Chapter 38: Chapter 38

Hushed voices filled their ears as they reached the bottom. One of them was definitely Stew and the other sounded like a woman. Ru braced herself. What if she was hearing the voice of her mother?

Cutter looked up at her. “Can you hear them?” he asked, his voice not even a whisper. She shook her head. “He’s telling her someone is here asking about her, and she’s asking if there’s a place she can hide.”

“Thank God for your superhuman hearing,” she replied. “Let’s go.”

He looked at her for a moment, as if asking if she was sure, and she nodded. Cutter descended the final stairs, and she followed.

The scene wasn’t exactly what she was expecting. The pair was actually standing well across the narrow basement, which slightly resembled a dungeon. Two bare bulbs hung from the ceiling, illuminating tables lined with artifacts. Stew was speaking to a waif of a woman with dark hair, standing close to her. She had her back to them, but she certainly didn’t look like Seraphina, not from here anyway, though she was tall.

Nevertheless, the humming stopped the moment Ru’s eyes fell on the back of the woman’s head, who wore dark pants and a button-down shirt much like Stew’s, which Ru thought might be some sort of a uniform. It was definitely different than the vision she’d had as a child of running toward her mother wearing a flowing, flowered dress on the beach, her blonde hair whipping in the wind.

Stew whispered something under his breath that sounded a bit like the expletive Ru’d once gotten her mouth washed out with soap for saying when she was in high school. He had a defeated look on his face, as if he realized he’d just led the enemy to the treasure. At first, she thought he might yell at them for following him, but instead, he hung his head and shook it back and forth.

The woman slowly turned her head. The moment their eyes met, Ru knew for certain who she was looking at. Cutter stepped out of the way, and Ru’s feet somehow carried her a few feet forward across the uneven stone surface.

Blue eyes the color of cornflowers, with fine lines around the edges, gazed at her in confusion. The face was a bit more aged than it had been in the photograph Ru had in her bag in the van, but she would know this woman anywhere, even without the picture, without her blonde hair, without the humming sound.

She took another step forward.

“Can I help you?” the woman asked, her eyebrows knitting together. While the recognition was there in her eyes assuring Ru that she knew they were Keepers, she must not know exactly who she was looking at. Otherwise, Ru’s heart insisted, she would’ve been just as eager to get over this charade as she was herself.

Coming to a halt about five feet away from her, Ru clasped her hands in front of herself, bracing herself. Quietly, she asked, “Sera?” even though her heart told her that this was most certainly Seraphina Raphaels.

“I’m sorry,” she said, turning around to fully face Ru. “My name is Margaret.”

The lie hung between them in the dank cavern, and Ru only stared at her mother’s face, not sure how to combat her unwillingness to concede. Stew, who likely only knew her as Margaret Something-Or-Other crossed his arms. The scolding was coming. “I’m sorry, but this area is off limits to visitors. I’m going to have to ask the pair of you to go back upstairs….”

“It’s me,” Ru said, speaking over him. “I thought… I thought maybe you heard the humming, too. Maybe you would know it was me. But maybe not.” She dropped her eyes to the ground, no longer able to hold the intense gaze of the woman she’d been searching for her entire life.

“Please, go ahead and head back up those stairs….” Stew’s attempt at authority was lost the moment he looked at Cutter’s face. A brief glance over her shoulder revealed he was still standing near the bottom of the stairwell, his arms folded, an unmoving boulder of security.

The woman who claimed to be Margaret took a step forward, drawing Ru’s eyes. She looked even more confused than she had originally. “Did you say a hum?” she asked.

Ru nodded. While she was aware that she probably sounded like a crazy person to Stew, she needed to be honest with her mother if there was a chance they could walk out of this place together. “I thought maybe you put it there. Somehow.”

As if she was reading her mind, Margaret turned to Stew and said, “You know what, I think they’re fine, Stew. Why don’t you go ahead and head upstairs? I’ll be up in a few minutes.”

He hesitated, as if he wasn’t sure whether or not she was speaking under duress, but with a wave of her hand, he headed toward the staircase. Ru turned to watch him go and noticed he gave Cutter a large berth as he stepped around the man who towered at least a foot and a half over him. Ru turned back to stare into the blue eyes she’d only recently seen in her dreams up until this point.

The woman cleared her throat. “What’s your name?” she asked quietly, folding her arms in front of herself as if she was either cold or uncomfortable. It was chilly down here, but Ru supposed it was the latter.

