Ruby Treasure (The Tales of Happily Ever After Series Book 2)

by K. E. Drake

  “Jump!” Samuel ordered, and he and Ruby lunged the last few feet out of the cavern a mere moment before the tunnel crumbled and completely caved in on itself.

  Ruby landed hard on her side on the cliff when they jumped out onto the safety of the ledge. She coughed through the cloud of dirt rising in the air and the dust covering her and turned onto her stomach, resting her elbows on the hard surface to prop herself up.

  Samuel coughed twice and pushed himself from the ledge to sit up on the stone. He forced a few shallow breaths into his tight lungs and pushed his fingers through his hair, shaking dirt out of the thick waves.

  “That was close,” Ruby wheezed and then coughed again.

  “I knew I shouldn’t have let you come,” Samuel panted between coughs, swatting a hand at the fallen tunnel entrance. He stood and tried uselessly to smack dirt from his white shirt. “This wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t come.”

  Ruby’s gaze snapped up to him. She pushed herself to sit back on her heels and jabbed a finger at the collapsed cave. “Are you saying this is my fault?”

  “No,” his voice was calm but Ruby heard the hard edge to it. “I’m saying that you insisted your way into coming with me on this journey, and then you were nearly killed because of it. You would have been if I hadn’t saved you. I told you that I wouldn’t be responsible for you!”

  “You are not responsible for me!” Ruby pushed herself to her feet and went to stand in front of the prince.

  Samuel opened his mouth but thought against it and massaged the bridge of his nose instead. He shut his eyes and blew out a heavy breath. “Ruby, you need to go home. It’s too dangerous for you here.” His voice was low but held no room for argument.

  “Of course it’s dangerous. Danger is a part of the adventure,” she insisted.

  The prince made a strangled noise in the back of his throat, but he turned on his heel, taking a few steps away from the young woman. He stopped suddenly and did a double take around the empty cliff. “Where are the horses?”

  “I don’t know,” Ruby lifted her shoulders in a small shrug and did a quick scan of the wide ledge. Her eyes fell to the path that wound down the mountain and she woefully looked back to Samuel. “They must have run away when the tunnel caved in.”

  “Taking all of our supplies with them as well,” Samuel groaned. He exhaled another breath and scrubbed a hand over his jaw. “Ruby, you need to go home. I’ll take you back to Omrie, but you have to return.”

  Ruby stared at the prince. “You’re giving up on the quest?”

  “I’m not. You are.”

  “I’m not leaving.”

  “Don’t be stubborn! I just told you it’s too dangerous for you to continue and that I would take you back to your home.”

  “And it isn’t too dangerous for you?” Ruby challenged, raising an eyebrow and crossing her arms over her waist.

  “Of course not. I’ve been on these journeys before. I know how to handle them.”

  “I am staying,” Ruby insisted quietly. She turned on the heel of the boot and walked away from the prince.

  She heard Samuel sigh behind her. “Ruby.”

  She ignored the royal and slowed to a halt a few feet away from the edge of the cliff. She looked out to the sky as the sun began its descent into the horizon and the few clouds drifting along were highlighted pale gold. She took a deep breath of the warm air that swirled around her and slowly breathed it out.

  Beneath her feet, small pieces of rock tumbled from the end of the precipice where Ruby stood.

  The cracking of the ledge filled the air and the cliff rumbled as it began to crumble beneath her. She screamed and tried to move away but fell back hard on the ledge.

  “Ruby!” she heard Samuel shout.

  She scrambled backwards to find stable ground, only for it to fall away beneath her. “Your Highness!” she cried out, reaching out a hand to the prince.

  Samuel tried to go to her, but the cliff collapsed, and she was taken down with it. He ran to the edge of the cliff and skidded to a stop at the broken ledge, looking over the side.

  Ruby screamed as she plummeted straight down the side of the mountain, falling fast to the rocky ground below.

  Samuel cast his eyes to the sky for a brief moment before he threw himself off the cliff and dove after Ruby.

