Children of the Fallen: Bloodlines (BOOK #3)

Chapter 14: Moment of Weakness

Grayson Spencer

Two months ago Morgan called me and I've been returning that call everyday for the past two months. I was showering off the remnants of a hunter attack when she called and when I picked up my phone to find a missed call from Morgan I went numb for quite a while. I stayed numb as I called her back the first time, then the second, then the third. The phone kept ringing and ringing and ringing. Eventually she started sending me straight to voicemail. I've called her once a day since then hoping she'll pick up but she never does.

While everyone went to their respective rooms Morgan disappeared so I've been wandering around trying to find her. She had the majority of her palace emptied, only a few servants and guards are inside. Walking down the large stone steps of her front grand entrance I find her outside sitting on the ledge of the dark stoned circular fountain. Her face only half visible from the small lights in or surrounding the fountain and walkway. With her hands posted on the sides of the fountain she stares off into the darkness behind the walkway lights. I've been at her palace maybe twice in my life, this being the third now that she's lifted my ban and this portion of the exterior of her palace is normally a sight to see during the day. At night its bright flowers and greenery are shrouded in shadows. "Hey." I near her.

"Hey." She says flatly.

I stop in front of her but she doesn't look up. "So you called me."

"I did." She answers. "You won't stop calling me." Her eyes slide up to meet mine.

She's lacking her usual formidably lethal aura right now, like confronting Kellan took it all out of her. She just looks exhausted. "You won't pick up."

"Hints just constantly fly over your head don't they?" I note her weary voice.

"Why did you call?"

Her eyes look away from me back out into the darkness. "Moment of weakness."

"Let's talk about said moment of weakness." I suggest taking another step towards her.

"I don't wanna talk."

"Come on, let me hear it. Let me hear it all."

She closes her eyes and presses her lips together in a straight line. "No." She says opening her eyes.

"Why?"

"I don't wanna talk about it. I don't wanna think about it- all I fucking do is think and I want it to stop." She says raising her voice but it's absent of any strength.

"Why do you want it to stop?"

She opens her mouth but closes it, preventing herself from saying anything. Shaking her head, "I don't want to talk Gray." She says and for the first time in a while that name doesn't register as a snide remark.

I sit down next to her and she tenses. "I said I don't want to talk."

"I'm not talking. I just want to sit." I say. Her eyes dance between mine carefully considering me but she keeps herself on guard.

She turns her attention back in front of her. Sitting in silence for a bit and I keep looking down at her hand gripping the ledge of the fountain deciding whether or not I should go for it.

Her face remains the same- eyes distant and her eyebrows tilted ever so slightly upwards as she sits being continually tormented by her thoughts. I reach for her hand just placing mine over it, feeling how tightly she's grabbing at the ledge like she's holding on for dear life. As soon as I touch her she stiffens. Refusing to look at me she looks down at my hand on hers and she swallows returning her stare straight ahead. Her hand and shoulders relax and I adjust my hand to hold hers instead of just sitting on top of it. With her eyes closed she takes deep breath, forcing it to be as silent as possible. On the exhale she opens them keeping them ahead but she remains here with me and she doesn't yank her hand back.

I look out ahead mirroring her as we sit in the quiet together. She turns her head to me and I feel her eyes on my face but I don't turn. She takes another breath- audibly this time then shifts her stare downwards at our hands and her body finally relaxes.

After some time her phone vibrates. She pulls her hand away to check it leaving a coldness where it once was. "I have to go." She stands up then looks me over once more. "Thank you." She says with some hesitation in her voice.

I open my mouth but she turns and walks off before I could say anything.