Ruin's Legacy

by ID Johnson

  He dropped his hands to his hips. “I… I can’t believe I’m looking at you, Rune,” he said, quietly, standing just in front of her.

  “It’s me,” she said in a whisper. “You really did escape then?”

  “I did,” he nodded. “It wasn’t easy. I’d been planning it for years.” He shook his head and ran a hand through his hair. “It doesn’t matter now. What matters is… you’re here.”

  “Where are we?” she asked.

  He looked around and then spread his arms. “Kayakoy,” he replied. “I came through the portal a few days ago.”

  Ru raised an eyebrow. She was glad he’d gotten out before she closed it. “Were you part of the battle just now?”

  “No,” he replied. “I’ve been hiding. I don’t know who I can trust.”

  That made sense. She wouldn’t have wanted him to be on the other side of the effort, either. “I closed it,” she said.

  He stared at her a moment before his face broke out into a proud smile. “That’s amazing.”

  “I closed the one in Reaper’s Hollow, too.”

  “I heard,” he nodded. “I’m not surprised. We knew all along how powerful you’d be.”

  “It doesn’t bother you?” she asked, puzzled. “You don’t mind that I’m fighting against your kind?”

  “They’re not my kind anymore, Rune. I don’t want to be part of it any longer. I’ve given up so much because I wasn’t willing to walk away twenty-five years ago when your mom asked me to.” Once again, he brushed his dark hair back. His expression was full of pain and remorse. “Maybe if I’d given up my power, we could’ve had a normal life. Instead, I lost everything. You, your mom, our life together.” Tears filled the corners of his eyes. “And… the thing is, I never even realized the life I really wanted existed until it slipped out of my fingers.”

  Ru was moved and wanted to reach out and touch him, to comfort him, but she didn’t trust herself to do so, to be so vulnerable. “I’m so sorry,” she muttered, not sure what other words to say, even though they sounded inadequate coming out of her mouth.

  “No, don’t be sorry, Ru. It’s not your fault, sweetheart. You were a victim here more than anyone else.” Larkin dropped his eyes to the ground and kicked at the dirt with the toe of his boot. “Your mother and I… we failed you. I failed you.” He raised his eyes then, the tears spilling down his cheeks freely. “All we ever wanted was to love you, to live together as a family. I’m so sorry we couldn’t give you that.”

  There was no question now what Ru needed to do. Uninhibited, she stepped forward and placed her hand on her father’s shoulder. “I’m not sorry,” she said, moving her head so that he’d have to look her in the eye. “Listen, my life growing up might not have been full of unicorns and kittens, but I survived, and I’m stronger because of it. Now, because of you and mom, not only am I strong enough to close down portals and kill demons, I know what true love is supposed to look like. I know the kinds of sacrifices people who love each other are willing to make—without question. Dad, it’s okay. The past is in the past, and now we can move forward. As a family.”

  As soon as she said the word “Dad,” his face changed, as if he hadn’t dared to hope she’d ever want to call him that, and even though the word was as foreign to Ru as it would be to ride a dragon or walk on the sun, it had felt perfectly normal coming out of her mouth. Regardless of what else he was or had been, Larkin Ronobes was her father.

  “Oh, Ru,” he said, wiping his eyes on the back of his hand. “Not a moment has gone by that I haven’t thought of you. I’ve missed you so much.” He pulled her tightly to his chest, wrapping his strong arms around her shoulders, and Ru sank into her father’s embrace. How many times had she thought about what it might be like to have a dad? Now, it seemed she might finally know at last.

  “It’s going to be okay, Dad,” she said softly, holding him tightly as his tears wet her hair and shoulder.

  It took Larkin a long while to regain his composure. When he stepped back at last, his face was red, not just from being upset, but Ru could tell he was embarrassed. He likely wasn’t used to crying at all, especially not in front of his own child. “Thank you, Ru. I’m sorry about that.”

  “Don’t be,” she replied, not even attending to her tear-soaked shirt. “Listen, Dad, I need to get back to my team before they think something is wrong, but Mom wants to see you. So do I. And… do you remember that incantation she wanted to use years ago? The one that would make you human?”

