Chapter 43: Chapter 43

Ru drew her phone out of her pocket and snapped a few pictures, hoping she got enough of the details that Lyric would be able to use them to do some more research. “Thank you,” she said, reaching over and lightly touching her mom’s arm with one hand as she slid her phone back into her pocket with the other.

“Certainly. I hope that it helps you find the portals, Ru.”

“I wish we had time to sit and chat,” Ru replied as her mother took her hand between hers. “But I think we should go. I know you feel confident that Nat means you no harm, but I don’t see the reason in bringing him here to find out if we can avoid it.”

“I understand,” Maggie replied. “Besides, you’ll want to make sure you don’t miss the tide. If you get stuck on the island, there likely won’t be any place for all of you to sleep.”

Laughing, Ru said, “You don’t think we’ll fit in here?”

“Uh, no.” Maggie joined in the laughter, and Ru felt so blessed to finally know what her mother sounded like, what she looked like, to be reminded of her scent. “Let me give you my cell phone number, though, before you go. I hope you will call often, Ru.”

“I definitely will, Mom.” Her mother gathered up the precious items and placed them back inside the box before securing the lid. Once she’d done so, she reached into her own pocket and produced her phone, handing it to Ru. She exchanged hers with her mom’s and a few minutes later, they were connected.

“Will you let me know when you get back to America?” Maggie asked, handing the phone back.

“Sure. We’ll probably try to fly out tomorrow,” Ru nodded, not yet wanting to get up.

“And keep me posted on the portals, too, Ru. If I think of anything that your father said, any other clues I might have, I’ll let you know. If he ever did mention them to me, I didn’t know that’s what he was talking about. He really was done with all of that once I told him you were on the way.”

Nodding, Ru said, “You really loved him, didn’t you, Mom?”

Her eyes began to glisten with unshed tears. “I still do, Rune.”

Seeing her mother struggle so completely hurt Ru’s heart, and she leaned over and wrapped her arms around her mom. “I’ll do whatever I can to help him.”

“I know you will, darling. I don’t know if there’s anything we can do, but I’m glad you’re going to try.”

Reluctantly, Ru released her mother and stood, crossing toward the door with her mom’s hand in hers. “I’ll call you often.”

“Good.” Maggie gave her hand a little squeeze. “Oh, and honey, I hope you won’t let what happened to your father and I dissuade you in any way from following your heart.”

Pulling up short of the door, Ru turned and looked into her mother’s blue eyes. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, as I have said before, Rune, follow your heart. Some might hear our story and think it was a tragedy, but honestly, I wouldn’t change it. I wouldn’t trade the moments your father and I had together, creating you, our little family, for anything in the world. If love was easy, there wouldn’t be so many songs about it.”

Ru stared at her mother a few moments longer, pondering how it was possible that she didn’t regret what had transpired, but part of her heart was happy to hear it, even if she was beginning to think her mother’s grief may have caused her to romanticize the events beyond any Shakespearean play. “I’ll remember.”

Maggie smiled and ran a hand through Ru’s hair, patting her lightly on the cheek. “I don’t expect you to be able to say this in return right now, Rune, considering what you’ve been through, but I do want you to know that I love you. I always have. You will always be my little girl. Now that I’ve found you again, I will never let you go.”

For what seemed to be the hundredth time that day, Ru was fighting back tears. “Thank you,” she said quietly, letting her mom pull her in for one last hug. In her heart, she knew she loved this woman, too, despite everything. She may have given her away, but she’d done it for good reason. Her judgment may have been off when she trusted Liddy Brown, but her intentions were to give Ru the upbringing she was supposed to have. It wasn’t Sera/Maggie’s fault everything went awry. She’d never felt more at home than she did in her mother’s embrace. Yet, it seemed too soon to reveal that she felt just as strongly as her mother did, so she held the words inside, vowing to let her mom know how she truly felt later.

Maggie released her, and with one more glance, Ru opened the door, heading back out into the world, her mission before her. Holy Island may not have held the secret to the portals, but at least she’d met her mother. Something told her that if she could put the broken pieces of her life back together, she could find, and close the portals as well.

The view from Ru’s hotel room wasn’t too shabby. While she didn’t have a direct view of anything too important, that she knew of anyway, off in the distance she could see the London Bridge and some tall buildings, which looked breathtaking all lit up at night. She could’ve sat and stared out the window all night if a knock at the door hadn’t interrupted her.

