Free The Immortal Game (book 1) by Joannah Miley Page B

keep up with. He looked back at her often, obviously annoyed.
    On the front porch she turned on the pair and looked them each in the eye. She wanted to remind them that this was her house. Ash had come to her, not them. They looked back at her with blank stares and unrivaled boldness.
    She prepared herself for the sight of Ash’s limp body on the floor and opened the front door. The blood was still there, dark and puddled, but he was not.
    She looked up when Langston pushed passed her and headed for the rose-colored chair that sat across from the couch. Sunlight came in through the window behind it. Ash was sitting there. His face was drawn and pale. His eyes were bloodshot and they had deep brown hollows around them.
    Langston said something to Ash that Ruby couldn’t quite make out. She was still taking in the fact that he was healed enough to sit up.
    Sage took the bag of bars from Ruby’s limp hand. She walked between Langston and Ash. “Here,” she said to Ash. “This will help.”
    He took the bar from Sage, chewed it in one bite, and swallowed it down. He closed his eyes and groaned with satisfaction. Color came back into his cheeks and filled in the hollows beneath his eyes. When he opened them, the red was gone. He looked at Ruby. She forced a smile, stunned by the transformation.
    Langston was still talking in a low and annoyed tone. Sage cleared her throat and gave him a pointed look. She turned to Ruby. “Thank you, Ruby. He’s going to be fine.” She turned her attention back to Ash. “It’s time we get back.” Her tone was flat, matter-of-fact.
    Ruby’s mind raced. Her eyes darted around the room, to the blood on the floor, to Langston standing near Ash, his eyes furious, to Ash bringing another of Sage’s bars to his mouth.
    “But …” Ruby hesitated. She searched the scene again. “I need some answers.”
    The three of them looked at her in surprise, as if watching Ash heal on her floor overnight, waking to want only an Ambrosia Bar, and having his brother and sister berate him instead of being worried, were the most natural things in the world.
    Sage turned to her, her spiral curls swinging, and shrugged. “What questions?”
    Ruby looked into her flat grey eyes and swallowed. She glanced at Ash. His cheeks were rosy. His eyes were once again a radiant blue. “Well …” She looked back to Sage, and then at Ash again.
    “I’m telling her,” Ash said. He looked first to Sage and then to Langston. “She has a right to know.”
    Ruby got a shiver. There was something. Something big. She knew it of course, but Ash was actually admitting it. There was something to be told.
    “A right ?” Sage laughed and then became stone serious. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
    “ She gets to know. She must know.” Ash looked at Ruby. “I love her.”
    Ruby’s heart rose up into her throat. She tried to swallow. She tried to breathe.
    Ash looked back to his brother and sister who remained silent. “It’s my mess. It’s my thing. But she gets to know.”
    His mess ?
    Ruby opened her mouth to speak, to protest, but a darting look from Langston kept her quiet. Sage also looked at her. Ruby thought Sage liked her, but now she saw only suspicion in her odd grey eyes. She spoke to Ash but she kept her eyes on Ruby. “We had a deal. Are you going to break it over a—”
    “You don’t understand.” Ash’s voice rose. He looked to the worn rug and then at Ruby. “She quiets it. I’m not sure how. But she does.”
    Sage’s eyes ran up and down Ruby’s body, as if seeing her for the first time. “Do you love him ?” She said it like she was asking Ruby if she was willing to take part in a murder.
    Ruby glanced at Ash, now completely healed. She thought back to when he came stumbling into the house the night before. She thought back to when she had looked at his wound and knew he would die. She thought of bungee jumping and rock climbing, of living in the moment. She thought of the way Ash made her