Page 36 of Ruby Red Sky

Before I left Katarina, I told her I’d like to go shopping tomorrow. Tomorrow was now here, and I was wearing a path in the rug trying to figure out how I could go.

I hadn’t said a word to Lukas, but then again, he hadn’t said a word to me. He escorted me back to the room and turned and walked away.

He’d seemed a bit distracted but after everything that’d happened, I expected a little more. Maybe a little, “Hey great job not getting decapitated” or “Nice going not instigating blood lust in a crowded room full of vampires” but he barely glanced at me before he slowly strolled away.

Once again, I was invisible.

Being the mildly social creature that I was, I needed company sometimes, so I was going whether he knew about it or not.

Katarina knocked on the door and opened it. I knew it was her. Lukas never knocked, and Kiam had a much heavier hand than the light tapping I heard.

“Are you ready?" She asked.

“Yep.” I peered around the room for a purse before I remembered mine in my leather duffle bag.

She joined me in the closet, looking past my shoulder as I rifled through the contents. Out of curiosity, I tried to turn my cellphone on.

“That won’t work here. Only the elites use cellphones and electronics, but it’s patchy for them, too.”

I tossed the device down. “I had a couple friends back home. I wonder what they think happened to me?” I let out a sardonic laugh. “Not like I can tell them what happened.”

She snickered. “No. I mean, you could, but nobody would ever believe you. You’d just look crazy.”

“Do I even need this? I doubt my cards work anymore.”

“They might but not here. Just tell them to charge Lukas. Nobody’s gonna question that.”

A strange feeling crawled over my skin. If I used his money, I’d be signaling that I accepted his interference in my life. I’d be acting like we were a couple with an understanding.

But also, he owed me for tearing apart my life. I wouldn’t need his money if he’d just left me alone and in peace in my apartment. The giant red bump wouldn’t even be on my chin if he’d left me to my own devices.

Standing up, I said, “I’ll bring my purse just to hold stuff.” And to help me feel a little more normal.

This was going to be good. I’d get away from my spacious room where the walls felt like they were slowly closing in on me, and I’d have human company.

“While we’re out, you can look for something to wear to your lunch.” Her eyes tracked the contents of my walk-in closet. “Or maybe you don’t need anything.”

“It doesn’t hurt to look; I just want to get outside of this building.”

Leaving the palace was easy. What was much harder was navigating the incredibly steep road down the side of the mountain. Loose dirt and small pebbles made my feet slip every few steps and my arms kept flailing as I tried to stay balanced. One of the rocks I kicked, I could have sworn I heard it tumbling through the canyon beside us.

“Ya know, some advanced warning about footwear would have been incredibly helpful.” I glanced at Katarina, who had her head tilted toward the sun and her eyes closed like she did this every day. Maybe she did?

Blinking, she turned her head. “Oh. Sorry. I didn’t think of that. I’m just so used to it.”

“You’d think, living in a palace and all that, we’d have some transportation.”

“We could have gotten a ride, I just thought with you being stuck in there for so long, you’d want to stretch your legs a bit.”

My thighs were screaming at me. Before all this, I used to work out regularly, and I walked a lot around New York City. But that was all flat. No hills other than an incline on the treadmill, no climbing other than false stairs on a stepper machine. This whole hiking thing used very different muscle groups.

I wanted to be mad, but I couldn’t fault her and she wasn’t wrong. I wanted the fresh air and to walk around outside. Just, maybe, not at a ninety-degree angle. “Can you carry me home after?”

Katarina giggled. “I’ll get someone to bring us back. Plus, look, we’re almost at the bottom.”

* * *

The city was magnificent. All towering marble and cobblestones, jutting spires and sweeping arches. Gas lamps dotted the sidewalks and flowering bushes graced doorways. Scrolling black iron fencing cordoned lawns and parks and small, colorful songbirds flitted about, sharing the airspace with oversized jewel-blue butterflies.