Page 37 of Ruby Red Sky

One hundred percent, I stood out like a black eye, acting like a tourist with my swiveling head and gaping mouth. But I’d never seen anything like the city. It felt like I’d stepped onto the set of a fantasy television show; only the landscape was mindbogglingly real.

“There’s no cars,” I muttered to myself. “I don’t know why I thought there would be cars.” A gilded carriage pulled by four massive horses went by us, along with some smaller single horse driven carts.

Katarina grabbed my hand, tugging me back to continue walking. “Some Realms, not this one. We’ll go in here.” She pointed to a storefront just a few feet away.

“Hi Matilda,” my friend said to the woman standing behind the counter.

The woman greeted her in return as I looked around the shop. The place was set up similarly to stores I knew, with aisles and shelving, stands with hooks displaying trinkets. But the packaging was different. Thicker and sturdier, higher quality materials compared to crinkly plastic or soft cardboard. A lot of the items were glass jars with metal toppers or caps, full of sparkly or otherwise fascinating liquids and powders. I wouldn’t have had any idea what was what if it wasn’t for the flowing, elegantly scripted labels. I found one that said, “skin ailments” and walked over to my friend.

“This?” I held the small bottle up in front of her.

She eyed it. “Yeah, that’s it. I mean, it will help with any skin conditions but that honker on your chin definitely qualifies.”

I leveled a gaze at her. “Thanks, friend.”

“I’m teasing, relax. It’ll be gone by tomorrow as soon as you put some of that on there.”

“Thank God,” I grumbled and strolled up to the counter.

“Just this?”

“Yeah,” I replied. She turned the item over in her hand and wrapped it in tissue paper before putting it in a small bag with stiff twine handles. “Can you, um, charge Lukas? For this.”

Her eyes flicked up. “Lukas?”

I suddenly realized I didn’t know his last name. There could be a million Lukas's here. “The one with the long white blond hair?” Her eyes narrowed. “He lives in the palace?” Sweat was beading on my brow.

Katarina stepped up to the counter. “Lord Lukas. This is Cassia, his bride. I’m her maid.”

My shoulders dropped down to a normal position as relief filled my veins. What kind of wife to be didn’t know her fiancé’s last name? There was no way I’d step foot inside this store again.

My skin felt clammy and my stomach turned over. I don’t know what I was thinking but with the way gossip spread around this place, it was a matter of seconds before everyone heard about my fumble downtown while shopping. I hadn’t thought this whole excursion out very well at all.

“Oh, well why didn’t you say so? He’s Lord Mortensen to us down here.” The lady gave me a tight smile and handed over my purchase. Or Lukas Mortensens’s purchase, rather. If I wanted to be technical about it.

“Thank you Matilda,” Katarina called out as she steered me through the door.

I glanced back at the storefront. “Well, that was awkward.”

“Just call him Lord Lukas. When someone asks. There is no other, they’ll know who you mean.”

I nodded. “Maybe I should head back.” My gaze tracked to the left; in the direction we had come from. “Can you get someone to bring us back? How do you do that?”

We started heading farther from the way I wanted to go, putting distance between us and my stable, secure room where I at least had a vague idea of what to expect.

“We can ask at one of the taverns or the city hall. Let’s go to the tavern and get some food. Or did you want to look at dresses? You look kinda like you just want to go home.”

“Home” was a loaded and multifaceted word. “I probably look tired. The other day took a lot out of me. I wanted to do this with you, I want to do this with you. I dunno what’s wrong with me...”

We rounded a corner, the street narrowing slightly. “How did you end up here?” It may have been rude to ask, but I couldn’t help it.

She looked at me quickly. “I was born here. My mother was taken by one of the vamps when she was twenty and brought here. He got bored with her and then she met another human and they had me.”

“Like, he got tired of her?” Horror filled me. If Lukas got bored of me, I was fucked.

“Yeah. He was an asshole, left her to fend for herself. He’s dead now, and so are my parents.” She didn’t sound nearly as upset about any of it as I would have expected. I came to a screeching halt.

“Okay. But are you okay? Why are they all dead?”