Chapter 41: Chapter 41

Cutter squeezed her leg, and Ru realized it must be apparent she wasn’t paying attention. She tuned back in to hear Sky say, “Now, the team we are meant to protect so that they can get in and close the portal will be given the code name Alfred. This will allow us to be briefer in our communications about the team.”

Sky continued to talk, and she knew it was important that she listen, since Ru would be involved in whatever the blue-haired Keeper was discussing presently, but curiosity got the better of her. “Why Alfred?” she whispered to Cutter.

Without turning his head, he replied, “Alfred Nobel.”

“Huh?” Ru was still confused.

“The inventor of dynamite.”

“Oh.” Shaking her head, she turned her attention back to Sky, who was giving her the same look Ru might give a student who wasn’t paying attention. Ru swallowed hard and made herself concentrate.

“Alfred will be dispatched from here, a break in the forest away from the typical entrance. Since the battle will have already begun, we should have a decent handle on the enemy at that time. Alfred will make its way through the forest to this site where the portal is located. If Yellow and Orange teams have done their jobs, by then, the path to the portal, which is indicated by this circle on the map, should be clear. Alfred’s task should be fairly simple if the rest of us do our jobs.”

A tall, broad shouldered Keeper a few seats away from Ru raised his pen, and Sky nodded in his direction. “Is there an exit strategy?” His voice was so deep, Ru felt the table vibrate.

“There is,” Sky nodded. “From what we learned in Turkey, anyone within a two-mile radius of the portal will be knocked unconscious when the blast goes off. That will be most of us. Therefore, we will have Blue and Purple teams located a safe distance away so that, once the portal is destroyed, they can come in and begin the process of waking or moving those who are affected by the blast out of harm’s way before the enemy awakens.”

“Might this be a good opportunity to destroy the enemy as well?” another angel asked without bothering to gesture for permission.

“That is certainly an option,” Sky nodded. “But these two teams will have the primary responsibility of removing the casualties.”

Ru didn’t like to think of herself as a casualty, but she knew she would fall into that category one way or another. Hopefully, she would be one of the people knocked out by the blast of the portal and not a different kind of victim. A thought occurred to her, and before she had time to stop herself, her hand shot up.

Sky’s eyebrows knit together. “Yes, Ru?”

“Sorry,” Ru said, though she wasn’t sure why she was apologizing or why Sky was surprised she’d raised her hand. She was a teacher after all. “Uh, I was just thinking… we will have troops waiting to come in and clean up afterward. What about them? Will they have a secondary wave of Reamons, I mean, Reapers and demons, poised to come in as well?” She knew the eyes boring into her had a lot to do with her tongue-tie, and Ru felt the color starting to rise up her neck.

“That is a good question,” Sky said, though her tone sounded slightly patronizing. “We don’t think that will be the case, however. Chances are, they will throw everything they’ve got toward defending that portal.”

Ru nodded, but she knew the portal wasn’t nearly as important to the demons as it was the Reapers. Would they really be willing to defend it when another opportunity, one to kill them all as they slept, was also a possibility? She hoped Sky would reconsider the potential threat, but she didn’t press it just now.

A few more questions were asked, and Ru did her best to pay attention, but focusing was becoming increasingly difficult. She was ready to get out of there by the time she heard Sky say, “Okay, well if that’s all, I’ll leave it to all of you to move into position. We have 24 hours. I trust that will be enough time.” It wasn’t a question, and no one objected. The noise of chairs being scooted back away from the table and chatter filled the room, and Ru tried once more to pull herself out of her own head and focus on the people around her.

“Are you okay, Ru?” Ivy asked, placing her hand on her back. She’d been sitting next to Ru the whole time, but she hadn’t really been aware of her friend.

“I’m okay,” Ru assured her, trying to smile, but she knew it was forced—and so did Ivy. This was all very overwhelming for her, and she just wanted to go back to Los Angeles and pet her cat.

Ru was content to let the others file out as Lyric spoke to her sister in hushed tones at the front of the room. Both of them had their arms folded under their chests, but they didn’t look hostile toward each other as they had on Holy Island. It seemed like forever ago when Sky had shown up and taken Ru’s mom away, even though it had only been a few weeks.

Cutter and Rider were talking about something, and Ru decided to try to focus on their discussion instead of staring at the forest in front of her—the battlefield. She’d hoped it would be something important but they were talking about two different airlines and which one had the best first-class options. Shaking her head, Ru pushed her chair back and stood, not knowing where she was going but feeling that she needed to get out of the room, out of this realm, and back to something that at least seemed normal.

