the white cup and its head of froth. Her vision blurred and the image of the beautiful blonde-haired girl from Troy’s memories filled her head. His daughter. Her throat closed. She turned her face away from the cup and clutched Troy’s black button so tightly the facets on the gem hurt her palm. She knew she wasn’t responsible for his death, but she felt like she was.

Nightshade clasped her hand. “Ruby, love.”

She pulled out of his grasp and closed her eyes. She couldn’t bear to touch him. Didn’t want to look at him. He reminded
her of Troy, of blood and death, of the stink of smoke and fear. Her insides trembled. The tremors spread along her arms and legs until her teeth chattered.

“Ruby.” Nightshade touched her chin and tried to turn her face to look at him. “You’ll feel better when we get home.”

She pulled away from him. Nightshade remained crouched in front of her for a moment, then rose slowly and returned to his seat. Everything inside her screwed up tight as a fist, so tense her muscles burned and her nerves ached. She wanted to get away from Nightshade and be on her own. She didn’t want to talk about what had happened. She didn’t ever want to hear Troy’s name again. The entire situation brought back memories of finding her mother dead in the loch, the terror of being helpless to do anything, the pain of feeling responsible. This wonderful magic she supposedly possessed had been useless to save Troy and useless to save her mother. In fact, it was the reason both of them had died.

Closing her eyes, she pressed her cheek against the window, letting the drone of the plane engine deaden her brain. But later, when sleep came, her mind flooded with memories: the dragon, flames, blood, Kade, the specter, the meaty crunch of flesh and bone hitting the ground, Troy’s life blinking out like a bright light suddenly quenched. She woke screaming.

* * *

Five days later, Ruby sat on the wall at the bottom of the garden behind Trevelion Manor. Her hand ached as she manically sketched a fishing boat riding the white-capped waves in the cove below. Nothing was safe from her fervent sketching. Discarded sheets of paper littered her bedroom, covered with drawings of every room in Trevelion Manor and every external angle of the house. While she concentrated on sketching normal everyday things and ignored her artist’s vision, she
didn’t have to think about her power or any of the frightening stuff that had happened. She had always used her art as an escape, but this time it wasn’t helping.

She hadn’t worn a coat, and the chill cut through her, but she welcomed the added numbness of the cold. The wind buffeted her. She shivered and pulled her sweater sleeves down over her hands. She was homeless, cast adrift in a strange scary world with no safe base to which she could return. Everything in her life had changed; yet now, when she finally had her Magic Knot, the wonderful token everyone told her she needed, she felt worse than ever.

It hung around her neck on a gold chain Nightshade had given her. The three linked stones felt warm against her cold skin, but that was the only sensation they gave. She couldn’t use her powers any better than she had before she touched her Magic Knot; she had no idea if she could have a baby, and the way her relationship with Nightshade was going, she probably wouldn’t get the chance. She hadn’t really wanted to push him away, but that’s what had happened. He hadn’t slept with her since they arrived back in Cornwall. He spent most of the time closeted in the office with Niall and Michael, probably discussing Troy. Whenever she entered a room, everyone fell silent. To say Troy’s sons avoided her was an exaggeration, but she had no doubt they blamed her for his death.

“Ruby.”

She jumped at the sound of his voice right behind her and glanced around warily. Nightshade sat astride the wall, facing her, Ares and Apollo dancing around him, their stubby tails wagging.

“How are you feeling?”

She shrugged. “Like crap.” How did he expect her to feel when she’d lost her home and life as she knew it and felt like a pariah?

He looked sad. “I hoped you might feel better after five days.”

She shrugged again. It felt more like five years. The days had stretched on forever, interminable, while she avoided everyone and drew until her fingers ached and her eyes grew bleary. She couldn’t hide like this, as she had done for so many years after her mother died. She had to accept Troy’s sacrifice and move on. He had given up his life so she could be with Nightshade. She hated the idea of returning to the place where Troy and Dragon died, but maybe it would help lay their ghosts to rest.

“I want to go home and see if I can salvage anything.”

“Twister’s already done that for you.”

