Page 63 of Brutal Birthright

She blinked weary eyes at her sister.

Ruby stood there with arms crossed and a wild expression. No, not wild. Terrified.

“I’m sorry, Ru-Ru. Can you start over? My head—” She’d barely got the words out before Ruby was tackling her again, sobbing into her shoulder.

“Where were you? We’ve been trying to find you all night so we could tell you first… and then you were missing, and I panicked…”

Dread started to creep up from her toes.

“Is it Ma? Pa?” She interjected. Oh, fuck. If something had happened back at home…

“No. No. They’re fine. It’s nothing to do with them.” Ruby hesitated and glanced up at Niall. Her big eyes shimmering with unshed tears. “It’s Saskia.”

The dread wound its way up the back of her throat.

“What about her?” But Ri already knew. Something terrible had happened.

“I’m so sorry, Ri. I know she was a friend of yours.”

But Ri was already off the bed and joining Niall in pacing the small space. Clutching her arms around her stomach, she felt woozy and sick and her head still pounded like a hammer against an anvil.

“What happened?”

“We don’t know.” Niall supplied from beside her. His hands shoved deep in his pockets, and a grim veil drawn across his usual smirk and cheeky demeanour. “But whatever it was, we suspect it was the same fate to befall those found the day prior to the academy opening.”

Ri’s head swivelled between her sister and Niall.

“You mean the murders you conveniently didn’t tell me about.” She didn’t know what to feel. Her friend was dead, and it could all too easily be something or someone who might ultimately be after Ruby. “What happens when it's you they come for next time?”

Ruby twisted her hands in her lap.

“Your sister is protected.” While Niall might sound confident, she knew there was no guaranteeing anything.

“There’s no way to know that for sure.” She argued. “Look, I’ve said it before, I’ll say it fucking again… I will drop out of Astracadia and come back to work in your protection guard—”

“No, Ri. You won’t.” Her sister was up and standing with her hands braced on her hips, and the familiar look of defiance reflected back at her.

One similarity they shared, if not by blood.

“Anyway, that still doesn’t answer my question. Where were you?”

Ri blinked again.

Then swallowed quickly.

Darting out her tongue to wet her lips, she tried to search her brain for an answer that was anything but the truth.

In the library, with Rowan’s hand up my dress.

Which didn’t actually explain the mystery of where she’d been for the rest of the night anyway.

“I don’t know what to tell you; I was right here. Must have just been sleeping heavily.” Lies. “Training had kicked my ass, and I needed to sleep it off to heal. I took a potion I made in herbalism class, and it knocked me out.”

Lying to her own sister. A whole new fucking low.

None of which resolved the question of how she got back to her rooms. The last thing she remembered was leaving the library.

Ruby’s eyes crinkled ever so slightly at the corner. Studying her like a hawk.

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