Ruby

His gaze lifted like fire over coals, "closer," he said.

She got up and made her way to him. "Bad day?" She asked. He smirked and tilted his head,

"I wanted to show you something," he sprang up and held her hand.

"Where we headed?" She tried to keep with him.

"I want to show you Ruby,"

"Ruby?"

"My beast," he pushed open double doors and Kelly froze. What was that?!

This thing stood twice the height of Damian. White from top to bottom with glaring red eyes, Ruby.

Ruby rubbed heads with Damian, while Kelly clenched the heavy door. She wanted to leave, she didn't like big things.

"Come on," August said.

She scoffed, "what, you're gonna tell she doesn't bite?"

"Oh she bites," he said.

The beast kept staring her down; it was some breed between a lion and a wolf. With a full head of hair but the face of a wolf and a horn poking out the side if her temple.

The red eyes stared Kelly down, she got from her sitting position and approached. Nope! Kelly reached for the door to have Damian's hands over hers.

"Calm yourself," he encouraged.

The beast came down and rested her head against Kelly's.

"I greet you, visitor." She said.

Ruby said nothing else and returned to her spot. That was all?

"Damian?" He lifted his gaze,

"How would I feel unnatural?" She needed to know. She couldn't wait for whenever.

He hummed in thought, "I suppose the more you mess with magic the more unnatural you become,"

"So if I don't use magic?"

"If you don't use magic, you're fine," he said.

"You don't want me to use magic?" Kelly asked. Why not say that from the start? Would she give it up?

"This is not about what I want, what do you want Kelly?"

She thought for a while, "I don't want to be hunted," she muttered. The very thought chilled her bones. There were others like Damian. Strong beings. Aunt Davi had been teaching her the world that lurked beneath. If they hunted her... She shook her head,

"I don't want to be hunted," she said. Damian held her chin,

"Then don't use magic,"

"Aunt Davi says it will protect me,"

He nodded, "true, and place a target on you. The very thing that will protect you will hurt you,"

Seeing as he'd gripped her chin, she wondered how ironic that sounded coming from him.

"Give up on magic... Okay, I will," she said.

"Good," he let her be. As he stroked Ruby he spoke again, "be careful, Kelly. Do not be sucked into the Cline's charm," he warned.

___

"You're what?" Davi asked. What was her neice spitting out?!

"I decided, I don't want to be a witch." She said, "I'll live my life the way I've always lived my life, without magic,"

"How many beads do you have left?" She asked. The Boranian stones were a bind not a cure. Her neice seemed to think she was free. Free enough to even dream a normal life.

"Two, and a broken one," she said. "I've been using your techniques, I fill up the water, move it around my body,"

"Less than two weeks and a stone is already broken. One month," Davi said. She knew it was futile refusing to control those powers but telling the little girl, who wanted a normal life, would be impossible.

"I'll give you a month. If you have one bead left by then. I'll let you be. Until then." She said and took a seat at the counter.

Davi knew more she let on to her niece. Witchcraft would put a mark on her yes, but it would protect her. Humans weren't safe. They were hunted, just not as glaringly. Being a witch protected her slightly from that.

She knew nothing of the outside world. The book of creatures alone had caused her to quit. The girl's resolve needed working on. In due time, the world would shape her, Davi knew. The world had shaped her into the person she was now.

She was stronger, better. With the danger and potential her niece possesed, she needed shaping