Chapter 55: Chapter 55

Most of the way back to her house, they were silent. Ru had no idea what to say to him, and he seemed to be giving her some space. Once they reached town, Cutter said, “I hope we didn’t overwhelm you.”

Ru guffawed. “How could you avoid it? There’s so much to think about.”

“I know. And I wish we had more time to feed it to you slowly. But the Reapers are even more agitated now that we’ve taken Zu. We’ll likely all go out tonight to try to see if we can capture any more of them.”

“How many do you think there are in the area?” Ru asked, assuming they needed to be close by in order for the Keepers to track them.

“We’re not sure, but usually Nat has at least a couple dozen with him. Sometimes more.”

Ru was surprised. “Why aren’t there more dead then?”

Even in the dim light, she could see him shrug. “He’s had them searching for you. Now, that he’s found you, he can send them back out to collect more souls. They can reach people all over the world from here if they want to. It just takes more time.”

She wasn’t quite sure that answer made sense to her. Perhaps it was because of what Nat hold told her himself. Maybe he really was just looking for souls he could collect who were about to take the lives of others. There was no way for her to know. Her head was spinning, and she wasn’t sure who to believe. Was it possible they were both telling the truth, and they just couldn’t see each other’s sides? Is that what her mother was trying to do—get one side to see the other? Isn’t that what Nat had told her?

“You okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Once again, Ru found herself forcing a smile. She wasn’t sure how she could ever be okay again.

Cutter pulled up in front of her house and turned off his truck. Ru couldn’t help but compare it to the night before. Kyle’s kisses came to mind, and she absently bit her lip. The circumstances were so completely different this night.

He did run around and open her door, which she thought was nice. It reminded her of the night they had gone out for Mexican food, not that long ago, a million years ago. Cutter didn’t exactly end up being the person she thought he would be when they’d left for that date, and she knew she was keeping him at arm’s length precisely because he had caught her off guard.

Cutter walked her to her door. “Thanks for coming, Ru,” he said quietly. “If you have any questions, give me a call.”

“I will,” Ru nodded. “Thanks for inviting me over.” It seemed like the appropriate thing to say, even if she had to force it out of her mouth.

Nodding, Cutter said, “Be careful tomorrow, Ru. Those woods can be dangerous.”

She raised her eyebrows at him. “Too bad I can’t use my powers of light then.” She wanted it to sound like a joke, but it didn’t exactly come out that way.

“I bet you can if you have to,” Cutter replied, an unexpected answer. “I hope you have a good time.”

His tone sounded painful, and Ru once again found herself puzzling over Cutter’s response to her seeing Kyle. “Thanks,” she said. “Good night, Cutter.”

“Good night, Ru.” He turned to go, and she pulled her keys out of her purse and unlocked the door, thankful to be home but just as unsettled, if not more so, than she’d been when she’d left. The envelope was still in her hand, and she considered looking at the picture of her mother again, but she was too tired. She locked the door and set the envelope on the coffee table, deciding she’d worry about it tomorrow. For now, all she wanted to do was go to bed, and hopefully, if she was lucky, dream about Kyle. Then, maybe she could finally have a little bit of peace.

Lyric was sitting on the front porch swing when Cutter arrived back at the house. She had a thoughtful expression on her face, and he almost hated to interrupt whatever she was concentrating on. But as he approached the steps, she asked, “How did that go?”

With a sigh, Cutter sauntered over and dropped down next to her before answering. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “Clearly, there’s still a wall between us. I have no idea what to do about it. And this new guy—Kyle….” Cutter couldn’t finish the sentence.

“Yeah, about that,” Lyric began, looking at him sideways. “I’m not sure I trust this guy.”

Cutter raised an eyebrow and narrowed in on her eyes, trying to read where she was coming from. “What do you mean?” Despite what Lyric had already mentioned to him, he had thought he was the only one who was suspicious of Kyle and that it had come from a place of jealousy.

Shrugging, Lyric replied. “It just seems a little… convenient to me. I mean, don’t get me wrong, Ru’s gorgeous, but like I said the other night, she doesn’t seem to date much. There aren’t a lot of pics of her on social media with guys. None in fact. And her status says she’s single. There’s no mention of her having dated anyone at all. So… why now? Why, all of a sudden, with everything going on, does some guy drop into Reaper’s Hollow of all places and have an interest in her?”

Cutter wasn’t sure how to respond. Ever since Lyric had mentioned it the other night, he’d been thinking about it, but hadn’t come up with an explanation. He’d assumed Ru had met someone now because he always had awful luck with women, so naturally, the first one he’d been interested in for as long as he could remember would immediately find the love of her life the second he let her know how he felt. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “What are you getting at?”

She shook her head slowly. “I don’t know. But when something doesn’t seem right, it usually isn’t. I know you said to stay out of her dreams, and I will, but I want to do some reconnaissance. Ru mentioned that Kyle is taking her for a hike tomorrow in the woods. I wanna keep an eye on her. I don’t trust him, and I haven’t even met him. At least… I don’t think I have.”

Cutter was growing more and more alarmed at each of her statements. “So you want to sit outside of her house on your bike and then follow her on her date to the woods. And you don’t think she’ll notice any of this?”

Lyric gave him a sly smile. “No! I wouldn’t take my bike. I don’t think she’s seen Ivy’s car much. I could borrow that. And as far as being in the woods with them is concerned, I have my methods of seeing what’s going on in there without entering.”

He assumed she meant she’d slip into the forest in her spirit form, which is precisely what he’d asked her not to do—spying on Ru without her knowing she was there. But then, sitting outside of her house with a pair of binoculars was just as invasive. “And what exactly is it that you think this Kyle fellow has up his sleeve anyway?”

“I don’t know,” Lyric admitted. “But I think we need to find out. Ru’s too valuable for us to lose her now, whether it’s to Nat or to her definition of normalcy.”

Cutter couldn’t argue with that. “Well, do what you need to do. Just be careful. If she finds out, she’ll be pissed at all of us.”

Lyric’s grin split her face. “She’ll never even know I’m there.”