Ruby (The Silvia Saga Book 3)

by Jenna Lee

  Ruby

  The Silvia Saga Book 3

  Jenna Lee

  RUBY

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are all products of the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblances to persons, organizations, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.

  Emerald. Copyright © 2018 by Jenna Lee. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations used in articles or reviews. For information contact Jenna Lee at:

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  To the brave and broken hearted you have taught us how to rise after we fall.

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  Cover Designer – Stephanie Wallace

  Contents

  1. Dara

  2. Harlan

  3. Dara

  4. Jolie

  5. Oliver

  6. Dara

  7. Dara

  8. Blair

  9. Dara

  10. Dara

  11. Declan

  12. Dara

  13. Dara

  14. Harlan

  15. Dara

  16. Dara

  17. Dara

  18. Dara

  19. Dara

  20. Dara

  21. Dara

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Coming Soon From Jenna Lee

  1

  Dara

  Looking out the window I see our beautiful village full of lush green grass, blossoming flowers, and trees. Past that is what causes my chest to tighten, the burnt-out land that’s nothing more than black ash. It’s like looking out into a wasteland, the trees are burnt down and all that remains is a black skeleton of what once was.

  Taking a deep breath, I move back toward Jolie and Kayla plastering a smile on my face.

  Laughter fills my bedroom. The girls are giggling over my re-enactment of Oliver dancing to Avril Lavigne, last night. I slouch my shoulders, moving my head from side to side hands in my pockets looking uncomfortable as hell. I’d do anything to see the girls smile. Even if it meant making fun of my lover. Oliver would understand and get a laugh out of it.

  For the past week, we haven’t spent much time apart. The girls stayed in my room. We didn’t go far from each other, afraid to lose one another again. Kayla and Jolie shared a connection straightaway. They hit it off like they have known each other for years which makes me so happy to see my best friends getting along. I move back toward the bed and lie down next to Kayla, taking her hand in mine. Closing my eyes, I think back to that moment that Kayla gave every single one of us a fright.

  Alaric coming through our front door holding an unresponsive Kayla tears streaming down his face, he cursed James’s name. We jumped straight into action. Jolie and I used all of our magic to bring her back to life. If Alaric had brought her in a second later, we would have lost her. She was on the brink of death. After we used all our healing magic on her, we thought it was enough, she still lay unconscious. We dug deep and poured every ounce of available magic we had into her, hoping and praying that she would come back to us. It wasn’t until we were scraping the dredges of our magic reserves that the colour slowly returned to her pale face. That’s when we all shared a breath of relief. She remained in a magically induced coma for another two days before finally waking up.

  Now, a week later she has just started to walk in little bursts. But she gets exhausted quickly. It’s going to take some time but at least we know she will be okay. Alaric hasn’t left her side; if he does, he’s always within a hundred metres, afraid that he’ll lose her again. It’s quite sweet, the bond that those two share; it feels magical. Like they were brought together for a reason. To help each other escape.

  I haven’t gotten too much out of Kayla yet, but I wouldn’t be letting it go. I want to know every juicy detail. How they met. The whole story start to finish.

  Jolie groans as she stretches out. “I’m going to get us a bite to eat. Any requests?”

  “Surprise us,” I say leaning back into my pillow.

  Jolie leaves the room and silence plays out between Kayla and me. We hadn’t really been alone since the incident. Someone is always here with us either Jolie or Alaric. Propping myself up on my pillow I turn toward Kayla. Her eyes are closed but I know she isn’t sleeping just resting.

  “Kayla, I’m really sorry for leaving you behind back home. I was going to come back for you one day. But I wanted to wait until it’s safe here. I wanted to keep you away to protect you.” My voice breaks a little at the end. I just want her to know the truth that I didn’t mean to leave her all alone there. It still hurt that she got dragged into all this mess and almost lost her life. James knew my one weakness back on Earth and he used it to his advantage by bringing her here to Silvia. Kayla is silent for several seconds. Her eyes open and she looks toward me.

  “Dara, stop it, none of this is your fault.” She stops, taking a deep breath. “It’s all his fault, James’ and we will make him pay.”

  Kayla’s words cause me to stop and look away. She meant it with everything that she is that James will pay for what he’s done. He killed my parents, ruined Silvia by turning people into his Slayers, put the ones I love through pain, and burnt down half of Silvia. I knew then that we had another motive to end James once and for all. He hurt my family, once again. Together we’d make him pay. I let out a loud sigh and relaxed back into my pillow. I feel better now that I told Kayla how sorry I am. It has been eating at me this past week, the guilt. It’s a huge burden to carry knowing that your friend was nearly killed because of you. But now knowing that Kayla didn’t blame me eased the pain, just a little.

  Jolie walks through the door carrying a tray of food. The smell hits me and I sit up quickly, crossing my legs. The garlic and mushroom flavours cause me to moan. Then as if on cue Oliver struts in grinning.

  “God, Dara, if that’s all it takes for you to moan these days you must need some.”

