Chapter Five – Caleb POV

I darted across Newcrest, making my way to the hospital in record time. It was my third time going there. I made a habit of visiting Ruby every day. Ambrosia did too. Of course, Ruby didn’t know her, at least not yet, and she stared blankly at me most of the time, but there were times where her eyes would shift, as if she was trying to come to the surface. Trying to speak to me.

I talked to her for hours, even if she didn’t respond. I talked to her about our past, about meeting Ambrosia, about Orion. I hushed about Morgyn and the life we shared. I wanted her to see him again. It had been over one hundred years.

“A reunion is long overdue,” I laughed quietly, holding her hand. “I hope one day it could happen.” I gazed at her, into her eyes. “You have no idea how much I’ve missed you, my love.”

She blinked, and I smiled. “I know you’re in there, Ruby. And I know you must be so confused, and unsure. Frankly, so am I. I have no idea how you’re here, but I’m glad you are.” I brought her hand up to my lips and kissed it.

To my surprise, she squeezed it. I looked at her, eyes wide. “Yeah, yeah! There you go. Keep trying.”

Ambrosia came in. “Hey Dad.” She smiled at Ruby. “Hey Mom.”

I smiled at her. “She squeezed my hand, just a moment ago.”

“What?” Ambrosia clapped excitedly. “That’s great news!”

Ruby blinked again.

“Hey, let’s try something, Mama, okay? Blink once if you understand me.”

Ruby blinked.

Ambrosia’s eyes lit up. “Okay, blink once for yes, and twice for no, okay?”

Ruby blinked once.

“Do you recognize Dad?” She asked.

Ruby looked at me and blinked once. I smiled and squeezed her hand.

“Do you recognize me?” Ambrosia continued, promoting two blinks from Ruby. “Okay, okay, that’s understandable. But you know who I am, right?” This time Ruby blinked once. “Good!”

“Do you know how you got here?” I asked. Ruby looked back at me and blinked once. I nodded. “Was it Vlad?” Two blinks. “Okay, was it a spell?” One blink. “Jade?” Two blinks. “Morgyn?” Two blinks. “So you don’t recognize the spellcaster.” She stared at me. “Do you remember being a part of Jade?” One fluttery blink. “Was that ‘I don’t know’?” I asked, confused. One blink. “Okay, alright. Good.” I smiled. “You’ve done really well, my love. We will take a break from it for now. I don’t want to overwhelm you.”

We stayed for a good few hours before saying our goodbyes. As I got to the house, I was surprised to see Jade playing with Orion. I assumed they were in the realm. Jade and I exchanged smiles and I went upstairs. I wanted to figure out who cast the spell, but I didn’t even know where to begin. Being a vampire trying to figure out spellcaster behavior was pointless. I would get nowhere. I went back downstairs. Jade and Orion were gone. I sighed. She spent so much time away from home now..I didn’t blame her. Morgyn and I had become distant. She found solace in the realm. I wished I had handled things differently. But now that Ruby was alive, I focused my attention on helping her while Jade focused on well, whatever she was.

Just thinking that made me feel bad. I decided to go to the realm and talk to her. I ran off quickly, making my way to Glimmerbrook. Once in the realm’s HQ, Orion ran over to me.

“Daddy!”

I picked him up. “Hey buddy. What are you and Mommy up to?”

“Work!” He exclaimed happily. “So shhh, Mommy is busy, busy!” He held his finger up to his lips.

I smiled. “Okay, I’ll shhh, just for her.”

He pointed to where she was, sitting at a desk looking over some papers. She didn’t really seem to be reading them, though. Just staring.

“Hey,” I said quietly.

She looked up. “Oh, hey.” She looked back down at the papers. “What brings you here?”

“I want to talk to you.”

“No, Daddy!” Orion protested. “Mommy is wor-king!”

I laughed softly. “It’s okay.”

Jade looked up again. “It’s okay, baby.” She turned her attention to me. “But I am busy. So I can’t talk long.”