“What’s my name?” she repeated, though with no hostility. “You should know. You named me.”

With that, a note of recognition bordering on unrequited hope burst into her eyes and a small whimper came out of her mouth. “I did?” she asked. She raised a hand to her mouth, and Ru noticed it was trembling. Slowly, she began to shake her head. “No, it can’t be.”

“It can be,” Ru assured her, taking another step forward. “And it is.”

Tears began to form in her eyes and the whimper became a gasp as she covered her mouth with both hands. It took her a moment to regain her composure enough, but once she did, she said quietly, just above a whisper, “Ru? Is it… is it really you?”

Rivulets streamed down her face, as well, as Ru nodded. Before she knew what was happening, her mom enveloped her, and Ru wound her arms around the thin waist of the woman who’d brought her into this world. Inhaling, she no longer noticed the stale smell of the underground room. Instead, the memory of a scent she’d held in her mind for over two decades filled her lungs. Lilac and spring, fresh linen, her mother’s hair, her mother’s soft, warm skin. Despite everything she’d been through, perhaps in spite of it, Ru held onto her mother with every fiber of her being and both of them let the tears flow freely.

It seemed like an eternity passed before Sera finally took a step backward. “Let me look at you,” she said, holding her daughter at arm’s length. “Oh, you’re so pretty. Beautiful.” Raising a hand, she caught a lock of Ru’s hair. “Same color as mine was before….” She gestured at the dark mass on her head and sort of laughed, which made Ru giggle as well. “Your eyes are so light. And your complexion.” Gently, her mother reached out and stroked Ru’s cheek. “You’re stunning.”

“Thank you,” Ru said. She had no idea what else she could possibly reply with since she had not spent much time feeling any of the things her mother had just named in all of her years, but it didn’t make much sense to argue with the person she most resembled, especially since Ru would’ve absolutely proclaimed her mother was gorgeous. Funny how that didn’t make any sense at all, and yet she couldn’t deny any of it.

Her mother’s voice brought her back around. “What are you doing here? Is everything okay? How did you find me?”

“Uh, that’s a lot of questions,” Ru replied with a nervous laugh, feeling overwhelmed. “Is there some place we can go to talk?”

“Sure. There’s a lounge upstairs for employees. It doesn’t look like Stew is very busy today. I’m sure we can talk there.”

Ru turned and looked at Cutter. “Do you think that will be okay?”

He nodded, but she could see a worried expression in his face. Ru was aware that others had been tracking their movements. Nat had already warned her that he would be watching. She wondered if Cutter’s expression had to do with the Reapers or something else.

“And who are you?” The question was asked in a pleasant tone, with a small smile.

“This is Cutter,” Ru explained. “He came with me. Him… and a few of my other friends. We’ve been looking for you for a while. Well, they’ve been looking for you for a long time. I only joined in a few weeks ago.”

“Oh, it’s nice to meet you, Cutter. You can call me Maggie.” She offered her hand, and he took it.

“It’s nice to meet you, as well,” he replied, shaking her hand. “It’s been a long time coming.”

If she was offended, she didn’t let on, only smirked, and took another step toward the stairs.

Ru followed, unsure of where to begin, what to say, how to avoid overloading her mother and still manage to get out before trouble showed up. “I honestly can’t believe this has happened,” Maggie said, heading up the stairs. “I thought, if you hadn’t heard the hum by now, you never would.”

“I just heard it on the way over from London,” Ru replied. “Did you think I’d hear it from farther away?”

“If you were going to,” Maggie replied, reaching for the door at the top of the stairs. “I thought you’d be well-enough in tune with yourself to hear it a long time ago. I had no way of knowing if any of those things worked, you understand.”

Ru nodded, assuming she meant the spells she had cast. “They did,” she agreed, although the comment about being in tune with herself was enigmatic.

“Apparently.” Maggie’s face looked something between relieved and frightened, and Ru assumed there must be bad memories. “So much has happened. I don’t even know where to begin.”

“I know. I feel the same way,” Ru agreed as they headed down the hallway.

“You two will have plenty of time to get reunited once we get you home,” Cutter offered from behind them.

Maggie stopped in her tracks and turned to face him. “What’s that?” she asked.

“Home,” Cutter repeated. “We came to take you home.”

“Oh, well, if that’s the case, I’m afraid you’ve come in vain. You see, Cutter, I’m never going back there. Never.”