  My cheeks flame red and Kayla starts giggling next to me. I cover my face with my hands.

  Bloody hell, Oliver, not in front of the girls, I mentally tell him.

  I feel him next to me as his hand wraps my shoulder. Kayla is still giggling and then it turns into a coughing fit. I reach over rubbing her back for her. She settles down after a few deep breaths. Kayla can’t even laugh these days without it turning into something that causes her pain. My chest tightens. She lays back down and closes her eyes. She needs to rest, as we need her to get back to normal as soon as possible. Harlan hasn’t said a word about training, but I knew it wouldn’t be long. We did need to get back into training so we can locate this final stone. Everything’s riding on it. We have come this far; we can’t give up now.

  Oliver rubs my back and I recline settling into his body. I’ve missed my guys, Harlan, Declan, Blair, and Oliver so much lately. I crave their touch without it I grow anxious. Like a part of me is missing without them near. But the past week they have given me space to tend to Kayla as they knew how much she means to me. Having Oliver here now made me relax a little.

  Jolie passes me a bowl, but Oliver takes it, placing the bowl in front of us. Looking down, I notice it’s my favourite pasta, penne with a creamy mushroom sauce. My tummy growls loudly and I feel Oliver’s chest rumbling behind me. He brings the fork to my mouth and feeds me. Normally, I wouldn’t be up for being babied but right now it’s exactly what I need. Oliver had a way of knowing what I needed that’s what I love a
bout him. He made me smile with his witty personality, but he also cared deeply like all my warriors.

  “We’ll have to get back to training soon, things aren’t looking good out there,” Oliver says behind me. I watch Jolie as her face drops. She knew it too that Silvia’s still fading away and time’s ticking by. The longer we waited the more James would take from us. We couldn’t afford to lose Silvia, not now, not ever. We have worked too hard to keep it alive for this long; no way we would let it go now. We’d all gladly die saving Silvia, and that’s what we will do if it meant that Silvia would live on without James’s evil spirit killing it.

  2

  Harlan

  The weight of the chest press machine smashes down against the metal with a loud bang. I’m drenched in sweat from only fifty reps and I curse to the empty room. This is what happens when you let go of training for a few days. Everything gets weak. I had let the girls have some time together while Kayla healed knowing they needed to be around her to help her mend. But it has now been a week since Kayla and Alaric came rushing through our door. We desperately need to get back into training and find the final Ruby stone. Dara now has both the stones tattooed into her back and they look breathtaking. The mesmerizing green Emerald stone surrounded by the vine and the bright clear blue fluorescent Topaz stone also surrounded by the vibrant vine. We just need the last red Ruby to complete the three stones. I still had no idea what will happen when we get the final stone if it will destroy James or what damage it will cause. All we know is that we need to find it and complete our mission. I often dreamt of our life after finding the three stones. What would we do and how we would all live together? Truthfully, it scared the shit out of me. Without training and constantly looking over our shoulders what would we do to entertain ourselves? I know we wouldn’t be able to keep our hands off our Dara but then what? I can’t even think of a time where we didn’t work on this mission. We have spent our whole lives dedicated to this, training for this. I shake my head trying to clear it of all these unanswered questions. We have to focus on the present and worry about the future later. Grabbing a towel off the floor I wipe off the sweat gathered on my forehead. It’s time to go round up everyone and get to work.

  I find Blair and Declan in the living room talking in hushed tones. I give them a nod and they follow me up the stairs. I knew where I’d find the girls, tucked away in Dara’s room as they had been for the past week while Kayla recovered. We gave them as much time as we could, but we couldn’t forget our mission.

  I’m surprised to find Oliver in here cuddled up with a sleeping Dara, I thought he was with our father. He’s wide awake but not moving a muscle afraid of waking her up. I catch his gaze and he knows instantly I’m here to crash the party. He gently rubs Dara’s arm, and she starts to stir.

  “Five more minutes,” she mumbles.

  Oliver grins and I can’t help but smile back at them. We haven’t seen much of Dara lately and, God, I miss her. I found it harder and harder to keep my distance as each minute went by; it took a lot of physical energy to stop myself from being by her side. That draw we have to her, I had to shut it down to let her have her space while tending to Kayla. Blair and Declan move into the room joining Jolie who’s on the floor. She’s leaned up against the wall watching both Kayla and Dara sleep. She looks exhausted as evidenced by the black rings around her eyes. She must not have slept much for the past few days. Dara slowly wakes up, lifting her head she smiles seeing us all in here together. But I can see the worry in her beautiful blue eyes. She knows that if we are all here, it means business. She sits up and nudges Kayla with her elbow. Kayla groans and rolls over into Alaric’s waiting arms. Her eyes shoot open and she blushes. I clear my throat getting everyone’s attention as I stand near the door leaning back against the wall propping my leg up.

  “We need to get back into training as soon as possible, starting tomorrow. We can’t give up now,” I say crossing my arms over my chest.

  Dara groans, causing everyone to laugh. Of course, our girl would do that, the cheeky vixen.

