Chapter 27: Chapter 27

Ru expected to awake back in her body, in her own bed, as Cutter had imagined they all would. But when her eyes opened, she was lying on an ancient, intricately designed motif floor, little pieces of green and maroon tiles covered in thick, white dirt. She sat up and looked around. The ringing in her ears was more than a little disturbing, and the colors were off again. She snapped her fingers, believing that would cause the sound to stop, and was relieved when it did.

The right side of her body ached, that is, the area that would’ve been her body if she were in it. A glance at her arm revealed the first signs of what was sure to be some pretty serious bruising above her elbow. Her leg felt like it would be the same, particularly her hip.

She was still in Kayakoy, of that she was certain, and the design she’d taken to be a floor was actually a street. She was outside; a few cypress trees waved in the off-color sunlight, stirred by a light breeze. Standing, she saw the remains of a few smaller houses nearby, and off in the distance, she could see the church.

How she’d gotten here and for what purpose, she wasn’t sure, but she saw no reason to stick around. She was just about to send herself home when a noise behind her caught her attention. She spun to see a figure in the doorway of one of the houses.

It was a man, dressed all in black. She could see that from here, even though he was probably fifty yards away and slightly downhill from her. As he stepped out into full view, Ru’s breath caught. She recognized him instantly.

“Rune, is that you?”

Tears began to sting her eyes, though Ru knew she needed to be cautious. She had no idea how she’d gotten here, and for all she knew this was some sort of a trap, although she was certain the person she was looking at was genuine and not part of any tricks. She really was looking into the face of her father.

“Larkin?” she said, taking a few steps in his direction.

He had closed the distance now so he was only about twenty feet away. He stopped, his hands coming up to cover his face. She could see he looked much older, much more worn down than he had in the picture she’d stolen from her grandmother’s house. The backs of his hands were puckered with scars, some of the flesh still pink, indicating they were fresh. She wondered what else may lie beneath the black leather jacket he wore despite the nice weather and the dark jeans that disappeared into black leather boots. His hair was dark, as well, but his green eyes looked nothing but kind.

As Ru closed the distance, however, she peered more closely into them. While he approached her in kindness, there were certainly other emotions there. Happiness, on the surface; beyond that, sadness, pain, maybe regret.

He dropped his hands to his hips. “I… I can’t believe I’m looking at you, Rune,” he said, quietly, standing just in front of her.

“It’s me,” she said in a whisper. “You really did escape then?”

“I did,” he nodded. “It wasn’t easy. I’d been planning it for years.” He shook his head and ran a hand through his hair. “It doesn’t matter now. What matters is… you’re here.”

“Where are we?” she asked.

He looked around and then spread his arms. “Kayakoy,” he replied. “I came through the portal a few days ago.”

Ru raised an eyebrow. She was glad he’d gotten out before she closed it. “Were you part of the battle just now?”

“No,” he replied. “I’ve been hiding. I don’t know who I can trust.”

That made sense. She wouldn’t have wanted him to be on the other side of the effort, either. “I closed it,” she said.

He stared at her a moment before his face broke out into a proud smile. “That’s amazing.”

“I closed the one in Reaper’s Hollow, too.”

“I heard,” he nodded. “I’m not surprised. We knew all along how powerful you’d be.”

“It doesn’t bother you?” she asked, puzzled. “You don’t mind that I’m fighting against your kind?”

“They’re not my kind anymore, Rune. I don’t want to be part of it any longer. I’ve given up so much because I wasn’t willing to walk away twenty-five years ago when your mom asked me to.” Once again, he brushed his dark hair back. His expression was full of pain and remorse. “Maybe if I’d given up my power, we could’ve had a normal life. Instead, I lost everything. You, your mom, our life together.” Tears filled the corners of his eyes. “And… the thing is, I never even realized the life I really wanted existed until it slipped out of my fingers.”

Ru was moved and wanted to reach out and touch him, to comfort him, but she didn’t trust herself to do so, to be so vulnerable. “I’m so sorry,” she muttered, not sure what other words to say, even though they sounded inadequate coming out of her mouth.

