Chapter 2

“How did it go?” Cutter Michaels asked, almost as soon as she walked in the door. Her face must have told him everything because he opened his arms, and she buried her face in his shoulder, the tears resurfacing. He hugged her gently, careful not to put too much pressure on her shoulder which was healing from the fall she’d taken in the woods a few weeks ago. Luckily, it had only been dislocated and not broken. “I’m so sorry,” he said quietly, stroking her hair. “It’ll get better. In a few days, it won’t hurt nearly as much.”

She realized he knew because he’d just told his class goodbye as well, but he wasn’t really a teacher, so she had no way of knowing if he really cared for his students the same way she did. Having witnessed him with his class these past weeks, she thought he did, though; he seemed to love each of them very much.

After a moment, she was able to regain her composure. “I’m sorry,” she said, stepping back and swiping at her eyes. She noticed she’d left a wet streak on the shoulder of his blue long-sleeved shirt, which was the same color as his eyes. She looked around for something to dry her tears and maybe sop up the damp spot on his shirt as well, and Cutter stepped aside to grab some tissues off of a nearby table.

Handing her a few, he said, “It’s fine. It’ll dry,” and smiled sympathetically at her. “I think Ivy’s just about done with dinner.”

She nodded. For the last two and a half weeks, she’d been coming out to their house, Angel Grove, in the middle of the woods to practice her skills every night after school and had even spent the weekends here. Now that she was officially part of their operation and no longer a teacher, she’d be moving in. From here, she wasn’t sure where this new path might lead her, but she had to focus on being excited about the future instead of lamenting the past. Her house was for sale, her belongings packed and ready to be put in storage, except for the few things she’d move in with her here, and her cat, Piper, had already taken to Ivy and Lyric, happy to have some company during the day, though she didn’t seem to like Rider very much for some reason.

As if Ru’s thoughts had drawn her over, Piper came out of the dining room, meowing and purring. Ru bent down to scoop her up. Even if she spent a lot of time with the other women in the house, Ru knew she was still her kitty’s favorite person. “There she is!” Ru cooed, nestling her soft orange and white fur with her nose. “I missed you.” Piper continued to purr and rubbed her neck on Ru’s shoulder. It was nice to still have semblance of normal.

Cutter stood a few feet away watching them, the smile on his face haunted by sadness, though Ru wasn’t exactly sure why. Since Cutter and the others had helped her escape Thanatos and his army of Reapers in the woods not far from this very house a few weeks ago, her relationship with Cutter seemed even more complex than it had been before, and she never quite knew what he was thinking. Much of her training had been under his instruction. He was always calm and patient with her, even when it took her much too long to follow his directions.

Despite the fact that she’d drawn upon her power of light to defeat Thanatos, she had a hard time harnessing it on command under relaxed situations. It was getting better, and she could now call the blue light to flicker in her fingers, at least weakly, almost as soon as she was asked to do so. But there were still other skills she hadn’t been able to demonstrate at all, including the transformation into her spirit form that would allow her to enter other streams of consciousness or realms, which was essential to her job as a Keeper. If she didn’t master it, she would never be able to ferret out the Reapers she was meant to send back to Hell. Cutter insisted she get this down before they embarked on a journey to find Ru’s mother, Seraphina, a Keeper who went into hiding when Ru was a little girl because she’d fallen in love with Ru’s father, Larkin, who happened to be a Reaper.

It was all complex and complicated, and much of her wished she could go back to her ordinary life as a school teacher, but now that she knew she had a calling as a Keeper, Ru couldn’t do that. Wishing she’d been brought up knowing her true identity, instead of being placed in the care of her now-adoptive mother, Liddy Brown, who clearly preferred her two biological daughters over Ru, couldn’t change the past, and Ru struggled with finding a balance between longing for a different history and accepting where she was in life.

“How did Candice do today?” Cutter asked, snapping Ru out of her deep thoughts. “Did she cry?”

Sighing, Ru put Piper down, and her cat scampered off, likely on the prowl for another mouse. There were some things about living in an ancient house in the middle of a forest that Ru definitely could’ve done without. “Candice certainly cried,” she said, not sure she should talk about it if she wanted to avoid tearing up again herself. Candice had been her best friend for over three years, since Ru first started working at Thomas Elementary as a brand new teacher. Candice had mentored her and been her ally in a fight against uppity team leader Jane Owen. Now, an ongoing battle that used to seem important was nothing compared with the new adversaries Ru would face.

“It must’ve been hard for her to understand why you had to leave so abruptly,” Cutter noted, folding his arms against his chest. Ru had told Candice that she had some information that could help her track down her birth mother, which was true, but she never would’ve guessed the rest of the story.

“Yeah, she kept telling me I should wait until the summer, which under normal circumstances would make sense. Of course, I couldn’t tell her anything else. Like about the Reapers wanting to claim my soul.”

Cutter snickered, despite the seriousness of the comment. “No, that might be a little hard for anyone to swallow. But, I guess you know that.”

Ru nodded. It had taken her quite a few weeks, and lots of demonstrations of supernatural ability, before she’d come to the conclusion that Cutter and the rest of the Keepers were telling her the truth. “I think your made up story that your mother is terminally ill was a little bit easier for people to grasp, though the staff meeting this week was much more somber without you as the female teachers’ eye candy.” She wondered if that was a bit too much to say, but the thought occurred too late. A blush began to creep up her neck. Would he think she was including herself in that group? “Anyway, Coach Clark sure misses you, though I secretly think he likes being the only guy again because now everyone who was doting over you has returned their attention to him.”

A crooked smile spread across Cutter’s handsome face. “Coach Clark’s a good guy. And he wasn’t kidding when he said his wife could bake cookies.” He let out a wistful sigh. “I’m gonna miss those.”

“Hey, what’s wrong with my cookies?” Ivy Uriels asked, coming in from the kitchen. She wore an apron over her jeans and pink sweater. Her very long blonde hair, which was just about the same shade as Ru’s, was tied up in a massive bun at the back of her head. “Dinner will be ready in half an hour. I know it’s a little early, but I figured you guys had a lot to do tonight.”

“Thank you,” Ru said, smiling in her direction. She was probably the only person in the history of the world who stayed late on their last day at work, but she couldn’t pull herself away. She’d only had a few personal items to bring home because she’d decided to leave the rest of the immense collection of teaching tools she’d amassed over the last few years for her replacement. There was a box in the back of her Enclave with mementos, important papers, and a picture of Piper from her desk in it, not to mention lots of student gifts that proclaimed she was The World’s Greatest Teacher or #1 Teacher, but she’d get that later. The sun was beginning to go down, and Cutter liked to take full advantage of the evenings for her training because most of her work would be done that time of day. He thought it would help her concentrate. So far, his theory had been less than convincing, but Ru was determined to figure this out, one way or another.