Page 32 of The Dragon's Stone Hearted Mate
“Teal!” Mori scolded. “If you can’t refrain from inciting more violence you can go help Crilus in the kitchen! Trying to beat him down doesn’t change what happened but it might keep us from finding out who’s after Morvan now.”
“Sorry,” Teal mouthed to me and stormed out of the kitchen.
“You’d have been better off being his brother,” Torvan said.
I opened my mouth to tell him that wasn’t true and I shut it again. I wasn’t in the mood to play the what-if game.
“You suck,” I said instead and waited for Mori to scold me but he didn’t. “You suck so much! You know that, right? You’re like some giant blackhole sucking up all the good in your life and mine and all that comes out of the other side is excuses! We came back to save you! Teal who had a pregnant mate put his life on the line to try to save you! I almost died trying to save you! And all you can say is my death would’ve made your life better? Can you hear yourself?”
Torvan’s eyes sank from blue to black and he scooted back on his knees until his heels found a shelf that stopped him from going any further back.
“All I wanted was for you to be okay! You tried to blow him up and Teal was still willing to help me save you! Where were you going that day anyway? I took you home and told you to stay put! I told you to stay inside the house! You were just out of jail! If you had stayed in the house until I figured everything out, your dumbass would still be alive.”
The timeline was crystal clear in my head now. My brother was arrested for trying to blow up Teal and his mate. We both spent the week in jail. Him as a prisoner and me as a protestor who refused to leave my brother’s side because I was afraid they’d off him to make their own lives easier. When he was finally released, I took him home. He was supposed to stay there. He promised me he’d stay inside and not cause trouble.
“WHERE WERE YOU GOING?!” I bellowed and grabbed him by his blood-soaked shirt. This time my hand didn’t pass through him. “TELL ME WHERE YOU WERE GOING!?”
“To meet with Jon!” Torvan whimpered. “He was supposed to kill you on your way to see Teal!”
I dropped him onto the icy floor of the walk-in and stared at his trembling translucent form for a long time before storming out of the freezer and leaving Mori to deal with the dead. That seemed to be his calling in life after all. It would be too easy to say fuck it and go home to Rho. Only going home would drag the whole camp back into danger. If Torvan wasn’t dead, I’d fucking strangle him with my own hands.
Chapter Sixteen
Rho
“I think I can go to Earthside,” Cutter said, popping out from behind a tree and startling the shit out of me. I jumpedback and nearly took a swing at the lion until his features came into clarity. I settled back on my seat behind Cabin Three and frowned at him. I hadn’t taken him for a wishy-washy cat, but I’d been wrong before.
“The elves say they don’t see a reason why I couldn’t. Just because I’m not from there isn’t a reason I can’t go, supposedly,” Cutter said.
“What happens if they’re wrong?” I asked. “Perhaps you assumed that for a good reason.”
“I’m not entirely sure. Does he need me?” Cutter asked, sitting down next to me and using his pack as a backrest.
“Not yet,” I shook my head and filled him in on the information I’d picked up over my link with Morvan.
“Do you think he will?” Cutter asked.
“I’m not sure,” I admitted. “It’s sort of cloudy with so much distance between us.”
“Tell me about it,” Cutter chuckled.
“Are you going to tell him about it?” I asked.
“Who and what?” Cutter shot the question back at me, doubling it up.
“It’s alright. He doesn’t need to know, I guess,” I shrugged.
“He’s the sort who doesn’t see beyond his nose, huh? Then again, I don’t think Sherry realizes either.”
“Sherry definitely doesn’t realize. I think your therapist left that part out.”
“Probably for the best,” Cutter nodded.
“Yeah. I’m glad you’re here. I have someone to wait with. I feel useless sitting here and just waiting for him to come home. I should be over there with him, destroying his enemies.”
“We’ll kick their asses again when they get here,” Cutter shrugged. “Maybe my ghosts and their ghosts can go to war, and they can all leave me alone.”
Sighing, I pushed myself upright and headed off in the first direction I found that wasn’t blocked by trees. Sitting around and being useless wasn’t the only thing I could do. Somewhere in the Other World was a place for us to call home and raise our children. I’d heard thousands of stories at the camp about houses appearing out of nowhere just when campers needed them. Maybe I could get that lucky too.
