Thoughts of more questions seized when they came to the office door. She’d only been in her grandfather’s office once since his passing. It had been unbelievably tough. Since then, she’d had no intention of ever returning. “Do we really need to go in there?” she asked softly, clutching the backpack to her chest.
With key in hand, Quentin swiveled around to face Grace. “I’m sorry you’re still hurting. One thing I’ve learned in my old age…” His face lit up with a joking smile meant to lift her spirits. Something she appreciated about him. “Time eases all pain. You’ll never forget him, or how much you loved him, but you’ll welcome his memory instead of shy away from the pain of it.”
As Quentin turned the key and opened the door, Grace was stricken with the threatening prick of tears but managed to blink them away. Her feet felt glued to the floor in the open doorway; she couldn’t move…didn’t want to move. She wanted to be anywhere else in the house other than here. Her gaze roamed over the desk and the shelves behind it, the couch she’d laid on talking about her day while her grandfather worked, and finally rested on the fireplace he’d loved so much. God, she missed him.
Quentin stood patiently in the bathroom doorway, hands braced on either side of the frame, leaning into the office.
“Okay, I’m here. What do you need to show me?”
He let his hands fall to his sides, and nodded his head. “In here.”
Grace stayed where she was, crossing her arms over her chest. “The bathroom?”
He held his hand out to her. “Trust me.”
It took everything she had, but she managed to force her heavy feet forward, stopping a few inches outside the bathroom door. Grace eyed his hand, but didn’t touch it. Quentin let it fall back to his side, obviously realizing she wouldn’t take it. An emotion flickered across his features, but disappeared quickly. Grace wondered if she imagined it since it was there one second and gone a nanosecond later.
Curiously, she watched Quentin open the door to the linen closet, then slide aside the towels resting on the shelves inside. She heard a click, felt a draft of cold air, and stared wide-eyed as the shelves swung backward and he walked through the dark opening that appeared.
“Come,” he said. She was surprised to hear his voice echo.
Scrambling, her feet moved fast to catch up. Once inside, the door closed behind them and sealed shut. Unable to see, she didn’t move. “Quentin?” Her voice sounded hushed in the velvet darkness. “Where are you? I can’t see.”
Lights on either side of the narrow hallway clicked on in domino fashion, two by two, revealing Quentin several yards away, rounding the bend of the hallway that stretched before her. “Come on, Grace.” His demand echoed and swirled about her. Again, she forced her feet forward, and almost fell down the flight of stairs she didn’t realize was there. She breathed a sigh of relief, glancing down at the bag in her hand. It would be her luck to be the first Chosen to break what she was supposed to protect.
Before her foot even stepped off the bottom step, her head had begun to swivel back and forth as she took in the ornate gold sconces set in recesses in the intricate stone walls. When she looked closer, she realized that the sconces were formed like angels. Her eyes widened in wonder. Like a kid in a candy store, she wanted to caress every angel, tuck a finger in every crevice, run her hand across each flat surface. In the back of her mind, she knew she should be angry. This was another huge secret. But she had never seen anything like this, and was flabbergasted that it had been here all along…right under her nose.
Once she rounded the corner, two hallways branched off the main corridor, left and right. She wouldn’t have known if she should go left, right, or continue forward if Quentin hadn’t been patiently waiting next to a door straight ahead. Settling next to Quentin against the wall, Grace smiled.
“Pretty great, isn’t it?”
“Great?” she repeated in amazement. “Try un-freakin’-believable.” Quentin’s laughter echoed and bounced from side to side against the walls, swirling around the angels as it traveled away from them. Grace smiled. “Where do the other hallways go?”
With his foot, he pushed off the wall, turning his body so he was standing in front