“I understand.” I put Orion down. “Hey, could you maybe go look for a really good book for me to read?”

He held his head high. “Yes!” He ran off to a nearby bookshelf.

I squatted down by the desk. “I want to apologize for being so distant.”

Jade waved her hand. “It’s nothing.”

I sighed. “It’s not nothing. We barely talk.”

“Oh, hey Caleb.” Morgyn approached us.

Jade looked away, watching Orion sift through the books on the shelf.

“What brings you here?”

“I guess I have some things I need to say,” I smiled at Jade.

“And this can’t wait until we are home?” Morgyn shook his head. “She has a job to do here.”

“And you’ve never had an issue with me simply speaking to people before,” Jade spoke up. “So why now? Because I’m just another job to you?”

“That’s not true and you know it,” Morgyn glared at her. “But conversations like this can wait until we are home.”

I furrowed my brow, standing up. I placed my hand on her back. “Then we’ll talk later.”

“Yeah,” she said quietly.

Morgyn pulled me aside. “How do you even know she wants to fix this?” He rolled his eyes. “She hadn’t even tried to talk to us about it.”

“Yes she has,” I reminded him, “but we’ve waved her away.”

“Well, she seems to be quite close with Marco anyway,” he said coarsely. “So whatever. If she has chosen to stay quiet, there’s nothing we can do.”

I was getting frustrated. “Morgyn, do you hear yourself? This point is childish. Maybe we pushed her away.”

“Childish?” Morgyn repeated. “Is that so?”

I nodded. “Holding a grudge about that kiss-“

“It was more than the kiss!” Morgyn clapped back. “She and Marco were growing close before that.”

He wasn’t wrong, but as I had taken a step back, I knew it was just a close friendship. Perhaps Morgyn and I had some jealousy getting in the way. “Morgyn. Listen. We have been able to work through so much in our relationship. We need-“

“Not this,” Morgyn interrupted.

I stepped back, shocked. “Not…this? So just like that, you’re just going to drop her? Not even try?”

Morgyn scowled. “I have work to do. We’ll talk later.”

He walked away, leaving me dumbfounded. Was he willing to give up that easily?

At home, I called Morgyn and Jade to me after Orion was in bed. I had a feeling this would get heated, and I didn’t want him to hear it. We stepped out onto the terrace where we would have complete privacy.

“We need to talk about this,” I said.

Morgyn scoffed. “Better hurry. I’m sure Jade has places she would rather be.”

“Seriously?” She glared at him.

“Okay, okay, guys.” I held my arms up. “Civil conversation.” I looked at Morgyn. “Jade has never cheated on us before. Why would she start with a kiss right in front of us? It does feel like she and Marco were set up. And with all of the strange things happening as of late, it wouldn’t surprise me.” I turned my attention to Jade. “I’m sorry for being so harsh.”

She looked away without a word.

Morgyn sighed, frustrated. “If it was just the kiss I would think the same, but they were close even before that.”

“Close, but not cheating,” Jade said quietly. “He’s one of my best friends. Of course we are close.”

“And you’ve grown even closer since that kiss.” Morgyn narrowed his eyes. “If you weren’t cheating before, I’m sure you are now.”

Jade didn’t say anything, but clenched her fists in anger.

“Morgyn, we aren’t here to throw accusations around.” I shook my head. “We clearly all have our feelings on the matter. My concern right now is if we can bounce back from this.”

“Maybe if she doesn’t see Marco at all anymore.” Morgyn’s words came out as a mumble, as if he knew the response it would elicit.

“What?!” Jade glared at him. “I see him literally every day in the realm! Aidoneus and I are helping him get to the bottom of whatever is going on! Even if I stop helping, I’ll still see him in the realm every day.”

“That can be changed,” Morgyn snapped back. “You’ve gotten too close. I think the only way this can be fixed is if you just forget him.”

“No.” Jade said simply.