“No, don’t be sorry, Ru. It’s not your fault, sweetheart. You were a victim here more than anyone else.” Larkin dropped his eyes to the ground and kicked at the dirt with the toe of his boot. “Your mother and I… we failed you. I failed you.” He raised his eyes then, the tears spilling down his cheeks freely. “All we ever wanted was to love you, to live together as a family. I’m so sorry we couldn’t give you that.”

There was no question now what Ru needed to do. Uninhibited, she stepped forward and placed her hand on her father’s shoulder. “I’m not sorry,” she said, moving her head so that he’d have to look her in the eye. “Listen, my life growing up might not have been full of unicorns and kittens, but I survived, and I’m stronger because of it. Now, because of you and mom, not only am I strong enough to close down portals and kill demons, I know what true love is supposed to look like. I know the kinds of sacrifices people who love each other are willing to make—without question. Dad, it’s okay. The past is in the past, and now we can move forward. As a family.”

As soon as she said the word “Dad,” his face changed, as if he hadn’t dared to hope she’d ever want to call him that, and even though the word was as foreign to Ru as it would be to ride a dragon or walk on the sun, it had felt perfectly normal coming out of her mouth. Regardless of what else he was or had been, Larkin Ronobes was her father.

“Oh, Ru,” he said, wiping his eyes on the back of his hand. “Not a moment has gone by that I haven’t thought of you. I’ve missed you so much.” He pulled her tightly to his chest, wrapping his strong arms around her shoulders, and Ru sank into her father’s embrace. How many times had she thought about what it might be like to have a dad? Now, it seemed she might finally know at last.

“It’s going to be okay, Dad,” she said softly, holding him tightly as his tears wet her hair and shoulder.

It took Larkin a long while to regain his composure. When he stepped back at last, his face was red, not just from being upset, but Ru could tell he was embarrassed. He likely wasn’t used to crying at all, especially not in front of his own child. “Thank you, Ru. I’m sorry about that.”

“Don’t be,” she replied, not even attending to her tear-soaked shirt. “Listen, Dad, I need to get back to my team before they think something is wrong, but Mom wants to see you. So do I. And… do you remember that incantation she wanted to use years ago? The one that would make you human?”

Larkin nodded his head, his narrowed eyes indicating he wasn’t sure what she was getting at.

“Mom taught it to me. I know she wants me to use it, and I think it would be a good idea. I can also put a cloaking spell on you so that the Reapers can’t see you.”

“Do you think you can do that now, though? In this realm?”

Ru felt drained. It had taken every bit of her energy to close the portal, and she had no idea how she would even defend herself if another Reaper were to show up. “Probably not,” she admitted. “I’m willing to try, though.”

Larkin’s face cracked into a soft smile. “Why don’t I find you in your human form, and you can do it then?”

“That’s probably a better idea, but I’m in New York right now. And I’m not sure how long I’ll be there. I have to close the other portal.” A thought entered her head. “It’s in Japan, isn’t it?”

Larkin’s smile widened. “I don’t think you need me to tell you where it’s at, Rune. If you found this one… there’s no stopping you.”

She thought, perhaps, he might get in trouble if any of her enemies discovered he’d confirmed her suspicions, and while she didn’t think anyone was listening, one could never tell so she took his lack of disagreement as confirmation. “Mom is in Los Angeles,” she explained. “I could also end up going there soon.” As important as it was for her to close the remaining portal, she knew, after this battle, it would take some time to regroup and come up with a better plan since the enemy would stop at nothing when it came to preventing them from closing the last portal. Rushing into it might not be the best idea, and she really wanted to see her mom and Piper, so arguing for some time seemed like a good idea.

“Listen, Ru, you go where you need to. I’ll find you.”

“But you won’t be able to step foot in Los Angeles.”

“That’s okay. I never did before, either, and it didn’t stop me from seeing Sera.”

“Maggie,” Ru said, watching his eyebrows raise. “She prefers Maggie now.”

“Maggie?” he asked, as if the sound of it tasted funny coming out of his mouth. Larkin shook his head. “Anyway, I’ll find you, sweetheart. And when I do, you can do whatever you need to to make it so that you, your mom, and I can be together.”