  Larkin nodded his head, his narrowed eyes indicating he wasn’t sure what she was getting at.

  “Mom taught it to me. I know she wants me to use it, and I think it would be a good idea. I can also put a cloaking spell on you so that the Reapers can’t see you.”

  “Do you think you can do that now, though? In this realm?”

  Ru felt drained. It had taken every bit of her energy to close the portal, and she had no idea how she would even defend herself if another Reaper were to show up. “Probably not,” she admitted. “I’m willing to try, though.”

  Larkin’s face cracked into a soft smile. “Why don’t I find you in your human form, and you can do it then?”

  “That’s probably a better idea, but I’m in New York right now. And I’m not sure how long I’ll be there. I have to close the other portal.” A thought entered her head. “It’s in Japan, isn’t it?”

  Larkin’s smile widened. “I don’t think you need me to tell you where it’s at, Rune. If you found this one… there’s no stopping you.”

  She thought, perhaps, he might get in trouble if any of her enemies discovered he’d confirmed her suspicions, and while she didn’t think anyone was listening, one could never tell so she took his lack of disagreement as confirmation. “Mom is in Los Angeles,” she explained. “I could also end up going there soon.” As important as it was for her to close the remaining portal, she knew, after this battle, it would take some time to regroup and come up with a better plan since the enemy would stop at nothing when it came to preventing them from closing the last portal. Rushing into it might not be the best idea, and she really wanted to see her mom and Piper, so arguing for some time seemed like a good idea.

  “Listen, Ru, you go where you need to. I’ll find you.”

  “But you won’t be able to step foot in Los Angeles.”

  “That’s okay. I never did before, either, and it didn’t stop me from seeing Sera.”

  “Maggie,” Ru said, watching his eyebrows raise. “She prefers Maggie now.”

  “Maggie?” he asked, as if the sound of it tasted funny coming out of his mouth. Larkin shook his head. “Anyway, I’ll find you, sweetheart. And when I do, you can do whatever you need to to make it so that you, your mom, and I can be together.”

  Ru could feel her heart thumping with joy at the prospect of being one happy family. While she couldn’t imagine it would all be that easy, she also knew closing the portals would have to go a long way toward getting Sky, Raphael, and whoever else was making the decisions to decide to leave her father alone. “We’ll make it happen,” she promised. She looked around, thinking there was a possibility they were not alone anymore. “What about money? And a passport? How are you going to get from Turkey to the US with nothing?”

  Larkin chuckled. “Don’t worry, Ru. I still have friends who are capable of more than you might imagine.”

  That was answer enough for her. “All right. I’m going to try to get back to my body now. It was nice seeing you, Dad.”

  “You, too, sweetheart,” he said, stepping forward and embracing her one more time. Ru felt his lips graze the top of her head, and for a moment, she had a vague memory of being a tiny girl wrapped in these same arms, giggling, as his mouth pressed against her hair. “Be careful, Ru.”

  “You, too.”

  “I love you.”

  Ru didn’t hesitate. As odd as it seemed to say those words to a man she just met, someone who’d spent over two decades in Hell and was known
to have been a dangerous Reaper, without question, she didn’t mind to reply, “I love you, too, Dad.”

  Before she allowed her emotions to get to her, Ru closed her eyes and felt for her body, hoping she’d wake up where she was supposed to this time.

  The sound of familiar voices was the first indication that Ru was back where she was supposed to be—roughly. When she opened her eyes, she found herself lying on the sofa in the parlor, not in her bed as she was expecting to be. She blinked a few times and began to sit up, drawing the attention of Cutter and the rest of the team who were standing in a huddle nearby.

  “Ru! Thank God,” he said, rushing over to her and dropping down to his knee next to her. “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine,” she replied, shocked that they all looked so concerned. Her arm still hurt, and so did her hip, but she felt a little better now than she did waking up on the streets of Kayakoy. “How long was I out?”

