Page 37 of Pyre

She didn’t even flinch. For how silent the room had been, she didn’t seem startled by his sudden presence. Instead, she glanced up with a weary look. “New recruit?”

“Couple weeks in,” he confirmed with a nod, trying to sound casual.

“I’m in a different program,” she said, her tone as sharp as the crackle of the fire. She didn’t elaborate, turning her attention back to her book as if the conversation was already over.

She was a closed door. He wanted to keep knocking. “I’m Jonah,” he offered, stepping forward and sticking out his hand.

Her head tilted slightly, her sunglasses still shielding her eyes. She gave him a slow, assessing look, her eyes flicking from his face to his clothes and then back again. He fought the urge to squirm under her scrutiny. Was she judging him? Or just... disinterested?

Then, without warning, she snorted—a soft, amused sound that had her hand flying up to cover her face. She zeroed in onhis SpongeBob pajama pants, a last-minute gift from his sister. He glanced down and grimaced.

“What are those?” she asked, her tone walking the line between disbelief and humor.

“SpongeBob,” Jonah replied, deciding to own it. Confidence was the only way to salvage this.

She cocked her head to the side, a sad smile playing on her lips. It was the first real hint of emotion he’d seen from her, and it threw him off.

“Like the cartoon?” he said, more carefully this time. Her reaction confused him—what was behind that smile? Before he could figure it out, she extended her hand.

“Ruby.”

Her name suited her, sharp but beautiful. He shook her hand, surprised by her firm grip. Stronger than he’d expected, but it also suited her. Hell, she was the kind of woman that everything suited. “What are you doing in here, Ruby?” Her name fit in his mouth like it had always belonged there.

She lifted the book in her lap slightly, not bothering to glance at him. “Reading,” she said simply.

Jonah grinned, sinking into the couch across from her. “Mind if I join you?”

Her lips twitched, like she was holding back a smirk. “Do you read?”

“Yeah. I mean... I know how,” he joked, grinning wider.

Her cheeks tinged pink, and he had to bite back a laugh at the tiny victory. “I would hope so. I meant, do you like to read?”

No.

“Yup.”

She gave him that same calculating look, as if weighing his words for truth. Eventually, she sighed and sank deeper into the chair. “Can’t stop you, then.”

He grabbed a book at random and settled in, trying to focus on the words in front of him, but his mind kept wandering back to her. There was something about Ruby that intrigued him, something he couldn’t put into words. Maybe it was her quiet strength or the way she seemed so utterly alone despite the fact that they were in the same program, in the same building.

They fell into a rhythm after that. Night after night, they’d find themselves in the library, sometimes talking, sometimes sitting in comfortable silence, lost in their books. She didn’t wear the sunglasses again, and though Jonah noticed the thick layer of pale makeup around her eyes, he never asked about it. He was learning to navigate the unspoken boundaries she set, but that only made him more curious. Who was Ruby, really? What had she been through?

Sometimes, her speech would slip, phrases outdated and strange, like echoes of a different time. He chalked it up to some social media trend he hadn’t caught onto. Until the night she showed up with a brand-new cellphone and a look of complete bewilderment.

“I don’t know what any of this means,” she confessed, holding up the device like it was a foreign object.

“You’ve never had a phone?” He was genuinely surprised. She’d always refused to give him her number, and he’d assumed it was a brush-off.

She looked embarrassed, a rare crack in her cool exterior. “No.”

Jonah spent that night showing her how to use it, guiding her through the apps and features. Her eyes lit up when he introduced her to Snapchat filters, and for the first time, she laughed. The sound was infectious, warming him in a way the fire never could. He was in deep, he realized. Absolutely whipped for a woman who seemed to live in the shadows.

The nights they spent together in the library became the highlight of his day. Even when Lucas found them one evening, Jonah’s heart racing with fear of getting caught, Ruby had remained cool, staring their superior down until Lucas had backed off with a simple “Y’all have a good night.”

But outside of those nights, Ruby was like a ghost. No matter how much he looked, she was never outside of the room. Not in the dining hall, not in training.

When he woke up some mornings on the couch, the fire long dead, she was always gone. But she’d always leave something behind. A blanket draped over him, a new bookmark marking his place in the book, a granola bar or warm cup of coffee waiting for him. Little gestures that made him smile. It was like she only existed in that room, and he was the only one who got to see her there. He wasn’t sure what to make of it, but he didn’t care. He’d take whatever time with her he could get.

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