The Savage Grace: A Dark Divine Novel(10)

I stared at the three of them as they stared at me, and I realized what exactly this was: an intervention.

How dare they try to stop you from helping Daniel? a soft but harsh voice whispered inside my head. They’ve given up already, and they want you to also. They don’t understand how important this is for you. Nobody knows you like I do. I shook my head hard, trying to get rid of the demon wolf’s voice. My hand flew to the nape of my neck, searching for the moonstone necklace that wasn’t there. I tried to disguise the move by scratching at the collar of my shirt.

But I couldn’t fool Gabriel. He nodded with recognition. “The more tired or stressed or emotional you are, Grace, the more the wolf will be able to invade your thoughts. You’re making yourself vulnerable by wearing yourself out. How would Daniel feel if your fears for him are what led you to losing your own self to the wolf?”

I clenched my hands at my side. The voice inside my head wanted me to lash out at Gabriel and tell him that he was wrong—he and I had never really gotten along—but deep down I knew he was right. Losing my moonstone at the warehouse meant I needed to be more careful and guarded than ever against the wolf … oh!

“I need to go back to the warehouse,” I blurted out before I’d even finished processing the thought.

“Why the heck would you want to do that?” April fidgeted with the beaded bracelet on her wrist—no doubt one of her new creations. I’d think it was an odd digging-through-rocks accessory if she hadn’t spent an extra-long lunch break downstairs with Jude. “I’d never want to go back there if I were you.” April shivered dramatically. “I get the willies just thinking about that place.”

I shivered, too. So do I. “We need a moonstone. And Dad’s right, it could take months to go through every rock in that gravel-strewn parking lot.” I indicated the buckets and bowls full of rocks, trying not to feel defeated admitting that it was a near-impossible task. “But Caleb smashed both my and Jude’s moonstones at the warehouse, and since a pack of teenage boys aren’t exactly the best housekeepers, I’m guessing there’re going to be moonstone fragments scattered all over the place there. What if I can find enough pieces—maybe April can weld them onto some sort of necklace or dog tag?” Finding enough fragments to make a difference seemed like a long shot—but not a shot as long as going through all these rocks. “I’ll go now.”

“Absolutely not,” Dad said.

“But Dad, I have to—”

“You’re tired, Grace, and you’re not thinking rationally if you believe I’m going to let you go waltzing back into the place where you were almost killed. Your mother would never recover if—”

“If what?” I asked. “You tell her the truth again?”


Dad and I still didn’t see eye to eye on that one. When I’d disappeared from the Halloween festival with Talbot (i.e., gotten myself kidnapped), Dad had taken it upon himself to tell Mom the truth about what all was going on. And let me tell you, that hadn’t gone over so well.

Especially considering where Mom was now. She’d earned herself a one-way ticket to mandatory lockdown in the psych ward at City Hospital, courtesy of Dr. Connors.

“Um, not to make you madder at me, but your dad has a point,” April said. “I mean, what if Mr. Caleb ‘I’m a scary nut job’ Kalbi is watching the place, just waiting for you to come back?”

“I doubt he’d go back there. Besides—”

“No,” Dad said. He locked eyes with me. “And don’t you forget that you promised me you wouldn’t go running off without my blessing again. I am not letting you go back there, and that’s final.”

“But part of that promise was that you’d hear me out. That we’d work together—as a family. Daniel needs a moonstone. I know it. I can feel it. And now you’re telling me to give up before I can—”

“What we’re telling you to do is be safe.” Dad reached across his desk and tried to take my hand. I pulled it away. “I’ve seen the way you’ve been limping around here all weekend. Not to mention the internal injuries you suffered because of Caleb. You’re in no shape to be heading into potential danger again.”

He had a point about the ankle. Crouching in the gravel for so long had done little to help it reheal. I stood up and pretended not to feel the sharp twinge that shot through my leg when I put weight on it. I stood as tall as I could. “I’m fine.”

“I suggest you go home and rest.” Gabriel scrubbed his hands down his weary face. “We’ll talk about this later. Come up with a more sensible plan.”

“Think of the big picture, Gracie,” Dad said. “Your life is a lot bigger than this moment. You need to remember that you can’t let the trials you face right now derail your course forever.”

“I am thinking about the big picture. Not only has the boy I love been turned into a wolf and he’s stuck that way, but we also have a psychotic werewolf with a gang of bloodthirsty demons after us, not to mention Sirhan and his pack, and whatever the hell they want with me.… Daniel may be the only one who can stop Caleb from killing us and then taking over the strongest werewolf pack in the country and doing who knows what horrendous things with his newfound power. Because when Sirhan dies, Daniel will be the only true alpha left on this side of the planet, if not the whole world. That sounds pretty ‘big picture’ to me!”