  “Just about twenty minutes longer than us,” Rider explained, standing behind Cutter. “But when we couldn’t get you to wake up, we got a little worried.”

  “Do you know where you were?” Cutter asked, getting up and sitting next to her on the couch as she brought herself fully to sitting. He grabbed her hand, and Ru was glad to have him nearby, even if she had, apparently, scared the crap out of all of them.

  Ru rubbed her head for a moment. “Yeah,” she replied. “I woke up out on the street, about a block from the church. Everyone else was gone, so I was going to come home. Then I realized there was a man coming out of one of the houses.”

  “You’ve got to be shitting me,” Cutter muttered. “I swear to God, if you tell me it was Nat….”

  Raising both of her eyebrows, Ru stared at him for a moment, not sure what his reaction was all about. Was he frightened for her safety, or was he accusing her of something? “It wasn’t,” she assured him, hoping her tone wasn’t as snippy to his ear as it was to hers. “It was my dad.”

  It was Cutter’s turn to be surprised. “It was your dad?”

  “Yes.”

  “Larkin?”

  “Yes.”

  “Your dad was in Turkey?”

  Exasperated, Ru replied, “Yes! Larkin. My dad. Was in Turkey. Is in Turkey. Why is that so hard to believe?”

  “I’m sorry,” Cutter replied, shaking his head. “It’s just, you thought you saw him at the other portal, too, the one here, and it wasn’t him.”

  “I definitely knew that wasn’t my dad. Eventually,” Ru reminded him. “I’m certain this was my dad.”

  “What did he say?” Lyric asked, she sunk down into her usual chair, her arms folded.

  “He just said he was happy to see me. And that he doesn’t want to do this anymore.”

  “Do what?” Ivy asked. She was still standing next to Rider, and for the first time, Ru realized she had a large bruise on the side of her face. It looked painful.

  “He doesn’t want to be a Reaper anymore.”

  “Oh, well, then. He should just take his scythe back to the counter for a refund,”

  Rider said shrugging, as if it was that simple.

  “Yeah, like that can happen,” Lyric muttered.

  “It can.” Ru was puzzled. “My mom told me, there’s an incantation for that. White magic. She taught me. I didn’t want to do it just then because I didn’t have my body, and I didn’t think I’d be strong enough, but I do believe I can turn him into a human.”

  Four sets of eyes stared at her like she was crazy, a sensation Ru didn’t really appreciate, but she was confident in what her mother had told her.

  “You really think you can do that?” Ivy asked.

  “I’ve never heard of anyone becoming a human,” Lyric agreed.

  With a shrug, Ru flipped her hair over her shoulder and noticed her shirt was wet, which she thought was odd. She wasn’t even in her body when she’d been with her dad. If that was possible, how could she doubt anything else. “Listen, some guy showed up at my work a few months ago and told me I wasn’t a human, that I was some kind of half-angel, half-demon, who-knows-what. If I could learn to believe that, then anything is possible. So, do I think there’s a way to take the demon out of my dad? Sure. And I’m going to try it as soon as I get the chance.”

  Cutter looked only slightly amused at her reference to him as “some guy.” He brushed her hair back from her face. “Are you sure that’s a good idea, Ru? Remember what we said about casting spells.”

  “It’s white magic,” she repeated. “And, quite frankly, if anyone in this realm or any other has a problem with it, then maybe they can close their own damn portals.”

  “Dang,” Ivy mumbled, and Ru realized she was taking her frustration out on her friends.

  She took a few deep breaths and surveyed the room. All of them looked tired, beat up, and they had been worried about her. “I’m sorry,” she replied. “I just… it’s been a long day.”

  “It has,” Cutter agreed. “And we should probably get some sleep and then decide what to do next.”

  “Yeah, I talked to Sky,” Lyric said, addressing Ru, so she assumed everyone else already had this information. “She was shocked at just how numerous the opposing forces were. She wasn’t expecting that at all. She thinks it’ll be even greater in Japan.”

  “We’ll need some time to figure out our best approach,” Rider added, nodding.

