Shattered Grace (Fallen from Grace) (54 page)

The chuckle that spilled from his lips should have frightened her, but it didn’t. “Tell you what, Grace. This is how we’re going to play. I’m going to use Zeke to get what I want from you, and I’m going to use you to get what I want from Quentin.”

She didn’t like being threatened, but glancing at Zeke almost made her resolve waver. No matter what, Grace couldn’t give the Fallen what they wanted. She lowered her gaze. “Like I said, I have no clue what you’re talking about.”

The Fallen kept his eyes trained on Grace while he walked backward. Disgust moved across his features when he glanced down at Zeke’s sleeping form. “Maybe Zeke wants to play?” When he kicked Zeke in the back, he barely groaned. Zeke was in trouble.

Fear gripped Grace. “Stop! Please.”

“
Please what?” He lifted his foot again.

Grace threw her hand out, motioning for him to stop. “I’ll give you what you want, just don’t hurt him anymore.”

He put his foot down, and smiled. “Good girl.”

But all she was doing was stalling for more time. Zeke still slept, she hoped. The Fallen sneered, then looked back down to Zeke, raising his foot. “No,” Grace screamed, pulling away from the wall, hands reaching for Zeke.

A sudden explosion shook the earth beneath them, almost knocking the Fallen off his feet. He jerked his head toward the darkness behind him, and swore under his breath. His red eyes cut back to Grace, making her insides melt with fear, but she wouldn’t cower. She steeled her expression, and waited for him to attack. The yelling and commotion started as soon as the earth stopped shaking. Grace braced herself on the floor, trying to see a rise and fall in an unmoving Zeke. She thought she saw some movement, but wasn’t sure.

Sounds of fighting ricocheted off the walls. Grace strained against the chains, trying to find a voice she recognized. Hope swelled in her chest, imagining it was Quentin despite not hearing him. The Fallen looked from Zeke to Grace, and swore again before retreating into the darkness. The Fallen was gone for not even five seconds before the sounds of grunts and bodies hitting rock split through the silence of the cavern. Feet hitting the ground seconds later had Grace’s heart racing. Her attention went from the darkness to Zeke and back to the dark. She prepared herself to defend them both against whatever was coming, because she wasn’t going to let Zeke die.

Coiled tightly, she crouched over the ground in a defensive pose. She saw a flash of color in the darkness—red?—and was surprised when the red became distinguishable as a flurry of flaming red hair she quickly recognized. You’ve got to be kidding me, was all she could think.
A moment later, Lux grabbed hold of the chains against the wall and yanked. They snapped away as easily as thread. Grace gawked at the chains lying in a heap on the ground, and dragged a disbelieving gaze to her improbable rescuer. “What
are
you?”

Lux came to a halt, thrusting her hip out and resting her hand on it. “Really? I’m here to get you outta here. Does it really matter?”

Put like that, Grace couldn’t agree more. “No, I guess not.” Grace watched as Lux carefully picked Zeke up as if he weighed no more than a child. Holding him against her body, she turned to Grace. “You moving in or coming with me?”

Still shocked Lux was her unlikely savior, she stuttered, “N-no. I don’t know the way.” Even though she was weighed down with Zeke, Lux easily ran past Grace.

“
Come on.” She definitely sounded like Lux. Grace wouldn’t hold it against her today.

Lux stayed close to the darkest part of the shadows, and Grace mimicked her moves as she followed close behind her. Fighting still ensued in the cave, the whoosh of movement stirred strands of Grace’s hair. Lux quit moving, and Grace could see a red glow in her profile. She couldn’t tell if it was coming from Lux’s eyes, or from a Fallen in front of her. Slowly, she knelt and carefully laid Zeke on the ground. From over her shoulder, she whispered, “If I don’t come back, you have to find a way out.”

Grace’s lips didn’t move. She was screaming in her head for them both to run, but she couldn’t make her lips work as Lux whispered at her harshly, “Grace! You’re Chosen, for Christ’s sake, grow a pair.” Lux was right. Grace nodded.

Kneeling in front of Zeke, she put a hand on his chest. A heartbeat. She let out a quiet breath. Grace knew she was faster than regular humans, but wasn’t sure if she were stronger. Carefully, she placed her hands under Zeke, and attempted to lift him. Suddenly, she felt a strong yank and was flying backward, landing hard on her back, the sting of rock scraping against her skin made her wince. It felt like her arms were almost pulled from their sockets, and her wrists were on fire.

Someone pulled on the chains again, yanking her further back. Flipping around on her knees, all she could see was the glowing red eyes of the Fallen. But it was enough. Grace ran as fast as she could, climbing up his chest and swinging her legs around the back of his neck, then sat on his shoulders. Before she could think about what she was doing, she whipped the chains of her shackles around his neck like she was roping a calf.

He slammed them backward against the rocks, trying to knock her off. Sharp points cut into her back, warm trickles of blood ran down her shoulder blades. She twisted the chains harder. Muscle popped and bones cracked until he buckled beneath her, and they crashed to the floor. Quickly, she scrambled along the ground, trying to distance herself from her attacker, and hoped she was moving in the right direction to Zeke.

“
Grace!” Quentin’s voice yelling her name spiked her emotions. A flurry of slumbering butterflies came to life in her chest.

His voice brought tears to her eyes. He found me, she rejoiced silently, as she tentatively called out, “Here!” She didn’t want to attract anyone else by yelling more.