She was around the end of the table approaching Lyric when Cutter noticed and followed her. Rider and Ivy trailed behind. As she drew even with her friend’s shoulder, Sky paused mid-sentence and smiled at her. “Ru, that was a good question. Lyric and I were just discussing some options, and I think we’ll be in good shape, even if there is a secondary attack.”

“Oh, good,” Ru said, managing a smile. “I’m glad. Thank you for… your time.” She had no idea what to say to someone who was planning an attack so that she could sneak in and blow up a portal, but she knew she wanted desperately not to be there anymore, not to think about it. The closer they got to the attack, the more her stomach ached, and she knew she was going to have to go explode something with her black smoke power soon or else wind up in the hospital asking for treatment for a pain no doctor could cure.

Ru headed out the door, not caring too much if her friends followed or not. There was a group of people in front of the elevators, people who had been in the meeting, and some of them stopped their conversations to stare at her. Ru froze in her tracks just a few steps out of the conference room.

“Ru?” Cutter said, placing his hand on her shoulder. “What’s the matter?”

With a deep sigh, she admitted. “I just want to go home.”

“Okay. We can do that.”

“There’s a million people over by the elevator, though.”

“That’s okay.” He stepped around so he was facing her. “You don’t actually need to take the elevator, remember?”

She was confused at first, but then she realized what he was saying. With a deep sigh of relief, she closed her eyes.

The scent of garlic wafted through the air, and Ru opened her eyes to find herself sitting in Rider’s dining room. Ivy had made them all lasagna before they went on their trip to The Depot, and even though they’d cleaned up, the aroma still lingered. She glanced around at the faces of the others, so eerily still, their eyes closed, sitting in their chairs, but none of them there.

As her eyes fell on Cutter’s face, his eyes opened, and he smiled. “You win.”

A giggle slipped through her lips, and it felt good to laugh for a moment. “I didn’t know we were racing.”

“Neither did I, or else maybe you wouldn’t have won.”

She loved the teasing gleam in his eyes. He reached over and brushed her bangs back and she caught his hand with both of hers. “Cutter, I think I need to go start a fire or something. I feel like I’m going to explode.”

“Okay,” he said, no question in his voice. “We can drive out of town, and you can blow up some rocks or something.”

Even the thought of letting out the blackness welling up inside of her made Ru feel marginally better. “Why do you think this keeps happening? Why is it every time I get overwhelmed, my Reaper powers want to surface?”

“I’m not sure. But I don’t think it’s a bad thing. You can control it.”

“To a point.” She remembered the fire she’d started at Angel Grove. “Maybe we should wait for Lyric.”

“Yeah, maybe.” Cutter chuckled softly. “Listen, Ru, no one can blame you for being overwhelmed. You’re new to all of this, and we’re asking you to do things that none of us can do, not singlehandedly anyway. Don’t beat yourself up for feeling a little anxious.”

While Ru wanted to explain there was nothing little about her anxiety, she didn’t bother because she knew it didn’t matter. What he was saying held true. She was under a lot of pressure, and everyone understood that, even if most of them couldn’t grasp the true reason why. Her nervousness had nothing to do with closing the portal.

Thinking about her mission made her mind wander to her parents. It had been nearly impossible to pry them away from each other the night before when they’d all agreed they’d better part ways before Raphael showed up. Saying they understood they needed to go and actually doing it had been two different things, and by the time Ru got her mom back into her nana’s car, she felt like she was the parent scolding her teenager for staying out too late with her boyfriend.

But they’d been so happy. It was as if nothing had changed over the years. They picked up right where they left off. The love they shared was something Ru wouldn’t have been able to fathom just a few months ago. Now, holding the hand of the man she knew would do anything for her, it wasn’t too hard to comprehend at all.

“Hey, why don’t you two lovebirds stop staring into each other’s eyes so the rest of us can eat more lasagna without feeling sick to our stomachs.”

“Oh, good. Rider’s back,” Cutter said, his voice completely dry.

“You eat as much as you did before, and you’ll feel sick to your stomach anyway.” Lyric threw a verbal punch at him as she got up from her seat and headed toward the kitchen.

“Okay, but after lasagna, we have to go for a little ride, Lyric,” Ru called to her friend over her shoulder.

Her pink-haired friend paused in the doorway. “For what?”

“I gotta blow something up,” Ru said with a shrug.

“Oh. I’ll get my coat.”