Page 6 of The Ruby Dragon Prince
“You’ve condemned us all,” Leo said.
“I’ve done no such thing,” Rumi said, shaking his hand. “And Emmy is no servant.”
“Emmy?” I asked.
Rumi smiled. “My completely ordinary man.” He turned to Leo. “He confessed to me that he is actually a prince, and he intends to save me, save us all.”
“That’s preposterous,” Leo growled.
“He gave me this,” Rumi said, holding up what looked like a large, emerald marble.
I leaned in to get a better look. The marble was bright and felt warm, even though I wasn’t touching it. There might have been images in the swirls that filled the inside, but I didn’t get enough of a look.
“A marble?” Leo said, snorting. “You condemned us all to imprisonment because of a marble?”
“It was Father who condemned and imprisoned us,” Selle pointed out. “Rumi was just following his heart.”
“Following his hole is more like it,” Leo snapped.
I knew my brother well enough to know his outburst was from despair and fear rather than anger. Leo was the fiercest of us, but sometimes that ferocity was his own enemy.
“Emmy promised to save us,” Rumi insisted. “He wouldn’t lie to me.”
“And why not?” Leo demanded. “All alphas lie. It’s what they do. They lie so they can get one thing from us, submission. This trinket has spelled our doom.”
He swiped at Rumi’s hand like he would take the marble.
Rumi pulled away, but fumbled the marble. It spilled to the floor with a loud crack, like an object that weighed much more than something that could be held in one’s palm. Rumi gasped and bent to pick it up, but his toe touched the marble, sending it flying under his bed.
“Look what you’ve done,” he scolded Leo, then dropped to his hands and knees like he would reach under the bed to retrieve the marble.
A sudden, pulsing flash of green light began to grow under Rumi’s bed. I gasped and stepped back, clinging to Selle, as the light spread. It was like some sort of green sun was rising up from the floor to envelop Rumi’s bed in light. I could smell the fragrance of forest boughs and night-blooming flowers along with it, and I swore I could also hear the distant, inviting strains of music as well.
The light became so blinding that I had to close my eyes and turn my head away. The others did, too. My curiosity quickly turned to fear, and my heart beat furiously in my ears.
Along with its beat came a deep, alluring voice that whispered, “Come to me. You are mine.”
As quickly as the light had started, it ended. The room returned to normal without a single flicker of the lamps hung around the walls.
“What happened?” Obi asked, his voice shaking. “Did the marble explode?”
“No!” Rumi said with a gasp, still on his hands and knees, looking at something under the bed. “No, it’s much better than that.”
He jumped quickly to his feet and raced around to the side of the bed.
“Help me push it aside,” he told Leo.
Leo rushed to join him, as did I. Together, the three of us pushed the bed out of its place…and revealed a large, ornate door under the bed where only floorboards had been moments before.
We all gathered around the door with gasps and sounds of wonder. The door was green, but it shimmered with other colors as well, red and blue, silver and gold. An ornate carving of a treethat seemed to be hung with raindrops or gems took up most of the space in the middle of the door. I could have sworn that it was swaying gently in a breeze.
“What is it?” Misha asked, half hiding behind Leo.
“It’s a door,” Leo said, pretending to be unimpressed. I could see the sparkle of intrigue in his eyes, though.
“Where does it lead?” I asked.
Rumi glanced at me with a mischievous grin. “There’s only one way to find out.”
