Chapter 160
Ru let out a deep breath. Rider was right. Ghosts could wait for another time. “Okay. So… what else do we need to know?”
“There are lots of caves in the area,” Lyric continued. “And a beautiful lake, Saiko. Parts of the forest are absolutely stunning, but the portion we’ll be visiting is mostly dense trees, tangled and twisted much like in Reaper’s Hollow, and it will be easy to get lost. Also, cell phones usually don’t work because of the lava. And… the ground can sometimes split open over a cave.”
“And down you go.” Rider made a little sound like something falling in a cartoon as his hand lowered to the table in slow motion, slamming into the wood with an explosion sound effect.
Ru wasn’t amused.
“We can levitate,” Lyric reminded her, “so that shouldn’t be too much of a problem, but you can imagine why that would add to the scariness of the place.”
“Yeah, I guess so.” Ru stared at the map for a moment. She could see the entrance, and it looked like it was a long way from there to the portal opening. “So how will we get from here to there?” she asked, pointing at the two locations on the map.
“As quickly and directly as possible,” Lyric replied. “That’s one of the things Sky wants to talk to us about. They will likely already be engaged when we arrive, so our job will be to sneak in and get to the portal. Hopefully, by the time we reach the location, her forces will have secured the area around the portal, and we can get you there without too much trouble.”
Ru’s eyebrows arched in an unspoken question. She looked at the other four faces around her, falling on Lyric’s last. With a sigh, the Keeper of Wind said, “No, I do not think it will be easy, but I am certain we can do it.”
“Well, then, that’s all I need to know.” Ru pushed herself back in her chair, setting her mind to the idea that she would conquer this portal, just like she had the other two.
“Actually, there is one more thing you need to know,” Ivy said, her voice sounding small compared to the others’.
Turning her head, Ru puzzled over Ivy’s expression. She was always a bit timider than the rest of them, a gentle creature, but she looked fragile all of a sudden, as if she was afraid that whatever else it was that Ru needed to know might be upsetting. “What is it?”
Ivy swallowed hard. “We know that Nat has already arrived in Japan and that he and his Reapers are posing as campers in the forest. We can only assume he’ll be leading the army defending the portal.”
“Okay…” Ru mumbled, letting that set in. She knew he’d be there and wasn’t quite sure why this news was so hard to swallow.
With a deep breath, Ivy pulled her phone out of her back pocket and did some swiping before handing it over to Ru. “These are photos of him taken at the airport and at the car rental location.”
Her forehead crinkled, Ru took the phone and looked into familiar hazel eyes. The pictures were a bit blurry, but she could clearly see now what Ivy was reluctant to tell her. The face she was staring into wasn’t Nat’s. It was Kyle’s. She handed the phone back and blew out a sigh. “I guess he just needed to look more human?” she asked, running her hands through her hair from root to tip, pushing it up over her head as she did so.
“Maybe,” Ivy offered, closing the photos app and setting her phone down on the table.
“We think he might be planning to manipulate you somehow,” Cutter said quietly. She could feel his knee against hers under the table, which was a comfort, though she wished his hands were on her now, too. “He will stop at nothing, Ru, to make sure you don’t close that portal.”
Ru folded her arms and rested them on the table. “Well, I will stop at nothing to make sure that it gets closed, and that he can’t hurt anyone else.” She wasn’t sure about the second part, but her voice didn’t waver.”
“This is such bullshit,” Lyric spat out. “He could just take his own face and wear that around. Why does he have to do this crap?”
“Actually, I don’t think he can,” Ru chimed in. Lyric looked at her questioningly, and Ru thought she might be assuming she was just jumping to Nat’s defense, so she continued. “His father damaged his face pretty badly after Turkey. I’m assuming it’s impossible to grow fresh patches of flesh quickly enough to cover half of one’s face. So… maybe he had to choose another face.”
Lyric looked a bit disgusted, but it didn’t stop her from suggesting, “Maybe he could find someone else’s face next time, then.”
Ru nodded, knowing that she had a point, and she wasn’t going to try to stand up for the man who was planning her execution a second time. But knowing there might be another reason Nat had decided to pass himself off as Kyle Dawson again comforted her in a way she couldn’t quite describe. Perhaps, deep down inside, Nat wished he could become the man he was when Ru was with him.
“Well, does that about wrap it up, y’all?” Rider asked, that unexplainable southern accent punctuating each word. “Because it’s just about time to watch me some CSI.”
“You’re such a weirdo,” Lyric mumbled, but she was laughing, and Ru thought her sentiment held for all of them. “I guess that’s it….”
Before she could finish her sentence, there was a knock at the door. They all turned to Rider expectantly, assuming he’d hop up and go get it since this was his house. He looked from one of them to the next, seeming to be counting silently. “Yep, everyone I know is right here. I have no idea who that might be.”