Fallen Chapter 20 Quotes
How we cite the quotes:
(Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote 1
"I know cam gave you that gold necklace, too," Daniel said.
Luce hadn't thought about that since Cam had forced it onto her at the bar. She couldn't believe that was only yesterday. The thought of wearing it made her feel sick. She didn't even know where the necklace was—and she didn't want to. (20.72-73)
Although it seems a little anticlimactic to go from talking about the end of the world to talking about a missing necklace, this detail is important. Luce's attention to detail dwindles when she stops caring about things, and the fact that she lost Cam's necklace solidifies that any feelings she had for him really were entirely superficial. She isn't ever going back. It's now 100% Luniel. Or…Danuce?
Quote 2
In the end, they'd carried Penn's body back up the steep stone stairs to the chapel, wiped the altar clean of glass, and laid her body there. There was no way they could bury her this morning—not with the cemetery teeming with mortals, as Daniel promised it would be. (20.4)
This loss is by far the most shocking and most tragic in the book—for us as readers, anyway. For all the battling that happens, all the fighting and the fear and the infiltrating shadows, Penn's death is both unexpected and tragic. It shows the toll taken on innocent lives that are caught in the midst of this otherwise heavenly war, and the message hits home pretty hard.
Quote 3
It was agonizing for Luce to accept that she would have to settle for whispering a few last words to her friend inside the chapel. All she could think to say was "You're with your father now. I know he's happy to have you back."
Daniel would bury Penn properly as soon as the school calmed down—and Luce would show him where Penn's father's grave was so Penn could be laid to rest at his side. It was the very least she could do. (20.5-6)
The feels. Oh, the feels. As if Penn's death didn't do us in enough when it happened, we now get this eulogy for Penn from Luce before she's forced to leave Sword & Cross. And to mention Penn's father? We repeat: oh, the feels.
Quote 4
No one had come right out and told her that there were more battles to be fought, but Luce felt the truth inside her, that they were at the start of something long and significant and hard.
Together. (20.131-132)
Well, at least the book ends on a high note, not with a sense of loneliness and loss, but with a sense of hope and togetherness. Even though Luce has lost Penn and doesn't know when she'll see her parents again, she knows she has Daniel, Arriane, and Gabbe, and she'll stand with them to fight the oncoming battles that she knows are on the way.