  A nearly overwhelming sensation of falling settled in Samuel’s stomach as panic seized his heart. He had never changed in midair before and hoped that it would work. It did. He extended his arms out in front of him as his body stretched and expanded. He slowly spread his arms out on either side of him and his wings burst outward with a resounding crash.

  He then snapped his wings against his long, emerald-green form to direct his dive. He caught up with Ruby in an instant and caught her in his open palms a moment before she hit the ground. Being careful of his talons, he cupped his paws together to better hold Ruby in his grasp.

  At the last moment, Samuel’s wings shot straight out once again and he swooped upward, his belly brushing the ground. He gave one powerful beat of his long wings and they were lifted up towards the sunset sky.

  The wind flowed over the prince’s emerald scales, giving him the feeling of freedom that he always gained when he shifted forms. With one more beat of his wings, he glided higher to the sky into the horizon, taking them far away from the mountain.

  Chapter Five

  The Only One

  Samuel’s broad, emerald-green wings kept a steady beat as he flew over the unoccupied plains and mountains of Avon. He was careful to avoid any villages or roads, so he wouldn’t be spotted in the glowing evening sky as the sun slowly set, highlighting the clouds around them in rich shades of pastel.

  A dragon! A real dragon! Ruby thought to herself. She sat back on her heels in the beast’s interlaced claws. She pressed her hands flat in front of herself to keep herself steady as she looked up at the creature that carried her. Her head spun and her stomach swam, both from her fall, this magical revelation, and the dreadfully high altitude she now found herself in.

  When the dragon had first caught her as she had been falling, she had thrashed within his secure grasp. Slowly, she had realized the only thing that could have happened, and she sat quietly in his... paws as she gazed up at the emerald-green scales of his arms and chest.

  Ruby crawled over the smooth surface of his hands and craned her neck to get a good look at his face, but only could see the underside of his jaw from where she was.

  Her stomach flew up as the dragon started to descend, and she quickly sat back down. She closed her eyes and focused on breathing deeply, but the descent was steady and they reached the ground before she knew it.

  They landed in a spacious clearing behind a pair of mountains that were much shorter and wider than the one they had previously left. White daisies, lilacs, and bluebells bloomed in clusters along the shoreline of a small pond with crystal-clear water. A sole, thriving oak tree stood tall near the center of the lush meadow a few paces away from the pond. The stretching branches cast a wispy shadow over a part of the grass where the fading light of the sun was blocked out.

  The dragon lowered his long body and set his paws to the ground. He handled Ruby as if she was no more than a delicate, porcelain doll.

  The massive paws opened up around Ruby and she crawled on her hands and knees out of his careful grasp and onto the lush meadow grass. Pushing herself to stand on trembling legs, she turned and looked up, getting her first full view of the dragon.

  He was colossal, his form taller than even a castle. His scales, which covered every inch of his long body except his belly and throat, were a brilliant, shining emerald-green that glimmered magically in the light of the setting sun. If she hadn’t seen the dazzling scales up close then she might have thought that they were real emeralds.

  Ruby moved a few slow, calculated steps back, the heels of her boots sinking into the soft earth. She craned her neck to look up at the dragon’s face. It was long an
d narrow. The jewel-like scales covered his face and jaw and circled his shining, emerald-green eyes.

  His human eyes.

  Ruby’s heart leapt in her chest and she barely contained the excitement bubbling up within her. Could it be? she wondered. Could it really be the prince? But how?

  The beast lowered his head and a shudder ran through his dragon form. He drew his long wings in even as they began to fade before her very eyes, along with the emerald scales and his razor-like talons. His body convulsed again as it steadily became smaller.

  Ruby gave a gasp as the dragon fully faded and the prince suddenly stood before her as a man once again. It is him!

  The prince’s sandy locks of hair were pushed back from his brow. In place of his traveling clothes he wore before was an elaborate, emerald-green coat over a pristine white shirt, black pants, and black boots that were polished to shine.

