Chapter 18: Chapter 18

Cutter waited anxiously for Ru to return to her body. As much as he wanted to accompany her when she met with Cinder, he knew he had to start letting her do things on her own, particularly now that she’d proven she was every bit as capable as he’d thought she would be.

She was gone for about twenty minutes before she started to stir in his arms. She’d insisted on using the dark room to make the leap even though he was sure she would’ve been able to do it from anywhere, including her bedroom, which would’ve been more comfortable for her. But when she asked him to hold her while she was gone, he hadn’t complained.

Cutter illuminated the room with his hand and saw Ru’s eyes fly open. They were wide, as if she was running from something or was shocked to discover she was back. “Are you okay?” he asked, studying her closely.

Ru’s face broke into a smile. “I’m okay,” she replied. “But I don’t think your sister likes me anymore.”

Tilting his head a bit, he asked, “And why is that?”

“Cutter, I don’t want to be rude,” Ru began twisting around so that she was facing him, their crossed legs bumped up to each other. She reached out and grabbed both of his hands, his illuminated fingertips not discouraging or harming her, “but your sister is a bitch.”

Not sure what to make of that, Cutter was quiet for a moment. There had definitely been times in the past when he would agree with that, but he was still shocked to hear Ru say the words. “I guess you found out she did it, then?”

“Oh, yeah,” Ru nodded. “And… she accused me of all kinds of craziness. She even said I ruin everything I touch. What is wrong with your sister?” The last sentence was punctuated in such a way that each word was emphasized.

“Wait—what? She said that you ruined everything?”

“Yes! She said that my adoptive mom was right in naming me that.” Ru’s voice was still high-pitched, as if she was more shocked than offended, but he could tell the words hurt. “And she accused me of having feelings for Nat.”

Those words hit hard. It would be a lie if he said he hadn’t been more than a little jealous of Nat’s relationship with Ru when he was pretending to be Kyle, and sometimes even when he wasn’t. He understood it was important for Ru to keep the lines of communication open, but when Nat had saved her from the demon the day before, it had solidified the fact that there was a connection between the two of them, one Cutter was incapable of understanding.

But Cutter was the one holding her hands now.

“Well, Ru, I’m very sorry that she treated you that way. I know… she hasn’t been the same since Leaf died. But that doesn’t give her the right to be so rude to you.”

Ru’s forehead wrinkled up and he saw her shoulders physically drop. “I hadn’t thought about that. I was just so angry at what she’d done.”

“No, I said that wasn’t an excuse,” he reiterated.

“It isn’t,” Ru agreed, “but the last thing I said to her was awfully mean under the circumstances. Although, it was better than knocking her smart mouth across the desert.”

It was Cutter’s turn to pucker his forehead in confusion. “What was the last thing you said to her?” he asked, steeling himself to hear some scandalous remark involving the death of his dear brother, though he couldn’t imagine Ru saying anything so insensitive.

Ru’s disposition changed again. Her stare became sultry, and as the tip of her tongue slowly ran over her bottom lip, he felt a tightening in his abdomen. In a husky whisper, Ru replied, “I told her I was going to ruin… you.”

“Oh, well, then,” Cutter stuttered. Ru leaned in closer, her lips just an inch or so away from his. “I mean… if that’s what it takes to teach her a lesson….” Her mouth devoured his, and Cutter pulled her close, extinguishing his light as he did so. Any thought of straightening things out with Cinder left his mind as he felt Ru’s legs wrap around his waist. He breathed her in and let her carry him away to whatever realm she wanted to take him to. If this is what it meant to be ruined, then he was ready to sacrifice himself to the angel on his lap.

Chapter 128

“That is not what the dark room is for!” Rider shouted as Ru and Cutter slipped out into the hallway, their clothes askew and their hair more than a bit mussed.

“Sorry, not sorry,” Ru replied with a shrug, though she really was a little embarrassed. What had just happened in there would’ve never been a choice her old self, the one before she found out her true identity, would’ve made, but she wasn’t ashamed of what they’d done.

“It isn’t what you think,” Cutter replied, though the smile on his face assured her that he wasn’t complaining.

Rider stood across the hallway, his arms crossed. But there was more than a hint of merriment in his blue eyes. “Kids these days,” he mumbled, as if he were decades older than them. “Well, I’m sorry I had to interrupt, but Lyric has some important information. She would like for us to meet her downstairs in the parlor. Once we are all decent.” Without dropping his eyes, he gestured at Ru’s top, and she looked down to see that, in her haste to answer Rider’s knock at the door, she had missed a button.

“I’ll just… go take care of that.” She couldn’t help but smile at Cutter once more before she hurried over to her own bedroom to fix her clothes and take a moment to regain her breath.

As she closed the door behind her, she heard Rider say, “Damn, man. Look at you. Finally happening,” followed by the sound he made whenever he’d requested someone “blow it up” and they’d complied with the required fist bump. If Cutter said anything back, she didn’t hear him, and a few seconds later, she heard his door close as well and assumed he would also want to straighten up a bit before meeting with the rest of the team.