Chapter 14: Chapter 14
Ru’s eyes flew open. Her vision was blurry at first but she realized she was looking at Cutter. His face hovered over her, and as he sat back, she could see the sky behind his head. A thousand stars winked down at her. “Where… what…?” she stammered as she tried to sit up.
“It’s okay, Ru,” he assured her as he helped her come to sitting. “Take it easy. I think you hit your head.”
Memories came rushing back all at once. She was in the ravine in the woods. They’d battled the Reapers, and she’d closed the portal. Hadn’t she? She peered off in the distance at the place where the overhang shrouded the rock wall beneath it. From here, she could no longer see the shimmering she’d noticed earlier, but did that mean it was gone for good?
Thoughts of the rest of her friends filled her mind, and she turned to where she’d last seen their crumpled bodies. Blood had gushed from Ivy’s side. Lyric and Rider had looked so lifeless, their bodies so still. But then, so had Cutter, and here he was.
“They’re okay,” he assured her. “But Ivy was still bleeding from her side, so Rider decided to go ahead and take her to the hospital.”
With raised eyebrows, Ru asked, “How does one explain that, exactly? Injured by a raving, demonic bull?”
Cutter smiled. “I doubt that’s what they’ll tell them. Probably that she fell down the ravine or something, but I’m sure Rider will figure it out. He can be pretty persuasive when he wants to be.”
Ru nodded, certain that was probably the case. She had yet to figure out how to do that, exactly, influence others’ thoughts. One of the many things she needed to learn. But she did remember she’d levitated earlier, so that was something, assuming she could do it again. And, apparently, she’d mastered the incantations, because she’d sent two demons to Hell. And there was the little matter of the portal. “Is it closed?” She gestured with the top of her head off in the direction where the opening had been.
“Yeah. You did it.” His smile was not only mirthful but also proud, like a teacher whose student has mastered a difficult skill.
“We did it,” Ru corrected, although she couldn’t help but feel a sense of accomplishment. “If you guys hadn’t held them off, I wouldn’t have been able to get it done.”
“True,” Cutter admitted, adjusting so that he was a bit closer to her. Ru noticed he had a deep cut on the side of his head. He didn’t seem to be bleeding anymore but dried blood stained his hair and had dripped down onto his jacket. “Still, Ru, what you did was nothing short of amazing. I mean, don’t get me wrong; I knew you could. But that didn’t make it any less astounding to watch.”
A broad smile spread across her face as she could no longer contain her joy. “Thank you,” she said. The smile withered a bit, though, as other thoughts came to mind. “But we still have a long road ahead. We don’t even know where the other two portals are. And Nat’s probably beyond pissed. Next time, he won’t underestimate us so much.”
“That’s true,” Cutter admitted. “I hope that Sky will arrange for us to have a larger team next time. Once we use the map on your back to find the other two portals, we can coordinate a better planned attack.”
“What if there is no map on my back?” Ru asked, knowing there was no evidence that Raphael or God or anyone else had given them the secret locations of the portals the Reapers had been using. And she knew that would mean they’d have to let Sky know their plans, which she would do begrudgingly.
“I really believe the information we need is there,” he said confidently. “But if it isn’t, we’ll still find the portals. And close them. It’s your destiny, Ru. And someday, when people look back and talk about Ru Roberts, this will be your legacy.”
If he’d said those words to her even a few weeks ago, she never would’ve believed it, but she remembered how powerful she’d felt standing in the ravine, calling upon the strength within her to close that portal, to banish the demons, to send Raven flying into the trees. She had commanded the field. The metamorphosis she’d undergone in the past months would have been overwhelming if she had gone through it alone. The idea that her job wasn’t complete also made her stomach tighten, but as long as Cutter and the others were with her, Ru knew they truly could accomplish these daunting tasks.
“Cutter, where are the Reapers?” Ru asked, looking behind her. She’d noticed they were gone, of course, but she’d had so many questions, it hadn’t been a priority.