  Ruby clasped her hands to her pounding heart and hopped in place just a little bit before the words that bubbled up within her suddenly sprang forth. “Oh, my goodness, you have magic? That’s amazing! How long have you had it? How did you get it? Was it a mage, a sorcerer, oh, or maybe an enchantress?” She paused to eagerly await the prince’s answer, but he didn’t indulge her.

  “What did you think you were doing?” he demanded. “You’re afraid of heights yet you go to the very edge of a cliff as if you yourself could fly?” The dragon prince turned sharply on his heel and walked a few agitated steps away from the girl.

  “I didn’t realize how far I had gone,” she tried to tell him, but he shook his head and sharply turned around to pace in the opposite direction.

  “And what if I hadn’t been able to save you? You would have died by falling off a mountain and breaking every bone in your foolish body!”

  “I know that, and thank you for-”

  “If you had just agreed to go home when I told you to, you wouldn’t have been in danger at all.”

  Ruby heaved a sigh and plopped down on the grass. The sun was sinking low in the horizon, slowly taking with it the warmth of the day. The first chill of the nearing night touched her skin, and she curled her legs beneath herself for warmth as she tugged the pins from the coiled bun, allowing the loose braid of her silken, red hair to fall over her left shoulder.

  As she worked to smooth her unkempt braid, her eyes strayed to the horizon and she breathed a soft gasp as she watched the golden light dance amongst the evening sky. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” she asked distractedly.

  Samuel halted his marching to turn to Ruby.

  “The sunset,” she clarified, daring a peek at him before lifting her eyes back to the sky, a soft smile playing upon her lips. “I used to sit with my father when I was a girl and we would watch as the sun set. We would sit there together long after the light had gone and the stars had come out.

  Samuel could only look at her. His heart wrenched and he sucked in a sharp breath. He knew he had lost his head with her before, but sometimes fear came out as anger. He was only concerned for her safety, and when she fell...

  He slowly closed the short distance between them. A heavy pressure weighed on his chest as he came to where Ruby sat in the grass and then lowered himself to sit down beside her. He stretched his legs out in front of himself and leaned back on his hands to watch the last rays of the sun fade.

  “It is beautiful,” he finally admitted in the peaceful silence.

  Ruby glanced at the prince out of the corner of her eye, finding herself smiling at his approval. She let her gaze drift and she studied the silhouetted outline of his jaw, admiring the way the fading light shimmered on his sandy-blond hair.

  The corners of his lips were turned up slightly and the thought struck Ruby that this was the first time that she had seen the prince happy. Of course, she had seen him happy, but he always seemed to be busy planning or thinking about something, not just living in the moment like her. Now he looked peaceful. Content even.

  Ruby’s thoughts then trailed back to his revelation and her heart suddenly threatened to leap from her chest. She nudged the prince’s shoulder gently with her own, trying and failing to conceal her eagerness in her voice. “So... how do you have magic?”

  Samuel laughed beneath his breath and gave a shake of his head, but he indulged her. “It all started two hundred years ago, during the time of the Five Kings. The youngest of the kings, Prince Andrew, was the first of the dragon shifters,” he explained. “After Andrew departed from Glendower, he was traveling to Avon when he came upon an old woman traveling on foot on the same route into the kingdom. Andrew offered to take the woman the rest of the way.”

  “When they arrived in Avon, she thanked him and said she would grant him a gift for the kindness that he showed her. The old woman turned out to be an enchantress, and she used a spell on Andrew so he would have the ability to change into the form of a dragon.” Samuel met Ruby’s eager expression as she still watched him, listening intently to his every word.

  “The spell the enchantress placed permeated him with dragon’s blood, and it didn’t just affect the prince. When he met and then married Queen Katrice, their firstborn inherited the magic. Since then, every firstborn descendant of Prince Andrew’s line has inherited the ability to take the form of a dragon. People with the ability to magically change form are called Shifters.” Samuel held back a chuckle when Ruby’s eyes grew even wider than they already were. He gazed down into her eyes and found he couldn’t look away.

  The irises he once thought were a dull, muddy color were a soft, warm hue of brown that seemed to sparkle all on their own. Why did I ever think her eyes were plain?

