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Only his face isn’t blank. It’s livid with a mixture of self-loathing and regret his eyes an incandescent black that has shivers sliding through me for all the wrong reasons..."Well as you can see, I’m fine."
This tense interaction occurs in Chapter 36 between Jaxon and Grace when she confronts him in the corridor about the events in his bedroom after they kissed for the first time. Jaxon and Grace are both navigating new territory marked by sexual intensity, an interspecies relationship, and unexplained telekinesis on Jaxon's part. Controlling one's impulses and urges is difficult enough as a teenager, but Jaxon's problem is supernaturally unique: he accidentally triggers earthquakes when he gets stressed, aroused, or otherwise stirred up. His sarcasm here points to his fury with himself for his lack of self-control. However, this inability to forgive himself and his lack of self-awareness are actually less mature moments compared to the behaviors he develops later in the novel. As he grows and develops, he also learns to acknowledge and address the effects of his actions and emotions.
Not when the room is spinning and my head is muddled and all I can think about is Jaxon. Jaxon twirling me through the aurora borealis. Jaxon staring at me with hellish eyes. Jaxon telling me to run, trying to protect me even when he's drugged out of his mind.
This passage in Chapter 56 reflects a thought Grace has after she is horrified to witness Jaxon lying on the floor, drugged by the tea Lia provided. In this moment, Grace discovers a new wellspring of bravery and energy within herself, as she realizes how important protecting Jaxon is to her. Despite Lia's screams for her to stay away and remain still, and the fact that Lia’s also holding a loaded gun, Grace persists in her attempts to protect him. Empowered by the courage she's gained while at Katmere, she attempts to do whatever she can to help Jaxon, despite her injuries and her own state of drugged sluggishness.
With Flint everything inside me was screaming a warning, telling me to get the hell away from him as fast as I could. With Mekhi this trip into the tunnels feels normal [...]There’s no voice warning me to be careful [...] Still I wait for that same voice to kick in as we go deeper into the tunnel.
Grace undergoes significant growth throughout the novel, particularly in learning to trust her instincts—a lesson quickly imparted during her time at Katmere. Typically reticent in expressing her emotions, Grace either overanalyzes or suppresses them when they arise. Yet, as she becomes more self-aware, she improves her ability to discern when to heed her instincts. By this point in Chapter 52, she has developed such profound self-awareness that she can reflect on a past moment of indecision, and contrast it with the comfort she feels in the presence of Mekhi, someone she instinctively feels is safe.
