Angel Grove was well over two hundred years old. The house had been constructed just before the Revolutionary War when Keepers realized there was a portal in the area and that they needed to be nearby so as to control the flow of Reapers from one world to the next. They had thought for many years that the portal lay dormant, yet about the time that Sky, Lyric’s sister and their lifeline to the realm where an entirely different group of Keepers operated sort of behind the scenes, instructing teams of Keepers on Earth, found out that there was a possibility Ru was in New York, activity around Reaper’s Hollow began to increase. That was one of the reasons Cutter had determined it was worth it to look at Reaper’s Hollow more closely, which had led him to Ruin Roberts, fourth grade teacher at Thomas Elementary School, Keeper of the Light, lost to the Keepers as a small child when her mother fell in love with a Reaper and was nearly destroyed by the Archangel Raphael. It

A wave of confusion washed over Ru as she realized what she was looking at. She was standing in an unfamiliar church nave, looking at the backs of rows of pews. Only she wasn’t exactly standing there. Looking down, she could see her feet weren’t quite touching the floor. It wasn’t as if she was hovering, exactly, but she couldn’t make contact with the wooden beams either. A quick glance around told her no one else was in the room, which she was happy for; she may have somehow figured out how to get her spirit to manifest thousands of miles across the ocean on a remote island, but she had no idea how to prevent people from seeing her either.There was also the problem that she still had no idea where her mother was. Before she could decide what to do, she heard footsteps behind her and turned around. Luckily, she didn’t have much of a chance to think about how to do that and it had naturally happened. Pretty good for someone who wasn’t actua

Sky Gabriels had a look of determination coupled with amusement as her black boots made contact with the wet sand on the near side of the causeway, and Ru wasn’t sure what to make of it. Did she find it funny, somehow, that they were standing there waiting for her? Or was that a look of triumph?“Well, looky who is here,” Sky said, her voice not quite as melodic as Lyric’s but similar. The closer she got, the more Ru could see the resemblance, though she appeared to be a bit older than her sister. “I wondered if you guys would show up. Last I heard, you had no knowledge of this place.” Her gaze flickered from her sister’s face to fall on Cutter’s.“Sky,” he began, his voice calm and even, though Ru got the impression it was faux. “We just got back to New York this afternoon. I was going to let you know what we found, but we planned a mission for tonight. I thought it would be better to tell you all at on

“Didn’t Smokey the Bear teach you anything?” Ru heard Lyric’s voice behind her at about the same time a warm gust of air swept over her, making contact with the flames rising up off of the ignited branch, causing them to flicker and then whoosh out, as if they’d never existed. Ru absently wondered if that’s what it was like in the end for everyone. A moment of recognition and then—nothing. Ru turned to see all four of her friends crossing the yard, headed in her direction. Three of them had concerned expressions on their faces; Rider still looked pissed. Ru would deal with him later. “Which one of you was it?” she asked, looking at each of them. “Who ratted out my mom?” “It doesn’t matter, Ru,” Cutter said, stopping a few feet away from her. “What’s done is done. And just like Maggie said, it was better to tell them than to risk all five of us getting in trouble. Or worse. We’re no help to anyone if we are decommissioned.” “Or dead.” Ru turned and gla

The sun had completely set by the time Ru reached the point in the woods where she believed the portal to be located, and darkness enveloped them. Cutter used his hand as a torch, which helped, but Ru was following something other than her line of sight. Memories of the time she’d spent here recently drew her back to the location where she’d been headed with Kyle the night she’d discovered the man she was ready to give her heart to was actually Thanatos. Her team had come out here one other time after that, before they traveled to Los Angeles, in an attempt to close the portal. That night, they had found the three trees that “Kyle” had told her he was looking for the evening he brought her out on a walk, which was really Nat’s attempt to trick her into joining his forces. He’d been planning to take her into the portal, but Ru had realized his plan and escaped, with the help of her friends. He’d mentioned the three trees, though, and Ru had wondered why she’d never heard of t