Morgyn looked at me. “Then, no. It can’t be fixed.”

Jade crossed her arms. “Threatening to banish a spellcaster simply because you’re pissed off is against protocol. You’re really willing to risk your sage status simply because you’re holding a petty grudge?”

“Petty?” Morgyn growled. “I’m not blind! I see what’s happening. He’s a threat to our relationship!”

“What relationship?” Jade retorted. “I’ve been ignored for a month now! What kind of relationship is that?” She clenched her fists again. “At least Marco treats me like a goddamn human being.”

And with that, she was gone. I stood, in shock.

“I guess you have your answer,” Morgyn shrugged.

I narrowed my eyes. “You’re being too hard on her.”

“I don’t love her anymore.”

I stepped back. “What?”

He looked away, his expression softening. “Caleb, I just don’t love her anymore. The damage is done. Even if she never saw Marco again, I don’t know if this could be salvaged.”

I shook my head. “We should have talked about this right after it happened. We caused more damage by making her feel like a stranger in her own home.”

Morgyn hugged me. “At least we have each other.”

I sighed, saddened by his statement. “Yeah…”

We parted ways and I took a walk. This was all too much. If only we had talked about it right after the event. If Morgyn wasn’t so stubborn. If we hadn’t made Jade feel so isolated. If she was finding comfort in Marco, I didn’t blame her. We pushed her away.

Truthfully, I still loved her. That wasn’t going to change. We had a connection long before we even kissed or thought about each other in that way. I didn’t know if she felt the same toward me. Guilt washed over me. Sure, I still loved her, but I realized it wasn’t as strong as it used to be. It was like that one mistake, the spell she was under caused us to form our opinions and turn a blind eye to the truth.

If Jade wasn’t happy, I wasn’t going to force her to stay.

“At least Marco treats me like a human being.” Her words echoed in my head, casting a shadow on my heart. I sat down, putting my head in my hands.

This can’t be the end.

I went to visit Ruby the next day, as always. She was slowly becoming more responsive, even if she couldn’t speak yet.

I took her hand and sighed, putting my head down. “Ruby, I don’t know what to do. Morgyn and I really screwed things up with Jade, and I fear we’ve lost her to Marco. It was all over a spell cast on them, causing them to kiss right in front of us. Morgyn and I acted irrationally. She had never done anything to make us feel like she was cheating, so we should have been suspicious from the start.” I sighed. “It’s been a month of practically ghosting her. She said to Morgyn that at least Marco treats her like a human being.” I gazed at her. “Oh, Ruby, what have I done?”

“Tell her,” Ruby whispered.

My head shot up, eyes farting to her. “What? You spoke!”

She nodded. “Tell her how you feel.”

“She stormed off before I could say anything more.”

“Talk to her alone, without Morgyn.”

I nodded and stood up. I held her close, kissing her forehead. “I’m glad you’re coming back.”

She smiled. “If you want to work things out with Jade, perhaps kissing me isn’t the best method.”

“I’m sure she would understand. After all, you two were one in the same for a long time.”

“But having me back may cause you to push her away further. I don’t want that, Caleb. Honestly, I never asked to come back. I was content living through Jade. This world is unfamiliar. I don’t belong here. And with you having this wonderful life with Jade and Morgyn, I don’t belong with you either.”

I sat back. “No, Ruby, don’t ever say that. My place is, and has always been with you.”

Ruby shook her head. “Then you clearly don’t want to fix things with Jade if you are pursuing a ghost.”

I shook my head. “I love you more than anything or anyone on this planet, or in this universe. That will always be. Please understand.”

“I do understand,” she replied. “But you have a life now that you couldn’t have with me. Embrace it.”

I shook my head again. “I won’t ever let you go.”

She sighed. “Suit yourself, Caleb. But you can’t possibly love her the way she deserves to be loved if you’re chasing me.”

I realized in this case, I was no better than what Morgyn was accusing Jade of. I put my head in my hands.

Chapter Six (click here)