Page 31 of The Dragon's Stone Hearted Mate
“At my restaurant,” Torvan said, stepping back.
“Where is that?” Mori asked and took another step forward.
I slipped into the walk-in and waved for Teal to follow me. He held the door open with one hand, but I pulled it shut. Years ago, we had a safety pedal installed that would allow anyone trapped inside to get out without assistance. The fact that thepedal wasn’t working for Torvan should’ve clued him in on something being off, but no one ever accused my twin of being the brainy one.
“Uh…. Morvi, I think this wolf has lost his mind. He doesn’t know he’s in London,” Torvan said stepping up next to me. I fought off the urge to put an arm around his shoulders like I would’ve when he was alive.
“What are you doing here, Torvan?” Teal asked.
His face scrunched up like he was either trying to recall something or was about to take a shit and as far as I knew ghosts had no need for toilets.
“Why are you here?” Mori parroted Teal’s question. “Why did you come back?”
“Come back?” Torvan asked and then his eyes went wide. Blood bubbled on the front of his shirt as if he’d been hit with the dagger all over again. He sank to his knees, looking up at me with big eyes. “Morvi!”
He hadn’t called me that in years. I sank down onto the icy floor of the walk-in with him as he pressed his hands to his front and begged me to make it stop. I reached out for him but he wasn’t solid and something inside me ached as my hand passed through him.
Mori squatted down in front of us.
“You came back to Earthside to do something, right?” Mori asked. “You came back because something was important?”
“I can’t remember. I had to come back and do something, or I can’t go back to the Other World. Not even the Pit of Frost. I be—Betrayed someone,” Torvan said, rubbing the heels of his hands against his forehead, smearing phantom blood all over his face in the process.
“Who kicked you out?” I asked him, trying to get him talking so that he calmed down before his panic spread into my cells.We were a pair of living, breathing twins once. We were never as entwined as Teal was with his triplet brothers but we were close.
“Everyone! They voted, Morvi! They voted me out like it was some television reality show! They said to fix it, or I couldn’t be part of the family -the soul family- anymore. I don’t know what I was supposed to fix, though! This isn’t fair! This so isn’t fair!”
“He’s in and out of it,” Mori said. “Sometimes he remembers he’s dead and sometimes he doesn’t from the sound of it.”
“What do we do?” Teal asked from where he stood by the walk-in door looking like a prison guard.
“Let me talk to him. Try not to upset him more,” Mori said.
“We know what the betrayal is,” I said, ignoring the incredulous looks Teal and Mori shot my way. “You won’t like hearing it, though. I need you to promise you won’t freak out and throw another fit. I need you to stay calm because I have some important stuff to tell you.”
“What’s going on?” Torvan asked.
“Last night, I met my true-mate, Torvan. His name is Rho. He’s incredible. Just everything about him is incredible. We haven’t even finished exchanging our claiming vows, though.”
“Why not?” Torvan asked, confusion dancing through his eyes that mirrored mine. “And congratulations! You should’ve called me! Where are you matingmooning?”
“In the Other World at this great campground,” I said, stretching the truth only a bit. “Someone tried to shoot me last night.”
“The same person who stabbed me?” he asked, looking down at the blood bubbling from his chest again.
“No, not her,” I shook my head. “Someone who came because you owe them money.”
Torvan’s expression fell, and it was as if his pain was enough to reactivate our twin link from beyond the grave. Faces danced through his memories, none of which I recognized but they beatthe shit out of him more than once. He should’ve told me. He should’ve told Teal. He should’ve told someone.
“Was that all it took to betray your brother?” Teal asked.
“You saw that?” I asked before Torvan could answer.
“All of us saw it,” Mori filled me in.
“I didn’t want to die!” Torvan said. “I just needed to get out of the hole. That was it. There wasn’t any more money I could take. I needed to send you back to our ancestors and get out of the hole. Then I’d have the restaurant and all the money they made and I wouldn’t have to gamble or anything – unless I wanted to and---”
Mori tackled Teal’s legs as he leapt through the air about to pounce on my ghost brother.