  That was what Ru expected to hear, and it worked for her. She was so exhausted, she thought it might take a few weeks to rebuild the energy supply she’d used to take down the portal. “Did we have a lot of casualties?” she asked, looking at Lyric, as she assumed she’d be the most likely to have an answer since it was her sister who had led their forces.

  Lyric nodded. “I don’t have numbers, but we were not doing so well on the outside of the church. At the time that you blew the portal, the Reapers were about to breach the building. We’ll have to be better prepared next time.”

  Ru was surprised to hear that, but having seen very little of what was going on outside of the church, she’d have to take Lyric’s word for it.

  “Let’s get some rest and we’ll meet back in the morning to figure out what to do next.” Cutter said it as if it were a suggestion, but they all took it as an order, not that anyone would argue, Ru surmised, since they all looked as tired as she felt.

  The others cleared out first and Cutter reached out for Ru’s hand as she pulled herself to her feet. “I’m sorry if I upset you,” he said quietly. “It’s just… every time I turn around it seems like Nat is there.”

  Tipping her head to the side, Ru considered the statement. “He wasn’t at the portal. Was he?”

  “No,” Cutter admitted. “And I’m sure he’ll hear all about that from his father. Probably already is. Which means, he’ll likely show back up in your head soon.”

  “Cutter,” Ru began with a loud exhale, “it doesn’t matter what Nat does. He’s not going to get to me. You know that, right?”

  He nodded, but she wasn’t completely convinced he meant it. “I’ve already lost you to him once, Ru. I just don’t want to see that happen again.”

  It took her a moment to regain her composure, and she realized she was staring at him as she processed his response. “I didn’t choose Nat over you, Cutter. I chose Kyle because at the time, I didn’t even know you were an option.”

  “How could you not know I was an option?” His voice didn’t sound accusatory, just confused. “I’d already asked you on a date.”

  A chuckle escaped her lips, and Ru began to walk toward the doorway, though she still held his hand, so he dragged along behind her. “You asked me to dinner and then tried to convince me I was even more of a weirdo than I already thought I was.”

  “I tried to explain to you that you were a legend in the making,” Cutter corrected as they headed up the stairs. “That didn’t make it any less of a date.”

  “It didn’t?” she turned her head to look into his blue eyes. “I walked away assuming it
was all a ruse, an attempt to get me to come out to your secret house in the woods.”

  Shrugging, Cutter admitted, “Okay, yeah, that, too. But that didn’t mean I didn’t want to date you.”

  Coming to a stop in the hallway at the top of the stairs, Ru turned to face him and let out another deep breath. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize…. And honestly, Kyle seemed like a nice excuse not to deal with the crazy. If I had known then that you saw me as more than a secret weapon, believe me, I would’ve taken things differently.”

  “And you would’ve chosen me over him?” Cutter asked, closing the small gap of space between them.

  Ru had no idea what the answer to that question was, since it was hypothetical, and she was tired of dealing in the past. “Cutter, I choose you now. Even if Nat does hijack my dreams again, you don’t need to worry about that, okay? Talking to him is a means of getting information. But I really don’t think it’s even going to happen anymore. The last time, he told me he has orders to kill me. It’ll be pretty hard to have an amicable conversation again after that.”

  “Kill you?” Cutter repeated, his eyebrows knit in concern. “Why didn’t you tell me that?”

  “Is that new information? Did you not know that the Reapers want to kill me?”

  He sighed. “Well, I mean, when you put it like that, I guess it’s not a surprise. But he actually told you he has orders to kill you?”

  Ru nodded. “I’m not worried about it. I don’t think he could do it anyway. I don’t believe he’s strong enough, for one. And I also don’t think he wants to.”

  “I’ve been telling you all along, Ru, don’t underestimate him. Believe me, having this information makes me want to take him out even more than I already did.”

  Once again, her head bowed up and down, but she had nothing to say. The thought of watching Cutter kill Nat made her stomach hurt almost as badly as it did when her black powers began to collect there, but she could hardly voice that to him just now. “I’m tired,” she said, running her hands up to rest on his shoulders. “Can we talk about destroying people tomorrow?”