  “Can dragons breathe fire? Like the legends say?” she prompted softly, not seeming to notice his sudden trance.

  Samuel cleared his throat and shook his head to clear his thoughts. “No. That’s only a myth that started to be believed after the dragons became extinct. We create fire.”

  Ruby scooted ever so slightly closer, almost hopping in place. “Go on.”

  The prince looked down at his hands, deep in thought. “My mother was the firstborn of five. She inherited the magic from her father, King Philip, who was the eldest of three. As I’m the first and only born of my parents, the magic continued on to me, and it will continue on to my firstborn.”

  “Since I was young, I’ve always been told there could be consequences if anyone knew about us. Only a few trusted people have been let in on the secret over the generations. I’ve always had to be careful not to shift unless I was alone or only anyone who knew was around.” Samuel’s emerald eyes seemed to shine as his gaze met hers. “You don’t know what a relief it is that someone finally knows my secret.”

  Ruby’s mind was abuzz. It was all too much to take in at once. Memories rose in her mind and her thoughts were pulled back to memories of her childhood. Her father would tell her stories of how dragons were hunted and slaughtered. After the wars two hundred years ago, the dragons were viewed as monsters for the havoc they wrecked on the lands. They were hunted and slaughtered until none remained. The people had done it out of fear for the safety of their loved ones, but this was the tragic reason why there were no dragons freely flying the skies of the kingdoms anymore.

  These events took place during the time of the Five Kings. King Andrew was the first in the line of the dragon shifters, and the one to enforce the secret. Ruby went numb as she realized the reason that the ancient dragon secret was kept within the royal line for the generations since King Andrew’s time.

  The royals of old had been afraid for their lives and the safety of their family.

  “My father used to tell me stories of what happened to the dragons,” she delicately ventured. “Your line has been in hiding that part of themselves for all this time?”

  “Yes,” Samuel answered heavily.

  “And you keep the secret because of the terrible things that have been done to dragons in the past?”

  “And because even now there’s no way to know if dr
agons, or humans with dragon blood, would be accepted, or if they would be feared or even hunted today as they were so long ago.”

  “I’m so sorry,” Ruby found herself saying. “I can’t even imagine what that’s like for you.”

  “It isn’t all bad. The dragon is a part of me. A part of myself I don’t know what I would do without if I didn’t have it.” Samuel’s mood lightened and his lips lifted in a slow grin. “It’s pretty incredible to have too.”

  Ruby smiled at that. Her thoughts wandered and she recalled something the prince had said before. “Wait,” spoke up again. “Do you mean that I’m the only one who knows about you and your magic?”

  “Outside of my family, yes. You’re the only one” Samuel gave her a slow smile.

  Ruby’s face lit up and Samuel quickly interjected before her excitement got away with her. “You can never tell anyone about me or the other shifters.”

  Ruby nodded, suddenly serious. “Your secret is safe with me.” Then she smiled, an action so sweet and sincere, he knew he could believe her.

  She looked out to the sky then and was surprised to see that the sun had long set. Every hint of golden light was gone and the stars now glimmered overhead in the sea of deep-blue. They fell quiet for a time, listening to the sounds of the surrounding night. Then Ruby ducked her head, the blush of a memory warming her cheeks. “By the way, thank you, for saving my life.”

  Samuel nodded. “You’re welcome.”

  She frowned then. “I’m sorry you lost the Kepa Jewel.”

  He shut his eyes, but he exhaled a heavy breath and nodded. “You’re not to blame.”

  “And your map,” Ruby added apologetically. “You put a lot of work into it.”

  “That’s all right. I have it all in here,” Samuel tapped a finger to his temple.

  Ruby giggled. She opened her mouth, but her growling stomach interrupted her. She scrunched her face as she felt her cheeks heat, earning an amused smile from Samuel. “The horses took our food as well,” she sighed.

  “And the gold I had in my saddlebags,” Samuel groaned. He shoved a hand through his hair and his brow pinched.