Shattered Grace (Fallen from Grace) (49 page)

As she expected, he responded right back.

Darius:
O im sorry. I can bring u sum soup or sumthing.

The gesture pulled at her insides, a painful ache from wanting him to rush on over. She hated herself for letting him get to her—both before and now.

Grace:
Mom took care of all that. U don’t want this. Ill call u when im better.

Darius:
K. Hope ur better soon. Let me kno if u need anything.

Grace:
K.

Reflexively, she squeezed the phone in the palm of her hand, and held it over her head. She nearly threw it. Darius wasn’t worth her tears and anger, and neither was Quentin. Determined to get some answers, Grace threw her legs over the side of the bed and stormed out of her room.

Not caring about still being in her nightgown or not having brushed her teeth yet, she stormed through the house in search of Quentin. She didn’t care what he couldn’t tell her. He would tell her everything she wanted to know, or she was never going to talk to him again—ever.

“
Quentin!” Grace shouted through his closed bedroom door. Her knuckles were red and sore from banging so hard. “Open up!” Either he’s chicken, she thought, or he isn’t in there. Grace went with the latter assumption and took off down the stairs. Running from room to room, her feet slapped loudly against the wood floor. “Quentin!”

A warm breeze lifted the edges of her nightgown when the front door swung open. Instantly, Grace bristled and twirled to the door. A wide-eyed Amanda stood in the foyer, gawking at her. “What’s going on?”

“
I’m trying to find Quentin,” she said, walking past Amanda.

“
Okaaay, um … I’ll just be in my room.”

The loud thumping of Amanda’s shoes against the wood steps followed Grace as she speed-walked down the hall to the office. Grace took in a steady breath, and pushed through the unlocked door. The linen closet door was ajar. She knew where he was. Pressing the door release, she pushed through the entry as soon as there was enough room for her to fit. She ran so fast down the passageway, the angel torches couldn’t keep up with her. Each one lit after she ran by. It didn’t matter. She knew her way by heart now.

When she reached the gym door, she body-slammed into it. The door wildly swung open, hitting the wall behind it with a piercing smack. Grace’s ears rang as she stepped through the doorway. Quentin stood in the middle of the gym floor, unfazed. He obviously was expecting her.

“
We need to talk,” she said through pursed lips.

The fight left Quentin. His shoulders were relaxed, and his eyes gentle. He regarded her for a minute, and Grace wondered what he was waiting for. “I know,” he replied softly.

Grace took a couple of steps forward, making sure there was enough distance to keep him from touching her. She needed to get it all off her chest without the confusion. “I want answers, and I’m not leaving until I get them,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest.

Quentin’s shoulders sagged as he sighed, then twisted at the waist and tossed his towel over the top rope of the ring. “Okay.” What?
His willingness had her stumbling over the questions she had originally formed in her head. Her arms unfolded and hung loosely at her sides.

Quentin grabbed a mat and pitched it on the floor. He pointed to it. “Sit. I won’t touch you. I promise.” Grace observed him for a few breaths, then padded softly to the mat and sat. Quentin sat on the concrete facing her. “What do you want to know?”

All the questions she came prepared to ask ran wildly through her mind. She picked the first one that stilled long enough for her to grab it. “Well, for starters, why are there so many things you say you can’t tell me?”

A long few minutes ticked by as he remained silent. She doubted he was going to answer anything. Grace gave up, the fight left her too. She slapped her hands on the map, pulling herself on her knees, and started to get up. “Forget it.”

In a flash, he was before her on his knees as well. “No, wait!” Grace jerked away from him, thinking he was going to touch her. His palms went up between them. “I’ll tell you, it’s just difficult.”

“
Why?” she snapped at him.

He nodded to the mat. She put her hands on her hips and eyed him suspiciously. Slowly she sat back down, not taking her eyes from his hands. Quentin moved back to his spot, resting his forearm on his raised knee, and she sat back a little easier. “Do you remember when I told you about the closed-door meeting the Watchers had?” Grace nodded. “One of the rules set in place was that the Guardians couldn’t tell the Nephilim who the Fallen were, and the Nephilim wouldn’t be able to sense them. The only way a Guardian can intervene is if a Fallen is trying to physically hurt the Nephilim they’re protecting.”

“
Broken hearts don’t count as a physical hurt?” Grace asked tersely. She watched Quentin wince. “Didn’t think so.” She looked away.

“
Grace,” Quentin said softly.

“
What? You’re a guy, you just don’t get it.”

Quentin cocked an eyebrow, and bent his head slightly. “Do you want me to explain how I do get it, or do you want to talk about your questions?”

Resisting the other sharp retorts fighting to come out, she shook her head. “I have other things I want to talk about.” A sudden thought sent an uneasy tingle running through her. “Is Darius going to hurt me, is that why you told me?”

He focused on a spot on the ground. “No.”

“
No, he’s not going to hurt me, or no, that’s not why you told me?”

