Chapter 6: Chapter 6

Ivy was just as good at cooking breakfast as she was dinner, and as Ru slathered a pat of butter on top of her stack of pancakes, it occurred to her that she’d either need to up her exercise or rein in the calories a little bit. At this rate, the nickname Chubs, which her adoptive mother had given her, even though she was nothing more than a stick figure as a child, might be a little more fitting.

She hadn’t spoken to Cutter much about what had happened the night before. When she’d opened her eyes to discover she was back in her body, she hadn’t really known what to say, and after he told her how proud he was of her, she’d gone to bed almost immediately. If what he’d said before was true, this meant he’d take her to the Keepers’ hometown of Los Angeles soon. She’d have the chance to meet her grandmother and find out more information about where her real mother, Seraphina, might be. However, she still had one loose end to tie up, one she was not looking forward to.

“Well, there she is,” Rider said, taking a seat across from her at the dining table nestled in a nook in the kitchen. “The world’s newest spiritualist.”

“What?” Ru asked, laughing uncomfortably. “I don’t think that’s what that word means.”

“It can mean whatever we want it to mean when we’re the only ones who can do it,” he replied, taking a heaping helping of pancakes and drizzling warm maple syrup over the top and all down the sides.

“Not the only ones,” Lyric reminded him, making a grim face when she said it, which was more than a little fitting considering she was referring to the Reapers.

“Only ones that matter. Still, that’s good. You should be proud of yourself. I’m proud of you.”

“Thanks,” Ru replied quietly, a bit embarrassed. She glanced over at Cutter, who was sitting at the end of the table on the other side of Lyric. He had the same satisfied grin on his face he’d worn since he took his seat just a few minutes ago, and Ru was pretty sure it was due to her success as well.

“So, what does this mean?” Ivy asked, setting a plate of bacon on the table and finally taking her seat next to Rider. “Are we ready to go home?”

“Yeah, I think so,” Cutter nodded. “I mean, Ru’s going to need a little more practice, but I don’t think she’ll struggle with it anymore. You know once you’ve got it, it’s sort of like riding a bike.”

That was one expression Ru never really cared for. When she was little, her mother never bought her a bike of her own, and the one time she’d tried to learn on her sister’s old one, the seat fell off. Thus, she’d never learned to ride. She kept that secret to herself however, deciding it wasn’t that important. Metaphorically speaking, if she’d ever learned to ride a bike, learning to take her spirit form would be just as difficult to forget.

“Great! I can make the flight arrangements,” Ivy said, smiling. “I’ll make sure we can take Piper with us in the cabin.”

“Awesome.” Ru smiled, but she still felt uneasy. Cutter sure seemed to be putting a lot of faith in her abilities. She’d feel better when she’d shown him she could do it again. Not to mention, never in a million years would she have ever thought she’d be leaving home right now. She was supposed to be teaching, after all.

“So, nobody picked up on anything last night?” Rider asked, his mouth not completely full but not empty either.

“Nope,” Lyric shook her head. “Not even a vibration.”

“Me neither,” Ivy confirmed.

“Do we think that means Nat and his cohorts have moved on?” Rider’s question was generalized to the entire table, but all of them looked at Cutter for an answer, and Ru wondered how he’d become the unofficial leader of their team.

“It’s hard to say,” Cutter shrugged. “Just because he’s lying low, that doesn’t mean that he’s gone.”

“Now that Ru can leap, maybe we should take her out tonight and see if she can discover anything in the woods, the same place I lost Raven. I can get back there easily since I’ve been before. It’s gotta be the same woods where we fought them off in human form.” Rider took another huge bite, as if the length of his speech was so long he almost starved to death before he got it all out.

“Maybe,” Cutter said, and Ru wasn’t sure exactly which part of the idea he was responding to. It all sounded valid to her.

“It sounds good to me,” she confirmed. She’d been waiting for this opportunity.

“I just don’t want to get ahead of ourselves. Just because you’re in spirit form, that doesn’t mean that Nat can’t hurt you.”

