The Savage Grace

  I was dreaming then, that I never meant to walk

  But I saw the stars and saw your face

  And couldn’t stand still knowing you

  Knowing your humor, your brilliance, your beauty

  Your grace

  Knowing I love you.

  My eyes flooded with tears and I was barely able to finish reading the last few lines. My heart ached so bad, I clutched at my chest. But it wasn’t a pain from sorrow, it was the feeling of the emptiness inside of me being filled up again—with the rushing, pulsing, warmth of Daniel’s love.

  How had he known that this was exactly what I needed? How could I have ever doubted him? How could I stand to let my anger push him away?

  I couldn’t risk that happening.

  I had to do something.

  I hadn’t been wandering like a stray all day long—I’d been running away from what I knew I needed to do even before Gabriel said I should last night. I gathered up the things on the table and walked with slow steps toward the small hospital chapel I’d passed on my way to the cafeteria. It looked different inside than my father’s parish back in Rose Crest, more sterile than sacred, but I knew I could still find God here if I sought him out. I continued my slow walk through the empty chapel until I reached the altar. I fell to my knees in front of it, and found myself doing what I’d been afraid to do for far too long now.

  For the first time since I lay bleeding and ready to die on the floor of the Shadow Kings’ warehouse—I prayed.

  For forgiveness.

  For guidance.

  For peace.

  For the ability to bring Daniel back to me.

  Chapter Fifteen

  ON MY OWN

  LATE AFTERNOON

  When I finally left the hospital, my heart was lighter than it had felt in days, but the weather had turned dark and cloudy. The smell of rain hung the air. I had one last thing I needed to do in Rose Crest before I could go home and hunker down in an empty house for the impending storm. I pulled into the parking lot behind the Print & Ship shop on Main Street and carried my canvas bag inside. I paid a small fortune to print out a few documents from Daniel’s laptop on résumé paper, and then express ship two packages to the Trenton Art Institute. One was a thick padded envelope, and the other was a large portfolio box tied with twine. Both had Daniel’s apartment as the return address.

  I was headed back out to the parking lot when I practically ran into Katie Summers, who was on her way into the Print & Ship with her own portfolio box.

  “Hey,” she said. “Looks like we had the same idea today. Didn’t want to risk being rushed to get your application out on Friday, huh?”

  “Yeah,” I said, even though I still hadn’t started my own application yet. With the way my life was going lately, who knew what this Friday would entail, but I felt some relief knowing at least Daniel’s application had been taken care of.

  It was the least I could do for him right now.

  “I’m surprised you had time,” Katie said. “When I heard about your dad, and when you weren’t in school today, I just kind of figured…”

  Was she admitting that she hoped my dad’s accident would keep me from turning in my application? Narrow the competition a bit? I couldn’t help scowling.

  Katie bit her lip. “I mean … that came out wrong.” She shifted the portfolio box in her arms. “I’m sorry about your dad.”

  “Thanks,” I said. “I should get going.” As I stepped around her, I couldn’t help thinking about how both her and Daniel’s applications would be sent out together in the same shipment to Trenton.

  And yours will be nowhere in sight, said the wolf.

  But that doesn’t matter, I told the voice in my head. Because I know how much Daniel cares about me. even you can’t convince me otherwise.

  “Hey, Grace,” Katie called. I looked back at her. She gave me an apologetic smile.

  “My parents are out of town, and some of my friends from my old neighborhood in the city are coming to visit. They want to go to some party they heard about tomorrow night. You should come with us. Might be good for you to blow off some steam.”

  Katie might be my competition in every sense of the word, but she made it all too hard to dislike her. “Um, thanks. But I think I’ll pass.” My life was far too complicated for parties. “Good luck,” I said, pointing at her box.

  “Yeah, you, too…” she started to say, but a loud chorus of honking car horns drowned out her words.

  I raised my eyebrows.

  “Must be the hunters,” Katie shouted over the noise that came from the street in front of the shop. “They announced a call for wolf hunters at school.”

