She curled her knees against her chest, digging her fingertips into her legs.
What a stupid thing to wish for.
“We didn’t have much by that point, as most everything valuable had been bartered off,” said Ruby, “but they started tearing the house apart anyway. While they were busy threatening my dad, I ran upstairs to the fireplace and took out the rubies—which in hindsight is probably the stupidest thing I could have done, because they might not have even found them up there, but I was four, so what did I know? And then…” She inhaled, as if this were the painful part to talk about it. “I dumped them into my mouth and I swallowed them.”
“Of course you did,” said Nova.
“In one fell swoop.” Ruby cupped one hand and mimed throwing a handful of rubies into her mouth and swallowing, not unlike how she’d gobbled down the jelly beans earlier. “I’m not really sure what possessed me to do it, other than how I just couldn’t stomach the idea of the Jackals walking away with anything more than they’d already taken. The trouble was, one of the Jackals saw me do it. He grabbed me and started demanding that I cough them up. Or, vomit them up, I guess. But I wouldn’t do it. So…” For the first time since the start of her story, Ruby’s face darkened with anger. “He stabbed me.”
Nova’s eyes widened.
“Once in my arm,” said Ruby, glancing down at her bandaged arm. “Twice in my chest. Once right here.” She pointed at a spot near her stomach. “I knew he was going to kill me. But then … well, here.” She unclipped the end of the bandage and began to unwrap it from her arm, uncovering her flesh just enough that Nova could see a deep and, apparently, very recent wound. It began to bleed as soon as the bandage was removed, the red blood dripping down into the crease of her elbow, trickling toward her fingers.
Until …
Nova’s lips parted and she leaned closer, mesmerized, as the blood began to harden into sharp, symmetrical formations that jutted upward from the wound.
“I didn’t know what was happening,” said Ruby, “but I started to fight back. I ripped off the Jackal’s mask and stabbed him in the eye.”
Nova’s jaw dropped even more.
“Which sounds really brave in hindsight,” added Ruby, “but all I remember is how terrified I was. It was more instinct than anything else. But it worked—the Jackals ran off after that and they never came back.”
Ruby swiped her other hand across the gash, snapping the crystals off at their base with a quiet crack. She tossed them into the corner, where they shattered amid the piles of paper and debris.
“I’ve bled rubies ever since. They’ll form on new wounds for a little while, but those tend to heal pretty fast. Whereas the places where he stabbed me…” She started to wrap the bandage around her arm again, securing it tight. “They never stop bleeding. They never healed.”
Nova stared at the glistening gems on the floor, then back at Ruby. “What about the alias?” she asked. “Smokescreen and Sketch make perfect sense, and I get the Red part, but … Assassin?”
Ruby’s whole face brightened. “Actually, my brothers came up with it. It was kind of an inside joke. We used to pretend we were superheroes when we were kids—like everyone does, right?”
Nova didn’t answer.
“So they made up names for all of us. Jade was the Green Machine, Sterling was the Silver Snake, and I became Red Assassin.”
Nova looked at the stone dangling from Ruby’s wrist. She could still distinctly recall the feel of her ruby dagger pressed against her throat. “So … you’ve never…？”
“What? Killed someone?” Ruby guffawed. “Not so far.” Then she grew suddenly serious. “I mean, I would kill someone. If I had to.”
“But it’s always a last resort,” added Adrian.
“Correct me if I’m wrong,” said Nova, knowing she wasn’t, “but didn’t Renegades used to kill people all the time? Back during the Age of Anarchy, there were always stories about them taking out members of the villain gangs.”
“New rules,” said Adrian, “new regulations. We’re always supposed to bring them in to custody as peacefully as we can, and avoid unnecessary violence whenever possible.”
Nova gaped at him. It felt so … so silly, in comparison to what she had been taught all her life. The strong over the weak. An eye for an eye. If someone wronged you or yours, then you did what you had to do to ensure it didn’t happen again.