A moment later, someone brushed the side of her body when they crouched next to her. He grabbed her hand in his and cupped the side of her face. It was Quentin, his touch telling her that he was just as relieved to see her as she was him. Earlier, she wasn’t sure if she was ever going to see him, or anyone else again. She let out a bark that sounded like a mixture of crying and laughter. He kissed the top of her head.

“
We have to get Zeke,” she whispered.

“
I know,” Quentin whispered back.

They scurried on the ground, stopping only long enough for Quentin to grab Zeke. The fighting and shouting continued behind them as they made their way to the cave’s entrance.

When they came out the other end of the cave, Grace hoped they were safe, and tried hurrying Quentin. Quentin laid Zeke in the back of his car that waited outside, and covered him with a blanket. The tires of the Jag threw up a spray of dirt and gravel as they drove away. Grace glanced back. The cave was no cave at all. It was a canyon…split in the middle, concave at the center, and bowed out like penciled birds flying in the background of a painting. The edges resembled feathers of a bird, appearing somewhat wing-like. She knew where they were—Angel’s Landing.

Grace gasped with a sudden thought and snaked out a hand to grasp Quentin’s arm. “Quentin, wait, we need to help Lux.”

Driving faster, Quentin put a hand on her knee. “Lux is fine. She’s Fallen.” That couldn’t be, Grace’s mind raged. Lux had helped her.

Zeke moaned from the backseat, his breathing becoming more labored by the minute. Grace prayed he’d hang on, as she repeated, “Please let him be okay,” over and over in her head.

She was a monster. It was that simple. How or why Grace had let Quentin and Zeke talk her into this, she’d never know. “You have my word,” Quentin insisted. “Ari and Lux will stay with him until paramedics arrive. It seems cruel, but this is the only way. We have no reasonable explanation we can give for what happened to him.”

“
It’ll be okay—” Zeke’s words gurgled in the back of his throat before he blacked out again.

Scowling and fighting back tears, Grace folded her chained arms across her chest. More serious than she’d ever been, Grace pinned Quentin with a fierce glare. “If Zeke doesn’t make it, I will never, ever
forgive you.” Moreover, she would never forgive herself.

Grace watched Ari and Lux set the scene for Zeke’s accident. Skid marks ran off the road and through the guardrail. Not far below, Zeke’s car perched precariously, crashed into a tree. The airbags were blown out and the windshield was spiderwebbed from one side to the other. The front end was smashed in several feet, and fluids ran freely under the car.

In the blink of an eye, Lux was topside again. “The paramedics are on their way. We need to get him down there.” Grace refused to look at any of them, most of all Quentin. Lux promised to hold Zeke until the paramedics were almost there. Grace nodded and completed the walk of shame back to the passenger side of the car. Silent tears fell from her eyes all the way home.

Quentin parked the car in the driveway, but Grace was too numb to move. When she noticed the Shelby wasn’t parked there as well, she raced so fast to the garage she almost got caught up on the chains clanking around her. The car wasn’t in there either. Panicked, she tore through the front door. “Amanda!”

“
Grace?” Laney came running from the kitchen, her eyes all puffy and red. “Oh God, you’re okay.” Her mom gaped at the chains. More tears welled in her eyes, but then her gaze flew behind Grace. “Where’s—”

Someone walked through the front door and they both turned expectantly. Grace’s legs almost buckled when Quentin walked in, devastated that it wasn’t Amanda. She turned back to her mother, but Laney’s wide eyes stayed on Quentin. “Where is he?”

Grace frowned in confusion. “Where’s who?”

Laney ignored her. “Quentin, where is he? Where’s Richard?”

Oh no.
A rush of panic jolted her. First Amanda, and now her dad. Grace fixed her eyes on Quentin’s, searching for what she and her mother both needed to know. The look he gave her scorched her heart.

She had to tear her gaze away, she couldn’t take it anymore. Suddenly she noticed the wreckage inside her house. Tables were broken, pictures hung crooked and shattered. Splintered spindles from the banister was scattered up the stairs. Grace’s head whipped back around to her mother. Laney’s arms were wrapped around her midsection, and tears were streaming from her eyes. “Were you hurt?” Grace asked.

Laney’s gaze remained on Quentin as she shook her head no. “I wasn’t here.”

Frantically, Grace ran through the rest of the manor, assessing the damage. Her heart stopped as she stood in front of the broken door of her grandfather’s office. Quentin was just coming out of the bathroom.

His eyes were wide and wild, and his face had paled. “Pandora’s gone.”

Grace’s shoulders slumped forward slightly. “I know.” She let out an exasperated breath, and then turned around to walk back to the foyer.

Quentin’s footsteps sounded like thunder as he quickly caught up with her, grabbing her by the arm. “What do you mean you know?”

Too stressed about where Amanda and her father might be, she let the manhandling go. “For whatever reason, Pandora had me take her out last night. She’s with Amanda … somewhere.” Grace felt a little dizzy thinking of the somewhere Amanda could be with the Fallen, and placed a hand out to steady herself in case she fell over.

Quentin let go of her arm. “Pandora had to have known.”

“
Known what?”

He rubbed at his shirtsleeve, and then looked back to Grace. “The Fallen were coming. She must have known.”

The wreckage surrounding her pushed her thoughts to her father, Amanda, Pandora, her house, and Zeke, she couldn’t help but wonder why Quentin hadn’t been there to help her. “Where—”