  “Wolf hunters?” My stomach felt like the bottom of it was about to drop out. I left Katie behind and jogged around to the front of the building to find a cluster of pickup trucks, filled with men and teenage boys, practically blocking off all of Main Street. Almost every truck sported a loaded gun rack, and several people held rifles.

  “What’s going on?” I asked Justin Fletcher, who sat in the back of his dad’s pickup.

  “Going hunting.” He grinned. “Didn’t you hear, the mayor put a twenty-five-hundred-dollar bounty on the head of that wolf who’s been howling in the woods, and the Bradshaw family has offered to double the amount for whoever brings back the body. Five thousand dollars for shooting a wolf—you can’t beat that.”

  “Holy crap,” is what I said, but what I really wanted to do was let out a long line of curse words so colorful every hunter in this parking lot would blush. “But what about the storm?” The gray clouds that had been gathering before I went into the Print & Ship looked positively black now.

  “I imagine a few people are going to wait it out.” The truck roared to life, and Justin grabbed onto the inside of the truck bed. “The radio says it’s probably going to blow over, though, and most everyone in town is hoping to get a head start tonight. With a bounty like that, every hunter in the county will be in the woods pretty soon. The deputy was even handing out free amo to everyone.” He lifted up a small box that I recognized. My heart crawled up into my throat. They were the silver bullets from Day’s Market.

  As the truck pulled away, I made a mad dash to the parish, grateful my ankle had finally healed. I went straight to the little caretaker’s apartment behind the building and pounded on the door, hoping Gabriel would answer. I needed his help. Maybe he could use his pastoral influence to get those men to call off the hunt? not likely—but he could at least tell me what to do. Help me find Daniel. He was the last one to see him, after all.

  After my knocking went unanswered for a few seconds, I remembered my conversation with Gabriel from the night before. He had said he would be leaving in the morning. I turned the knob slowly and peaked inside the apartment. Everything was gone except for the bed and the little desk in the corner of the room, against which I had once thrown Gabriel. Every trace of him was gone except for a slip of paper on the edge of the otherwise bare mattress. I picked it up and found a sketch that I would have said was of myself—except for the expression of confidence on the girl’s face. She looked so sure of herself, ready to take on any challenge, that it couldn’t be me.

  I flipped the drawing over and found the words The Divine one scribbled on the back with another note that said, We’ll meet again. gabriel.

  He was gone.

  Gabriel was gone, and I was truly on my own now.

  I left the little room and found my way back to my car. I drove home, taking a different route than the caravan of hunters headed toward the woods. I needed better clothes—running shoes and a jacket—before I could head out on my own hunting expedition.

  I’d prayed for guidance in the hospital chapel, and I knew I needed to follow my gut.

  It was up to me.

  The time to save Daniel was now.

  Chapter Sixteen

  HUNTER AND PREY

  A HALF HOUR LATER

  Darkness had completely overtaken the skie
s by the time I’d changed into running pants, a T-shirt, and a jacket, and headed out into our backyard to get to the woods. Those storm clouds, black as night, blotted out any early-evening stars.

  I could smell the downpour brewing in the air. Hopefully, it wouldn’t blow over.

  “Please, dear God, let it storm,” I whispered. Maybe torrential rain would deter most of those hunters. Turn them back from the incentive of a five-thousand-dollar reward. Or at least slow them down.

  I climbed over the fence into the woods just as a flash of lightning splattered across the sky, as if someone had thrown white paint against a blackened canvas. Thunder rolled just behind it. The storm is coming. A fat raindrop splashed on my arm as if to punctuate my thought. A few more heavy drops fell as I ran into the forest. The rain was sparse for now, but I knew it was only a matter of minutes before I’d be engulfed in the downpour.

  Another thunderous crack echoed in my ears—but there’d been no lightning.

  A gunshot?!

