Page 107 of Ruby Red Sky

Selena walked over the short bridge that spanned the stream, and I followed her. Elijah set his sword to the side, and Markus stared at us both.

“Any word?” She asked.

Her squirrel leaped down from a light fixture and landed on her head. She gripped it around the middle and tugged him away. Strands of hair were caught in its little claws. Elijah stared daggers at the creature while she repositioned it on her shoulder.

My feet itched to move. “Let’s go look.” I tugged at her. “We can peek out a window. I don’t hear anymore thunder.”

Elijah tossed the sword to Selena, which she deftly caught. “Let’s go.”

We trekked up the stairs and down corridors, the two of us side by side. The castle was empty, other than a couple maids peeking out of doorways. We ignored them and continued until we reached a small room.

The space was larger than a closet and contained a wooden bench against one wall. “What is this?” I asked. “Looks like a jail but the door...”

She glanced at me quickly before heading toward the window. “I don’t know, just a room. I have no idea what it was used for. There’s a million rooms like this.”

I joined her by the window. “This window faces the direction he left in,” Selena said.

I gazed out over the landscape until I saw mountains in the distance. Thick, steel gray clouds covered the sky, although the sun broke through in a couple of places. A black fog covered one of the peaks.

“Do you see that?” I pointed toward the distance. “What is that?”

She tilted her head up. “Let’s go to a different window.”

We ran down the hall, took a few turns, and sprinted through another corridor. Selena shoved open a doorway at the end, and we entered a room with sheet covered furniture.

She shoved a table out of the way, and we approached a wide window. This one gave a different perspective on the landscape, and I spotted the dark cloud without anything blocking it. The black mist was thick and moved in ways I’d never seen fog move before.

“Do you think... I mean, that’s not fog, is it?” She shook her head, her gaze wide with wonder. “I think that’s crows,” I said.

My eyes strained, trying to focus on whatever it was we were witnessing. The mountains were so incredibly far away that it was impossible to say with any certainty what was going on. But I dared to hope.

Her voice was nearly a whisper. “You could very well be right. For your sake, I hope you are.”

Please, please, please. The words repeated in my head, over and over.

All I wanted was for everything to be okay. I wanted the man I’d come to love to return to me and come back as whole and well as he could. I was under no illusion he wouldn’t be hurt somehow, but this was Lukas we were talking about. He had to be mostly okay.

We stayed watching the strange mist for a while, both of us lost in our thoughts. Selena moved first, her gaze tilting downward.

When she looked at me, her normal olive-toned skin was white. “Don’t move,” she hissed.

Her hand slapped my side when, naturally, I moved. “What?” I hissed back at her.

“It's a fucking unicorn,” she said, dread filling her voice. She unsheathed the sword Elijah had given her from her back.

Leaning forward, I spotted the majestic creature. “Oh my God!” I exclaimed. “I know him!”

Pushing my friend to the side, I ran from the room. Selena’s footsteps pounded after me and she kept yelling at me to stop before finally screaming, “Elijah!”

Before I could make it to the castle's entrance doorway, he appeared in front of me, and I skidded to a stop, smacking into the wood paneling in surprise.

“Oof,” I grunted.

Elijah peered down at me. “You are not leaving this building.”

Crossing my arms, I stated, “I know that unicorn. He’s here to see me, I know it.”

I didn’t “know it,” but I strongly suspected. Why else would it have shown up?