Ru could feel her heart thumping with joy at the prospect of being one happy family. While she couldn’t imagine it would all be that easy, she also knew closing the portals would have to go a long way toward getting Sky, Raphael, and whoever else was making the decisions to decide to leave her father alone. “We’ll make it happen,” she promised. She looked around, thinking there was a possibility they were not alone anymore. “What about money? And a passport? How are you going to get from Turkey to the US with nothing?”

Larkin chuckled. “Don’t worry, Ru. I still have friends who are capable of more than you might imagine.”

That was answer enough for her. “All right. I’m going to try to get back to my body now. It was nice seeing you, Dad.”

“You, too, sweetheart,” he said, stepping forward and embracing her one more time. Ru felt his lips graze the top of her head, and for a moment, she had a vague memory of being a tiny girl wrapped in these same arms, giggling, as his mouth pressed against her hair. “Be careful, Ru.”

“You, too.”

“I love you.”

Ru didn’t hesitate. As odd as it seemed to say those words to a man she just met, someone who’d spent over two decades in Hell and was known to have been a dangerous Reaper, without question, she didn’t mind to reply, “I love you, too, Dad.”

Before she allowed her emotions to get to her, Ru closed her eyes and felt for her body, hoping she’d wake up where she was supposed to this time.

The sound of familiar voices was the first indication that Ru was back where she was supposed to be—roughly. When she opened her eyes, she found herself lying on the sofa in the parlor, not in her bed as she was expecting to be. She blinked a few times and began to sit up, drawing the attention of Cutter and the rest of the team who were standing in a huddle nearby.

“Ru! Thank God,” he said, rushing over to her and dropping down to his knee next to her. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she replied, shocked that they all looked so concerned. Her arm still hurt, and so did her hip, but she felt a little better now than she did waking up on the streets of Kayakoy. “How long was I out?”

“Just about twenty minutes longer than us,” Rider explained, standing behind Cutter. “But when we couldn’t get you to wake up, we got a little worried.”

“Do you know where you were?” Cutter asked, getting up and sitting next to her on the couch as she brought herself fully to sitting. He grabbed her hand, and Ru was glad to have him nearby, even if she had, apparently, scared the crap out of all of them.

Ru rubbed her head for a moment. “Yeah,” she replied. “I woke up out on the street, about a block from the church. Everyone else was gone, so I was going to come home. Then I realized there was a man coming out of one of the houses.”

“You’ve got to be shitting me,” Cutter muttered. “I swear to God, if you tell me it was Nat….”

Raising both of her eyebrows, Ru stared at him for a moment, not sure what his reaction was all about. Was he frightened for her safety, or was he accusing her of something? “It wasn’t,” she assured him, hoping her tone wasn’t as snippy to his ear as it was to hers. “It was my dad.”

It was Cutter’s turn to be surprised. “It was your dad?”

“Yes.”

“Larkin?”

“Yes.”

“Your dad was in Turkey?”

Exasperated, Ru replied, “Yes! Larkin. My dad. Was in Turkey. Is in Turkey. Why is that so hard to believe?”

“I’m sorry,” Cutter replied, shaking his head. “It’s just, you thought you saw him at the other portal, too, the one here, and it wasn’t him.”

“I definitely knew that wasn’t my dad. Eventually,” Ru reminded him. “I’m certain this was my dad.”

“What did he say?” Lyric asked, she sunk down into her usual chair, her arms folded.

“He just said he was happy to see me. And that he doesn’t want to do this anymore.”

“Do what?” Ivy asked. She was still standing next to Rider, and for the first time, Ru realized she had a large bruise on the side of her face. It looked painful.

“He doesn’t want to be a Reaper anymore.”

“Oh, well, then. He should just take his scythe back to the counter for a refund,”

Rider said shrugging, as if it was that simple.

“Yeah, like that can happen,” Lyric muttered.

“It can.” Ru was puzzled. “My mom told me, there’s an incantation for that. White magic. She taught me. I didn’t want to do it just then because I didn’t have my body, and I didn’t think I’d be strong enough, but I do believe I can turn him into a human.”

Four sets of eyes stared at her like she was crazy, a sensation Ru didn’t really appreciate, but she was confident in what her mother had told her.

“You really think you can do that?” Ivy asked.

“I’ve never heard of anyone becoming a human,” Lyric agreed.