  “No!” I shrieked. Power surged through my muscles like I’d received an injection of pure adrenaline to my heart. I rocketed between trees and over boulders. I couldn’t tell where the echoing gunshot had come from, but I followed my instincts—or whatever it was that pulled me in the direction of the ravine, the last place where I’d encountered the white wolf in these woods.

  If someone got to Daniel before I did…

  The rain fell heavier now, pounding down almost as hard and as fast as my racing feet. I was almost to the ravine when a second shot was fired. I veered slightly to the right, able to pinpoint the origin of the blast this time. I moved with quick but deliberate steps, careful not to make a sound as I slinked behind an upcropping of bushes.

  “You missed again,” I heard a low voice grumble. “You never miss.”

  “It’s these damn silver bullets,” a second voice answered, sounding even more annoyed. “They don’t fly right. Start cheating to the left, or you won’t hit a thing.”

  I peaked through the bushes and found myself behind two hunters, dressed in camouflage rain gear, with high-tech-looking scopes attached to their large rifles.

  One of them bent down, as if checking a print in the mud. He wiped rain from his face and signaled to his friend to be silent. He made a gesture, and the two separated, fanning out as they took off in a quiet jog after their prey. I followed the hunter who supposedly never missed, because he seemed the greater threat, as they headed toward the ravine.

  I knew what they’d find there before I even saw him.

  The great white wolf stood only a few yards away, at the edge of the ravine. He glared at the expert hunter as he raised his gun. The red dot of the gun’s laser scope marked the hunter’s aim, about six inches left of the wolf’s heart.

  The white wolf bared his teeth in a growl. He stepped back, and one of his hind paws slipped a bit on the cliff’s edge.

  I could feel the satisfaction radiating off the hunter’s shoulders, and it made my insides roar with power. Just as his fingers went for the trigger, I ran up on a boulder and leaped onto the hunter’s back. I hit him hard from behind with my forearms as I landed. He shouted, and his gun went off, sending a wild bullet flying before I slammed him to the ground. He landed in a motionless heap with me on top of him.

  I gasped and rolled him onto his side, noticing a trickle of blood seeping from the gash in his forehead. My heart quickened with panic. I hadn’t actually wanted to hurt him. I was about to feel for his pulse in his neck when he groaned. I pulled my hand back.

  “Hey!” the second hunter shouted.

  My head snapped up, and I saw him running toward me in the rain with his gun raised.

  “What’d you do to him?” He stopped short when he got a better look at me—the teenage girl standing over his unconscious two-hundred-pound friend. “Who are you?”

  It was then that I recognized the man. Pete Bradshaw’s only uncle, Jeff Bradshaw. I’d met him once, when my family were guests at Pete’s sister’s wedding two summers ago. He looked a lot like Pete’s dad, only blond, but he was only a few years older than we were. April had practically swooned when Jeff had asked her to dance at the wedding.

  What on earth was I supposed to do now? I didn’t have time to think of a proper excuse for what I had done—and he might recognize me, too, if I let him look at me any longer.…

  The white wolf let out a sharp growl. Jeff started to swing his gun around, ready to shoot at the crouching animal. Before he could finish the movement, I lunged for him, grabbed the end of his rifle, yanked it from his hands, and then swung it at him like baseball bat. The butt of the gun made a cracking noise as it smacked against the side of his head—almost as if I’d hit a home run. He fell to the ground, unconscious but still breathing, next to his friend.

  The rain thickened. My soaked clothes clung to my shivering body. Lightning and thunder crashed as the white wolf arched his head back in a great, earsplitting howl. The first hunter I’d knocked down let out an answering groan. He’d be conscious soon. I had to get Daniel out of here.

  “Come,” I said to the white wolf, motioning to him.

  He whined, and I was afraid he’d try to run away.

  “Come, please.”

  He stepped cautiously toward me until his snout was almost touching my chest. I threaded my fingers into the wet fur around his neck. “This isn’t over yet. Not until you’re safe.”

  He let out a grunt as if he understood.