Ruby clenched her fist, and her charcoal splintered into fragments. She didn’t want her life run by other people. This was like being a child again, with no control over what happened to her. She had longed for a friend or a lover who would understand her weird life, her link with the supernatural. Now she had too many people trying to understand her, trying to control her.

A herring gull rode the wind currents a few feet below them, and they both stared at it in silence. Nightshade cleared his throat.

“Have you sensed . . . ? Do you know if you can have children?”

Something inside Ruby snapped. He’d virtually ignored her since they arrived in Cornwall. Now he wanted to know if she was ready to produce the fantastic son he wanted? They had gone back to the issue that upset her when they first met.

“Who bloody well cares if I can have children? I just want my damn life back!” She pulled a loose rock out of the wall and hurled it down the cliff. It ricocheted off the rocks before dropping into a foaming blowhole between some boulders. She felt Nightshade looking at her but she didn’t turn her head.

“You’ll feel better soon,” Nightshade predicted softly. “You’re suffering from shock.” Then he swung his leg over the wall and dived toward the sea.

The wind caught his wings and he shot out over the surging steely water. Despite her mood, Ruby’s breath caught at the magnificent spectacle he made, and she ached inside. If only he had come to her at night, made love to her, held her as he had last time she visited Cornwall. But he hadn’t and he wouldn’t. Not unless she could have his children, apparently.

He circled and headed back toward the house, leaving her alone again. A few minutes later, Ruby heard footsteps. She turned to see Cordelia approaching, who, tall and slim, had an elegance that spoke of a bygone era even though she wore nothing fancier than a blue waterproof jacket and black slacks. Ruby felt short, fat, and scruffy in comparison.

“Hello, Ruby.” The woman smiled. She bent to stroke the dogs then perched daintily on the wall, her hands clasped in her lap. “Do you mind some company?”

Ruby didn’t respond, and they sat in silence for a moment.

“I love the sea,” Cordelia said. “Water’s my element.”

Ruby sensed the gentle swirling energy around Cordelia that related to her watery nature. It made her wonder something else: “Do you think I’ve got an element?”

“The Mistress is above that, I think,” Cordelia said.

It was appropriate that they all spoke about
the Mistress
as though she were someone else, because Ruby didn’t feel anything like the powerful demigoddess she was supposed to be. She felt ordinary, powerless, useless.

“Are you still upset about Troy?” Cordelia asked.

“No.” An image of Troy’s face flashed into her mind, blood exploding out of his mouth, and she slammed it away.

“I didn’t like him when I first met him.” Cordelia wrinkled her nose thoughtfully.

“Neither did I.” The awful tightness around Ruby’s chest eased at the admission.

“I know this is a strange thing to say, considering that he dresses like a dandy, but I think he’s a bit of a man’s man. You
know, a my-power’s-bigger-than-your-power type of macho attitude. I don’t think he gets on very well with women.”

The memory of Troy’s love for his beautiful, golden-haired daughter blossomed inside Ruby and stole her breath. She shook her head, tears filling her eyes. “You’re wrong.” She tried to blink the tears away, but they flowed down her cheeks. “When he touched my stones, bonded with me, I saw his memories. He has a daughter he adores, and the last thing he thought of as he died was the woman he loves.” She sobbed and pressed a hand over her mouth.

“Oh, Ruby.” Cordelia put her arm around Ruby’s shoulders. “What happened wasn’t your fault.”

“It feels like it was.” Ruby wiped her tears on her sleeve. “Every time I close my eyes, I see the blood soaked through his jacket and dripping off his hair. I felt him die! His body was a broken mess.” She sobbed against her sleeve. “He saved my Magic Knot, then died to release me from our bond, and I didn’t even like him! What kind of a heartless bitch does that make me? I bet you all hate me.”

“Would you believe that Niall doesn’t like his father much?” Cordelia said. She angled her head slightly to one side. “I just think they’re too alike to get on.”

“Nightshade liked Troy,” Ruby replied and sniffed.

“Nightshade loves
you,
” Cordelia said. “He’s worried about you. He asked me to come out and make sure you were all right.”

Ruby was about to retort that he should have come out himself, but he had and she’d sent him away. Maybe the reason she wasn’t seeing much of him was because every time he came near her she bit his head off.