solid sheet of ruby that went as far as the eye could see. Throw in a few hills and crests for texture and you got the idea. "Y'all love your ruby here, don't you?" I asked out loud. It had been years since I'd fallen back onto my grams’ Southern accent, but it slipped out, and as it did, she appeared in front of me.
"Grams," I choked out.
"My littlest love," she replied, and I almost had a fucking heart attack. "You've finally made it here. To the place it began."
I swallowed hard and there was no stopping the tears this time. "How...?"
She took a step closer, and since she was kind of translucent I did not at all expect I’d feel her hug.
But I did.
"I'm always with you, and right now you need a spirit guide to take you on this journey. It's my pleasure to be that person for you one last time … if you'll have me?"
Oh God. I sobbed and sobbed, before throwing myself at her again. "Yes. I'm so happy to see you again."
She held me tightly like she used to. This woman gave the best hugs.
"You have turned into a beautiful, strong young lady," she said as she pulled away. "Makes this old grams’ heart happy."
"Damn," I sobbed. "I can't believe this. And now I've ruined my makeup."
She chuckled, the deep belly chuckle that was so familiar it was hard to believe it had been near twenty years since I’d heard it. "Your makeup is perfect," she told me, and then holding my hand, led me forward. "Let's take the first step."
Around us, rubies rose up into the air, cracking through the smooth surface. I jumped back, but Grams didn’t move, smiling as she watched the huge stone pillars form before us. Eventually we stood at the fey version of Stonehenge. There were six giant ruby rocks, each slightly different in shape and structure, and all of them towering over us. In the center was an elevated circular platform.
"Let's start, shall we?" Grams said, leading me closer to the first stone. It was the smallest of the six, but still double my height and width.
"What do I do?" I asked when we stood right before it.
"Touch it," she whispered.
Reaching out, I pressed the hand with the ring tattoo mark onto the middle. Why I used that hand, I had no idea, but maybe it was an instinct, because it started to glow, the marks shimmering much stronger than normal.
To embrace the future, you must relive the past.
The disembodied voice hit me at the same time as a mental screen reel of my life. I gasped at the first flash of an image, hands coming up to grip either side of my head. It was my birth, Deloria looking heartbroken as her child was whisked from her before she’d even had a chance to love her.
My heart slammed against my chest, the pain on my mother’s face enough to send anyone to their knees. By instinct, I reached for her, but this wasn’t real life. It was a memory and there was nothing I could do to comfort her now.
As that image faded, and I sucked in some air, trying to calm myself, the next memory slammed into me: Louis stealing us away, the rubies encasing my people, and the events that followed. It didn’t stop there; every moment of my life was relived, each one a different color, depending on the emotions they evoked in me. Happy memories were yellow, sad ones blue, and the ones that destroyed my soul were a dark gray, like the stormiest of clouds.
"You must be strong enough to banish the darkness," Grams whispered, and her support gave me the strength to straighten my shoulders and ask, “How do I banish them?"
"Face them," she said, and I felt a shove from behind, sending me plummeting down.
A scream escaped as I tried to figure out how I was even falling. She'd pushed me into a stone, not off a cliff. When I slammed face first into a bed, a musty scent rose to my nose, choking me with the intensity. It wasn't just because the bed smelled like sweat and piss, but because it was familiar. It had been near fifteen years, but I remembered it like it was yesterday.
The two years of my life that almost broke me. The two years of my life I’d been a prisoner. Shackled to a bed in such an awkward spread-leg position, it had