“She protected herself pretty good last time,” Rider reminded his cousin. “And that was before she even had any idea what she was doing.”

“Thanks. I think,” Ru muttered, and he laughed at her, as if to say it was true.

“No, I agree. I think we should go hunting for him. I just don’t want to be too hasty. Hopefully, he’s gone, and we can find the portal. But I doubt he’d leave it completely unprotected. It’s too important.”

“And there has to be some sort of a cloaking spell over the opening,” Ivy suggested. “Otherwise, we would’ve found it. Or our ancestors would’ve, back in the eighteenth century when the activity was so rampant.”

“I agree.” Even though Lyric hadn’t eaten half of her short stack, she pushed her plate aside. “I’ve been trying to get information from the Keepers of the Guard, the ones that have Zu, but his lips are sealed tightly on that one. He seems willing to talk about Nat’s plans but not about the portal.”

“What about my back?” Ru asked wondering where the courage to ask such a question had come from. “Any progress there? Maybe the runes have information about the portals. Or where my mother might be.”

Once again, Lyric was shaking her head. “No. There’s a lot of information to look through, but I only think I have translations for a few of the symbols, and none of it makes sense.”

“What do you think you have so far?” Cutter asked, also finished with his breakfast. Ivy was slowing down, and Ru felt her stomach becoming full. Rider piled more bacon on his plate.

“Just ‘key’ and maybe ‘light’ or ‘passage,’ not sure which,” Lyric admitted.

“Couldn’t ‘passage’ be ‘portal’?” Ru asked, hopeful.

“Sure, but it could also be lots of other things. We are definitely going to need more help with this.” She looked a bit defeated, and Ru was under the impression Lyric didn’t like to fail.

“Maybe we can get Sky to meet us in Los Angeles,” Rider said, finally slowing down a bit. “He might have some insider info since he’s been in the lower realms for so long.”

“Who is Sky?” Ru asked, looking from Rider to the others and then back again.

“He’s my older brother,” Rider explained. “He’s a Keeper of the Guard.”

“So, by lower realms, you mean Hell?”

“More or less,” Rider nodded, and Ru wondered how she would ever sort all of this out.

“He’s pretty good about passing on information to us when he can get it,” Cutter elaborated. “But there are so many Keepers operating around the world, sometimes it’s difficult to meet everyone’s needs.”

“I should think our operation would be a priority,” Lyric mumbled, taking a drink of her orange juice.

“I would hope so, but then, there are no unimportant missions.” Cutter always seemed to hold the company line, if they’d been working for a company, that is, instead of some greater power Ru didn’t quite identify with. “We aren’t the only group working on finding the portals.”

“Well, we’ve got to be the closest to finding this one.” Ivy’s chair screeched as she pushed it out and stood, beginning to gather dishes. “And… we’ve definitely got a huge advantage having Ru with us.”

“It’s not a contest,” Cutter reminded them. “If anything, we should be working together. It’s just… gonna be tough with so much going on and the other teams spread across the world absorbed in what they are doing.”

“Well, I suggest we see what we can discern tonight by visiting the woods Raven disappeared in, and then we go from there.” Rider’s plan was reasonable, and everyone agreed.

“Meanwhile, I’ll make travel arrangements for early this week. Does that work for everyone?” Ivy checked with each of them and got a nod from all of them, and Ru found herself nodding along, even though she was a bit terrified. Not at traveling—though she’d only been on a plane once before and that was a short ride to Chicago when her mother’s father had died suddenly—but because that meant she was really going through with this. Somehow, almost overnight, she’d become a Keeper. Now, she just needed to figure out what that meant….

She helped Ivy clear the rest of the dishes. Lyric disappeared to go do more research, and Rider said something about wanting to finish the bathroom before they left, even though it made little sense to Ru since she had no idea if any of them would ever be coming back here. Not returning to this part of New York seemed unfathomable to her, but she realized the world was full of possibilities at this juncture. Cutter helped Ivy load the dishwasher, and once the kitchen was cleaned up, Ru excused herself, the realization that she had a loose end to tie up still very much in the forefront of her mind.