  “Silvia is getting worse but not as quickly as before. I heard that James is recovering his feeling the effects of losing the two stones. We need to take action now while he’s not in full power,” Oliver pipes up glancing around at us all.

  With Alaric back with us, we didn’t have all the insight of what’s happening in the Kingdom, but we still had some of our men working as guards they just weren’t as close with James as Alaric was. We did lose a good weapon having Alaric on the inside, but he did what he had to do to get Kayla out alive. That’s what any one of us would have done. We didn’t hold it against him one bit.

  “Jolie, I want you to work with Dara on her new powers from Topaz and work on new techniques to find the Ruby stone.” I turn toward Jolie who nods in agreement.

  “Oliver, I want you to keep taking to the skies to find out what’s happening around Silvia. Once Kayla is up to it, I want you and Alaric to help her transform into her new form and teach her how to use her eagle abilities.” Kayla’s brows draw together in worry.

  I offer her a tight smile telling her it’ll be okay.

  “Blair and Declan, I want you both to get back into fitness training. You both need to get back into shape. That means everyone else too, we need to be ready to fight hard for the final stone. James won’t let this one go without an all-out war.”

  As I finish, I glance around the room at my family and the friends that have become our family. They all have the same look written on their faces. Their brows are drawn together in worry but there is determination there and that’s all we need to have any chance of succeeding. That’s the hope we hold on to, the only thing keeping us going. We need to save and restore our Silvia back to its former glory. It’s our home and our reason for living.

  I make my way over to Dara who’s cuddled into Oliver’s chest. I’ve missed her terribly this past week. Even though we have been under the same roof she’s been locked away in here looking after her friend, having her girl’s time. Which each of my brothers and myself respected, but my God, did we miss her. I lean over Oliver taking Dara’s cheek in my hand rubbing light strokes with my thumb. She sighs and my stomach alights with butterflies. Dara made me come alive. No one else could cause me to have butterflies from just a sound coming from their lips.

  “Who’s up for a jog?” I ask letting go of Dara.

  “I’d love to get out of the house, but only if someone stays with Kayla,” Dara pipes up.

  Alaric’s hand shoots up just as the words leave Dara’s mouth. I chuckle knowing that he would be the first to volunteer. He had it bad.

  “I’ve got nothing else to do today, so I could,” he mumbles scratching the back of his neck trying to play it cool.

  Dara jumps up off the bed giving a now sleeping Kayla a kiss on the cheek. I make my way down the stairs and wait for her.

  She’s down within minutes and we head out. We start running through our village, the only safe zone right now. James burnt out everything else in Silvia apart from our village because Jolie had a protection spell around it. Thank Silvia for Jolie.

  Everything outside looked depressing, black ash as far as the eye could see. It enrages me to think that James caused unthinkable destruction just to prove that he can.

  I glance over my shoulder to check on Dara, but she speeds up overtaking me. Giving me a perfect view of her arse. She’s wearing tight short shorts that hug her arse firmly. Fucking hell. My dick strains against my shorts. It’d been way too long and those shorts—goddamn.

  Fuck, Dara, do you have any idea how hot you look in those short shorts? I mentally ask her.

  She looks back over her shoulder smirking. Of course, she knew. I pump my legs harder catching up to her, I slap her arse as I pass her, and she squeals in delight.

  She grabs a hold of my hand pulling me to an abrupt stop in front of her. She looks up at me with hunger in her eyes, her chest rises and falls. In the next second, she jumps up a
nd I grab her arse bringing her toward me, wrapping her legs around my waist. She runs her hands through my hair then her lips find mine. The moment they touch, my chest tightens. I spin us around and push her back as gently as I can against the closest tree. She yelps in surprise. We both fight for dominance giving everything into the kiss. Our tongues dance together as my hand moves up her T-shirt. Grabbing a hold of her breast I give it a tug twisting her nipple in my finger as she moans into my mouth. I push my erection into her, and she arches her head back in pleasure.

  “I need you,” she pants.

  She lets her legs go, and she drops the short distance to the ground. My hands are instantly on her hips and I slowly pull down her sexy as fuck black short shorts. I groan as they come away seeing she’s got nothing on underneath. My cheeky vixen is completely naked waist down. She gets to work pulling down my shorts. I line myself up to her and push in one swift movement. She wraps her arms around my neck as I push into her and screams out to the quiet forest. We meet each other’s thrusts. It doesn’t take long for me to finish just as Dara moans out in pleasure. She collapses in my arms her head resting on my shoulder. We stay like this for a few minutes both catching our breaths. I lower her down to the ground giving her a light kiss on her forehead, pushing her hair out of her face. She smiles up at me. Once we get dressed, we’re off again.

  We keep running through the forest; it’s another cloudy day, and the sun’s nowhere to be seen. I couldn’t remember the last day we saw sunlight, which is odd here on Silvia. But with James causing havoc everything’s out of whack. The once lush, vibrant forest is now burnt and dried out all thanks to him. We make it back to our home and Dara instantly stops; she leans over her hands on her knees gasping for air.