“They were gone when I came to,” he replied, shrugging. “I’m not sure. They’re probably getting an earful of Nat’s wrath right about now.”
That made Ru smile. She fully remembered having spoken to him just before Cutter woke her up, but she didn’t know if that was a dream, or if she’d been in another realm with him again. Something told her it was the latter.
“Are you okay?” Cutter asked. He reached up and brushed back a lock of her hair that had fallen over her right eye, and his fingertips brushed the side of her face sending electricity through her body. Ru couldn’t tell if it was just their powers interacting or something more, but she was beginning to think he could’ve made her feel that way even if he wasn’t half-angel.
“I’m okay,” she replied, forcing a smile. “It’s just… I thought I’d woken up before and that all of you were out, except Nat. And it was dawn. It’s odd. I’m not sure what it was.”
“Did he speak to you?” Cutter asked, clearly concerned.
Ru nodded. “He said a few things that confused me. He said some of the Reapers had died. I hadn’t realized we’d actually killed them. Or that we could kill them.”
Cutter took a deep breath. “We can kill them,” he said, as if he didn’t know quite how to describe it, “but that’s just not how we operate. Just as we can die, so can they. It’s much harder to kill a half-human than a full-human. But if one of us is in a car wreck or gets shot, we could die.”
“So why don’t we just shoot the Reapers?” she asked, frustrated that one of the areas she thought she had a handle on was confusing her again.
Cutter laughed. “Because we don’t operate that way. And that would be hard in other realms. We could also accidentally shoot the person the Reaper is trying to collect. We just… don’t kill them so much as banish them.”
“Okay,” Ru said, accepting that answer even though she’d have to think on it more. “And what about the good Reapers?” she continued.
“What about them?”
“I think Nat said now they’d be all messed up, too, unable to get directions on which bodies to claim. He made it seem like closing this portal would make things worse.”
“Of course he did,” Cutter muttered, dragging his hand down his face. He had a bit of stubble along his jawline, and Ru couldn’t help but notice how sexy he looked unshaven. “Listen, Ru, whatever he did to get you in a situation where he could speak to you, he did it in order to make you feel bad for what we’d done and to confuse you. Reapers know who is marked and who is unmarked the same way that we know when a Reaper is nearby. We feel it. They don’t need orders. The only Reapers who need to check in with Azrael or anyone else in Hell are the ones who are up to no good.”
“So, Azrael doesn’t send out instructions every day to each one of them?”
“No,” Cutter assured her, a smirk of amusement on his face which echoed of disbelief.“Are you sure?” She seemed to recall Nat trying to convince her that she couldn’t trust the Keepers to tell her the truth because they weren’t really the “good guys” they pretended to be.
“Yes, I’m sure, Ru. He’s just trying to confuse you. He still wants your power. If they had you, not only could they use your powers against us, they’d also be preventing you from harming them. He can see the writing on the wall. They’re not meant to be doing what they are doing, and eventually, it will be corrected. Taking you out of the picture eliminates the most real threat to their existence there has ever been.”
His words made perfect sense, and she wanted to believe everything he said. Certainly, Cutter had proven himself trustworthy time and again while Nat had lied to her and betrayed her trust. Still, there was a small nagging in the back of her mind. What if Cutter didn’t know the truth?
“And that was not your father at the portal opening, Ru.”
Her eyes flew up to meet his. “What do you mean? The man trying to get through the portal?” He nodded. “Yeah, I didn’t think so either. I mean, not after a few minutes anyway. But who… what was it?”
“It was a demon trying to trick you. Demons feel different than Reapers. I’m sure you sensed that.”
Ru nodded. Last night had been her first experience with demons, that she had recognized anyway, and she distinctly remembered the sensations coming from the bull and bird-creature being different than the Reapers. “Why was it easier for me to send the demons back to Hell than the Reapers?”
“Because the Reapers were ready to fight. Those low-level demons weren’t aware of what was happening. They just saw an opportunity to escape.”