The sound of his slight chuckle was absent of humor. It chilled Grace to the bone. “That’s not why I told you.” His eyes found hers and held them. “But he’s not here to physically hurt you either.”

Chilled even more, she wrapped her arms around her middle. Partly to hold the remaining warmth in, and partly to hold herself together. She could feel herself unraveling. “Then why?” The irony of her question wasn’t lost on her, since all that ran through her mind lately was why. So many why’s, she was getting dizzy.

Quentin’s arm dropped from his knee and he tore his gaze away from hers. “You were right. I should have told you. I do have a choice, and I’ve made it now.”

“
You told me he was Fallen and you weren’t supposed to?” she asked softly. Still not looking at her, he nodded. “What does that mean?”

Quentin clenched his jaw, his hands at his sides squeezed into tight fists, whitening his knuckles. “What it means is the council can strip me of my guardianship and cast me out.” Cast him out? Of what? Suddenly, she understood the gravity of what he’d just done. He cracked open a secret’s door, and it was too late to close it back up.

“
You only told me Darius was Fallen. Isn’t that protecting me?” Quentin cared for her, deeply, and she’d forced him to answer a question he tried to tell her he couldn’t. Ashamed, she turned her face away and wiped the tears she was unaware had fallen. “You hardly said anything. I don’t get it.”

His voice gentled. “Rules are rules, Grace. Breaking one is just as bad as breaking them all.”

She turned her eyes back to his, and tried to stop the tears. Her lip quivered as she pushed words out of her mouth. “What’s going to happen now?” Grace was afraid of the answer, but she had to know.

His stare pierced her with resolve. “Now I wait.”

Frantic, her nerves sparked. Her crossed legs bounced against the ground, and her fight-or-flight instinct kicked in. If the council decided to cast him out, it would be because of her. Desperate, she blurted the first thing that came to her. “Let me talk to them!”

Quentin’s eyebrows pulled up and quickly settled into a scowl. “This doesn’t have anything to do with you, Grace.”

“
Like hell it doesn’t,” she spat angrily. “This is all my fault.”

A tenderness washed over his features and a smile lifted one side of his mouth. “If I didn’t want to tell you anything, I wouldn’t have. Like I said, you’re worth it.”

Pools of tears collected in her eyes again. Before Darius, she had wanted him to fall for her, but not like this. “You’ll fall.” It wasn’t a question. It was a fact. Understanding of his earlier statement settled painfully on her consciousness.

His smile widened. “For you.”

Her eyes could no longer hold the collection of tears and they streamed down her face. “I don’t want you to fall.”

“
It’s my choice,” he said softly.

Angry, she wanted to slap him upside the head for making such an irreversible choice when she couldn’t return his feelings. Take all of her krav maga training and knock some sense into him. “It’s a stupid choice,” she cried out.

His smile turned smug, and he chuckled. “Not to me, it’s not.”

Despite her tears, Grace chuckled back.

They sat quietly until Grace’s tears dried. “I’m not worth falling for,” she whispered.

Quentin’s shorts rustled as he moved across the floor closer to Grace. He kept his hands in view and kept them to himself. “To me you are,” he whispered back.

Staring back at him, she moved her head back and forth slightly. “You don’t know what you’re saying.”

He inched closer. The skin around his hands was pulled tight as he struggled to keep them to himself. Her hands twitched for the same reason. “I’ve never been more sure of anything. You’re so beautiful and amazing.”

Grace let out a shaky laugh. “Whatever.”

“
Pfft
,” Quentin scoffed. “Do you want a list, because I can give you one.”

Out of habit, she shrugged a shoulder.

Quentin held his hand up, bending each finger down as he spoke. “When you knew how your family felt about your grandfather, you kept it to yourself, because you didn’t want him to hurt. You held on to that your entire life. You took care of your mother growing up, knowing how sad and lonely she was, not caring about what you needed from her. The night of the accident, all I could think about was getting you out of there. All you thought of was going back despite the danger to help your friends. Look at how you’ve accepted your dad back into the picture, or how you’ve taken care of Amanda. I can go on, the list is endless.”

Grace managed to smile through the tears that snuck up on her for the umpteenth time that night, and her cheeks warmed from embarrassment. “Okay, I am pretty amazing.” She didn’t believe it, but it was still funny to say. They both laughed, but then another thought struck her. “If you become Fallen, does that mean you have to hunt me?” Actually, the thought caused bile to rise in the back of her throat. She even gagged a little.

Quentin cocked his head sideways. “Why would you even think to ask me that?”

“
The rest of the Fallen do.”

The intensity of his gaze heated Grace from the inside. “I would still protect you.”

His answer turned the outer edges of her frown up as she let her gaze fall to the floor. A rush of heat coursed through her body, warming her from head to toe. No doubt her face was burning red. It would be tricky getting through her questions if he continued to talk like that. “If the Fallen are sent to hurt me to get Pandora, then why is Darius here?”