Page 42 of The Dragon's Stone Hearted Mate
“At least that’s fixed,” I said and flashed him a sad smile.
“Don’t do anything stupid and name a kid after me or something. Don’t give a kid that sort of namesake. It’s not fair to the kid.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.”
“You could’ve argued with me a little on that one,” Torvan frowned at me.
“Torvan, I will miss you because for all my life I knew you as my brother. I knew you as my other half. Only, I didn’t know you. It was like I was blindfolded and looking into a mirror and assuming that under all your gusto you were as kind as I tried to be. I was blindfolded, though. So, I’ll miss the ‘you’ I thought you were.”
Torvan nodded. It wasn’t the best send off, but it was the most honest.
“Can I tell you something about death?” he asked.
“Sure,” I nodded.
“I heard you for a bit when you were rambling on about how you die alone but that’s not true. It only looks that way from the outside. When I was dying as soon as it was clearto my cells I was dying, I had people with me. You and Teal couldn’t see them but they were there. People I knew and people I barely remembered knowing in other lifetimes. They were all there and talking to me and they’d been through it before – the whole dying mess – and it sort of made it easier to go. And you’re the one everyone adores – so when you go people will be there. You’ll probably die an old dragon surrounded by your own species of draconic descendants with your mate by your side. Probably Teal and his brothers too – either living or as ghosts. It’ll work out for you because people will remember you for the good things you did.”
We laid there on the icy floor of the walk-in freezer until, despite my scales and the fire burning hot in my belly, I started to shiver.
“I hate to do this but I don’t want you to freeze to death because I’m a coward. I think I have to go now. I think it would be best for you. You should take Rho out to Moonglow Cabin now that some jackass isn’t around to blow it up. It’s a nice spot to have a matingmoon. If Clarence says no – start crying and carrying on about how he killed me.”
“Will do,” I nodded as we both rose to our feet. Torvan turned toward his final door and I grabbed his shoulder before he could open it.
“Huh?” he squeaked out.
“Come here,” I said and hugged him one last time. “You’ll be okay. There’s always your next life not to fuck up.”
“I’ll do my best. Tell everyone I’m sorry they got dragged into my mess.”
“They know,” I said and watched him open his door and disappear from Earthside forever.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Rho
Dragons had long been a moody species, and my dragon was no different. After his brother walked through his final door to face the Pit of Frost where his ancestors would do their best to mold him into someone who could rejoin the reincarnation cycle, I took over the planning of our immediate future. Having the amulet from the earth witch made life much easier.
While Morvan was saying goodbye to his brother, I sent a message to Cutter through Morvan’s therapist’s contacts at the camp. He was still there, unbothered by the soul collecting bird. I breathed a sigh of relief because I wasn’t quite ready for Morvan to find out the truth about Cutter.
The next thing was figuring out where to stay while Morvan wrapped his big-overthinking dragon head around everything that had happened. For that, I turned not to the leader of the dragon flight but to Teal. Anyone who cared enough about my mate to leave his mate and children home alone in the middle of the night to save his life was someone I counted amongst my currently limited number of friends. With a little bit of back and forth we ended up at the very cabin Torvan had once blown up. Mori even arranged for Morvan’s stuff to be brought over from Camp Air. Though, I think he secretly wanted to speak with Cutter. Having someone in his unique position around would probably prove valuable to someone with Mori’s abilities and ambitions.
Teal lingered at Moonglow Cabin with us for a few days as my dragon wandered the grounds in a daze. Inside his head was chaos. He’d lost Torvan twice and each time he found out truths he’d have been happier living his whole life without knowing. Ifollowed behind him ensuring he ate and drank but said little to keep from interrupting his thoughts. I lived long enough standing watch at a grief camp to know extreme grief like this rarely lasted forever. Sooner or later, he’d come back to me.
About a week after we arrived at Moonglow, I woke up to the sizzle of frying bacon and eggs. I smiled to myself as I rolled onto my side and savored the salty aroma wafting through the house. It’d been a long week at the cabin, but it’d been a long week in other places too.
While in transport to the jail because no one knew what else to do with them, Tony ended up killing Georgie. He had a lethal dose of his boss’s product inside a hidden syringe bracelet. When he found out, Conall, Georgie’s pregnant mate, ripped Tony to shreds inside a Moonscale courtroom. The fox shifter didn’t stand a chance against the pregnant omega. While Conall wasn’t charged, he was taken to an inpatient facility to recover his wits and to prevent the stress from taking the life of his unborn cub.
Mori and Preston had taken up residence with Crilus and the latter was trying to start a knitting club with the bar’s patrons. Only knitting and drinking lead to a few self-inflicted knitting needle wounds. Who knew that tequila and knitting needles were a dangerous combination? Too bad they weren’t made of stone like I was. Then maybe they could do shots and play with yarn at the same time.
“Are you hungry, Rho?” Morvan called softly from the kitchen. “I hear you sighing in there. Are you sorting through the flight link again? It’s like a news ticker. You don’t have to listen to it every morning. Probably pretty damn depressing to do it that way. Aren’t I depressing enough for you?” his voice grew closer with every word until he stood in the bedroom doorway, leaning up against it. His hair was wet from a recent shower, and he only wore grey plaid pajama pants.
“You smell like you’re waking up a bit,” I smiled, raking my eyes down his chiseled body. I’d managed to get enough food into him over the last week to keep him from withering away.
“I wasn’t asleep. I was just --- I don’t know. I was lost again, I guess,” Morvan shrugged. “I spent so much of my time since Torvan died in that state that it started to feel like home.”
“Did you figure out what you needed to?” I asked him.
“I think so. The bright side of my brother not staying dead was realizing there’s so much we’ll never know or remember while we’re alive. He said he wasn’t alone when he died. He didn’t talk about how it hurt or whatever. When he finally had the chance to say something it was about the people who were there. Maybe he didn’t deserve a soothing death. Maybe none of us do but I think it’s as much information as I’m going to get. Don’t get me wrong. I think this will come up again. Life is a bizarre string of events that we have to swim through but that’s the whole point. We’re not seeing everything. Besides, I want to wade through all that crazy with you. I want to know what happens next and I figure that’s two of the best reasons ever to stop wondering why the world isn’t fair. There probably isn’t some grand point to everything but we can pretend there is or invent one of our own.”
