54 I May Have A Theory

"…I'm really not that good at blood magic; I never have been. I was practicing before we left and could only add a couple of feet at most. Watch."

He closed his eyes and his brow furrowed in concentration as he cast the spell. The normally invisible barrier glowed red and Ruby was able to see it slowly inch its way toward a dome shape before stopping.

Ash opened his eyes and glanced up at it in defeat before turning to her. "See? Only two feet higher. Now take a hold of my arm and see the difference."

She rested her hand on his inner elbow and watched him do the exact same spell casting hand signals as before but this time the magic extended hundreds of feet above the castle and closed. They were encased in a giant red bubble that shimmered and disappeared once he put his hands down.

Ruby was amazed. She actually had an effect on vampire magic! But why?!

Her powers were abnormal but they had never once affected anyone else's. She was only capable of controlling things that came from beneath the earth and doing more with her glamour than the average fae.

Blood was in living things. The only living things earth fairies were able to control were plants, which didn't even have blood!

She frowned and placed her hands on her hips. "Why did that work?!"

Ash shrugged. "I may have a theory but I'm not sure I should share it with you."

"Ashhhh," Ruby whined. He couldn't withhold information like that; it wasn't fair! "You can't keep something like that to yourself. I just helped a magically challenged vampire finish a spell; that's super weird for me."

He glared at her when she said 'magically challenged' but ended up relenting. He casually sat down on a stone bench and leaned back on his arms before saying anything.

"Don't hate me…but I saw you making windows in the dungeon once. You did something to the sand to change the composition of it, right? Sand is made of minerals and there are minerals in blood so I thought there might be a connection," Ash said casually.

Making windows? But that was weeks ago! He never said anything about catching her in all this time.

If he had really known there was something weird about her powers for that long and hadn't taken advantage of them that far back, it strengthened the validity of what he said that night on the side of the road. He truly didn't care what her powers were or want to use them beyond what they had already agreed upon.

Warmth flooded through her. Ruby had been right to trust him with her wings in the beginning after all. He was a good person.

She had never made the connection before but it did seem like all of her powers were connected to minerals aside from the glamour. Ash might be onto something here.

Minerals were much broader than that since they were solid chemical compounds that occurred naturally in pure form. They were primarily associated with rocks because rocks were made of minerals but there were organic minerals too. Like the ones in blood.

Ruby had never delved too deeply into the limits of her powers because they were something meant to be hidden. All this time she thought they were related to rocks.

If she really could control minerals in general…she was even more overpowered than she thought. She sighed heavily and flopped down onto the grass, staring up at the sunset-streaked clouds.

She almost wished she hadn't discovered this. As if she needed to be any more of a freak than she already was.

"Ruby?" Ash asked in concern. "Are you alright?"

"Don't mind me; I'm merely questioning the state of my existence."

He lay down on the grass next to her and Ruby turned her head to give him a questioning look. What on earth was he doing? He had never done anything like this before.

Noticing her expression, he smiled and his fangs glinted in the limited light as he repeated most of her words back to her. "Don't mind me; I'm merely supporting you as you question the state of your existence."

Ruby couldn't help it. She burst out laughing.

Her concerns about the true extent of her powers melted away for the moment because of his silliness. If he was trying to cheer her up it was definitely working.

===

Flint waited all night and never caught sight of either Ruby or that vampire. He was screwed. Completely and totally screwed.

They never came through the lobby and never went back to their room. Somebody else checked into it the following day so it was as if the two of them vanished into thin air. He didn't know anything about the fae community in Las Vegas either so he couldn't even find someone to ask about her.

He continued his fruitless search for the next two days but eventually had to give up and go back home. There was nothing else he could do.

The deadline was only days away now. It was time for him to pack up his family and run since there was no way for him to pay back the deposit.

Lily wasn't going to be happy about relocating because she had grown rather attached to the area after living there for nearly two centuries. She would simply have to deal with it. Flint would do anything to protect her and their baby.

He hurried home in defeat. When he arrived and saw what was waiting for him all the blood in his body froze in fear. His wife had been right; he never should have gotten involved with vampires in the first place.