  “Let’s go, then.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  NOT OUT OF THE WOODS YET

  HEADED HOME

  Rain poured down on us as we ran. Like a full-on monsoon had blown into Minnesota. I carried the two rifles I’d taken off the hunters and ran through the forest with the great white wolf at my side. Our feet sank deep into the mud with each step, but I prayed the rain would wash away our trail. What if Pete’s uncle Jeff had recognized me? Would he remember who I am? With that much money on the line—not to mention wanting to get even with someone who’d bashed you in the head with a rifle—I knew those two hunters would probably come looking for us as soon as they regained consciousness. How long that would be, I didn’t know. It’s not like I made a habit of knocking people out.

  We headed in the direction of my house because I didn’t know where else to go. Where was I going to hide a giant white wolf?

  Daniel’s footfalls started to falter. He slowed to a lumbering jog.

  “Are you okay?”

  He glanced at me with his glinting eyes. His fur was as soaked as my clothing, water dripping off his muzzle. He whined, then took another few limping steps, and then came to a halt. He whimpered as he sat, shaking his head in what seemed like frustration—or pain.

  “Come on!” I whispered loudly. “We can’t stay here. It’s not safe.”

  He looked back in the direction from where we’d come—back to where the hunters were—and growled. But the growl broke off into another whine. He shook one of his front legs, and I noticed a patch of blood on his shoulder.

  “Did you get hit by one of those bullets?”

  He whine-growled in response.

  No wonder he couldn’t run anymore.

  What on earth was I going to do? How could I hide a giant, injured, white wolf?

  “I need you to press forward. We need to keep going.”

  Did he even really understand me?

  He panted several times and then limped forward. We made it about twenty more feet before he stopped again, almost collapsing. I knew he wouldn’t be able to run any longer on his injured leg. If only he were in human form—his front leg would be his arm instead, and he wouldn’t have to use it to run.

  If he were human, he would be much easier to hide. Those hunters would be looking for a wolf, not a boy. I could feel the heat of the moonstone resting against my chest, and I remembered what Gabriel had said about how to change Daniel back.

  I pulled the moonstone from my neck and held it dangling
from its long string. It seemed heavy all of a sudden, like the weight of my decision was encapsulated in it. Not only had I prayed for guidance, I’d also prayed for the ability to bring Daniel back to me. I held the means in my hand, but the strength to do it had to come from inside of me.

  Was I ready? Could I do it?

  I heard a shout from somewhere off in the distance—but too close for comfort. I didn’t have much time before we’d be discovered.

  I needed to do it now, or it would be too late.

  I had to be ready.

  “Dear God, I hope I’m doing the right thing.”

  I draped the moonstone necklace around the wolf’s neck. I clasped one hand behind his uninjured shoulder, and then with my other hand, I pressed the stone as hard as I could against his chest. He struggled at first. I could feel him trying to break away. I was afraid I was hurting him—but I had to push that fear away. I took several deep breaths, cleared my mind, and opened myself up to channeling all of my positive energy into that stone. Every particle of love I had for Daniel in my heart—in my soul—I tried to direct into him. The warm stone grew hotter and hotter in my hand, searing like a piece of brimstone into my flesh, but I didn’t let go.

  “Come back to me,” I said to Daniel, and a jolt of energy flowed through me. It started in my toes and then rushed up my legs into my chest, making my heart feel like it might burst, and then into my arms, hands, and then the moonstone. Suddenly, shards of light shone out from under my hand—emanating from the burning stone itself. Power exploded from the stone so forcefully that it pushed me back and I fell into the mud, losing my grip on the white wolf.

  Lightning burst in the sky directly above. I looked up and was momentarily blinded by the sharp light. I blinked several times, and when I regained my vision, the white wolf was gone. The place where he’d sat was completely empty.

  “No” I said, turning frantically in a circle, looking for him. Had the lightning scared him off? I couldn’t make out his trail in the saturated ground. How was I going to find him again? Rain ran down my forehead from my hair into my eyes. I tried to brush it away, but it did no good. Even with my super vision, I couldn’t see farther than a few feet in this storm.