She had a feeling it was Cutter before she even went to open it. It had been evident all the way back from Holy Island that he wanted to speak with her, but it had been too much for Ru. She’d laid down in the back seat the best she could with her seatbelt on and fallen asleep pretty quickly after they’d made it across the causeway. When they’d reached the hotel, she had gone to her room, saying she’d order something from room service for dinner. The night before, she’d thought it might be possible her mother could be returning back to this rented room with her. The fact that she wasn’t here made her heart feel heavy, although she was still thankful that her mom had at least been found at last. That was something.

He had a sheepish expression on his handsome face when she pulled the door open, and she couldn’t help but smile at his awkwardness. “Sorry,” was the first word out of his mouth. “I just… do you have a few minutes?”

“Of course,” she replied, stepping back out of the way so that he could enter.

The room only consisted of the bed and a couple of small chairs with what could hardly be described as table between them. It might’ve been a stool if it weren’t for the way it was situated. The TV was mounted to the wall across from the bed and the nightstands with their white-shaded lamps, but Ru hadn’t even turned it on. She gestured to the chair she hadn’t just vacated, and Cutter dropped down into it.

Sitting across from him, she noted he’d changed his shirt and absently wondered how he had packed extra clothes into the carry-ons they’d all brought with them. She loved it when he wore blue, which he must’ve picked up on because he did it nearly every day anymore, and she couldn’t help but stare at him for a moment before catching herself and shifting her eyes out the window.

“It sure is lovely,” she said.

“Yeah,” he agreed. “I usually don’t spring for such nice accommodations, but I thought the importance of this mission called for it.”

“Why not?” Ru asked, lifting her gaze from the illuminated bridge and looking back at him.

“Why don’t we spend more?” She nodded. “Well, I don’t know,” he shrugged. “I guess excess never seemed like something we should take part in. Modest hotel rooms, flying coach, those things work for most people.”

“I guess that’s true.” It wasn’t like her to want to spend money for no reason, either. “I just don’t know where the money comes from. It seems like manna to me, you know? Falling from Heaven.”

Cutter snickered. “Not exactly. But we’re not hurting either. It’s just always been that way, I suppose.”

“Hmmm,” Ru replied, turning back to the window, no longer sure what to say.

“So… I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop,” he began, drawing her eyes back to his face, “but I did hear some of what your mother was saying to you. I honestly wasn’t trying.”

“It’s okay,” Ru assured him, hopeful that he had heard the one point of discussion she didn’t care to mention.

“It was Raphael who changed your back?”

Memories of her mother recanting her terror at the encounter made Ru’s stomach tighten up, though not with the pains she’d experienced before, back when she didn’t know she also had Reaper powers. She’d already sent the pictures of her father’s sketch to Cutter and Lyric. “Yes.” Her voice was weak, and she decided she needed to find a way to separate her past from her present. After all, she had no recollection of her father. So why did it feel like a knife to her heart to know what Raphael had done to them?

“And she didn’t want to leave because she felt like the Keepers might hurt her?”

“That, and she believes Raphael was directing her to Holy Island to do penance for her sins, in an attempt to keep my father from even more torture.” She couldn’t bear to think of what he might be going through even as she spoke.

“She said she would never go back to Los Angeles,” she continued, and Cutter slowly shook his head, running his hands through his hair and resting both back on his legs. “Cutter, she says she’s not scared of the Reapers. Do you think she needs to be?”

“Honestly,” he said, setting his arms back on the armrests, “I would think so. I don’t know why she wouldn’t be.”

“I guess she thinks we are the bad guys.” It wasn’t the first time she’d heard the sentiment.

He was shaking his head again, more adamantly this time. “She just doesn’t understand.”

“She understands an Arch destroyed the love of her life, or at the very least took him away to eternal damnation.”

“Ru, you know that Raphael’s actions are independent of what we do. The Keepers would’ve never done that.”

“Of course we would have,” she replied, agitation making her voice louder than she’d intended. “That is exactly we do. He was a Reaper….”

“Yes, but under the circumstances, he would’ve been given a chance to show he was willing to stop claiming unmarked souls. We wouldn’t have destroyed him in front of his daughter.”

“I’d like to believe that, Cutter, I really would. But I don’t know that I can. It’s not as if Larkin hadn’t done anything… against the rules before he met my mother. I can completely see any number of Keepers sending him away permanently for his past discretions.

“Ru…”

“It doesn’t matter now, Cutter. I just need to make sure that Nat can’t find my mom. If the cloak is still in place, she should be fine.”

He nodded. “It seems to be.”

“Good.”

They sat in silence again for several minutes as Ru tried to see the view out the window, though images in her head blocked any comprehension of the sights before her eyes.

“What about the portals?”

His voice cut through the stillness, bringing her back out of her head and into the uneasiness that lingered. Ru shook her head. “She doesn’t know.”