Page 7 of The Stone Initiation
I broke the kiss and stood back on my heels. I needed to memorize his face before I did this next part: his dark winged brows, high, flat cheekbones, and the bump on his nose from the break that never healed properly. I’d kissed that bump so many times. I ran my fingers down the side of his neck, tracing the runic patterns of the tattoo that vanished beneath the collar of his T-shirt. The pattern was so familiar to me now I could trace it in my sleep.
“Cam…” There was doubt in his tone now, and my stomach knotted with anxiety.
Just fucking do it, Cam. Break it off. Tell him you don’t love him. Do it or you’ll lose him completely. “Levi, I—”
My phone buzzed angrily in my pocket. I should have ignored it, but it felt like a sign to shut my mouth.
“One second.” I stepped away to take the call.
The caller ID showed an unknown number. I didn’t usually answer those, but what if it was Romi? “Hello?”
“Hello, is this Cameron?” The voice was male, gruff, and not Romi.
“Who is this?”
“Is. This. Cameron?”
My stomach trembled. “Yes, who—”
“Romi’s dead. I thought you should know.”Click
I stared at the phone. This was a joke. It had to be. But who? And how did they get my number?
The phone rang again, and the caller ID flashed ‘Ralph’. “Hello? Ralph, I just got the strangest call.”
“Cam…” He sniffed. “I have some bad news.”
“No.”
“Romi’s dead.”
It was true.
It was real.
My brother was dead.
CHAPTER4
Ralph opened the door and pulled me into a hug.
I shoved him away. Not wanting comfort but answers.
I’d run out of the pizza place so fast Levi’s head was probably still spinning. He didn’t know about Romi, had no clue I even had a sibling, so explaining my fear to him wasn’t an option. But Ralph knew.
I stormed into his tiny kitchenette and stood hands-on-hips. “This can’t be happening. This is Romi. He can’t be…He just can’t.”
“It was all over guardian radio. Romi Basque killed in action.”
Ralph worked for the local human police force. He also loved building shit and had stumbled across the covert radio frequency the guardians used several months ago.
I might have argued he’d misheard if not for the call I’d received.
“I’m sorry, Cameron,” he said.
A bubble of grief swelled inside my chest, and I gritted my teeth, breathing shallow and fast to control it. “How? How did he die?”
“They don’t say.”
