Into the Woods: Tales from the Hollows and Beyond(155)
Author: Kim Harrison

Grace blinked, remembering. No, her balance had never bobbled for even a microsecond. She had been in complete control, even as she had killed Zach.

Hope flashed through her. "Don’t tell him why," she blurted, then flushed.

"Don’t tell Jason that you love him?" Walter chuckled as he picked up her cap. "You don’t think he already knows?"

Grace lifted her chin. "Don’t tell him that I broke because of him. I can’t . . ."

Her words cut off as Walter put a hand on her shoulder and led her to the door. "Love is strength, Grace. Don’t come away from this learning the wrong lesson."

He handed her cover to her and opened the door. She went through it, desperate to make him understand. Jason waited for her at the end of the hall. She could see him in the sun, standing on the whitewashed boards, his dejection and anger clear in his stance. "Please," she begged Walter as Hoc trotted to the end of the hall to meet Jason. "Make something up-for both of us. His career and mine. I can either have a family or a career in the Strand. Not both. And I want this, sir. I want it bad enough to give everything."

Standing in the doorway to his office, Walter puffed and blew, thinking about it. "I’ll tell him that Casten pulled strings and got you into his flight. You can go as far as you want under him."

Relief spilled into her, and she shook his hand, flushing in that she probably shouldn’t have initiated the contact. "Thank you, sir. Thank you, very much."

The large man smiled, touching her shoulder as he gestured for her to go. "Thank you, Grace. But drop the sir. Call me Walter. It makes slogging through the muck easier."

"Yes, sir, I mean, Walter," she said, exuberant as she turned and strode down the hall. She was an elite. She was an elite, and the world was now clear. Her path chosen. She’d been given a gift and the chance to make a difference. If she let it fall to the side, everything she believed in, Boyd’s sacrifice and Zach’s death would be a lie.

Hoc bounced through the glass door as she opened it up. Jason waited beyond, mystified at her smile.

"What happened?" he said, and she gave him a hug, not caring that Walter was still standing at the end of the hall.

"I said yes," she breathed, then added, "But I’m not going to work with you. We’re under Casten, and you watch. Hoc and I are going to head up our own division in three years." Smiling, she spun to the elevator, turning to look at him over her shoulder.

"Catch me if you can!"