Page 9 of The Stone Initiation
And despite our ten year age difference, Romi and I had been close. I’d longed to be a part of his world when I’d been younger, listening in awe as he told me tales of Stonehaven Academy. I’d wanted to be just like him, but reality had always hovered at the fringes of my consciousness. We were blood, but we’d never be the same. My humanity made me too weak to be a part of his world. I was Lionel Basque’s dirty little secret, the product of his illicit affair with a human. My existence was a secret, and my heritage had been a secret even to me until Romi found me ten years ago, after my mother died. I’d been ten years old, and he was older by a decade. He’d taken care of me, finding me a home, and checking in every few weeks. Until now.
I’d loved him with all my heart, and now he was gone.
I had to know how and why.
Mother’s death had been sudden too. A shooting at the store she worked at. But at least I’d known the details, even if the killer had gotten away.
I needed to know what had happened to Romi.
Ralph returned with a slip of paper. My mother’s neat handwriting was printed on it.In case of emergency only. Then a phone number.
I’d found the envelope in her things after she’d died and given it to Ralph. He’d known the score by then, and he’d kept it safe. I could have used it back then, but she was gone, and the contract he’d made her sign —the contract I’d found among her things—had made it clear that he didn’t want me.
She’d signed away my claim to the Basque fortune. Made me illegitimate, not to protect his name, but to protect me from the gargoyle world. To shield me from being treated like a freak. Like I was worthless, and I’d kept her word even after her death. I’d stayed a secret, but no longer.
I dialed the number and waited, heart pounding because even though I hated the man who’d sired me, I’d loved his son. Even though I despised what Basque stood for he was still the only blood relative I had left.
There was a soft click and then a male voice answered. “Geraldine?”
The world fell out from beneath me. Hearing my mother’s name on his lips, hearing the tentative hope, the soft inhalation, confused me.
“No. This isn’t Geraldine, it’s Cameron, her daughter.”Herdaughter,nothis. “Geraldine is dead.”
He was silent for several achingly long seconds.
“My mother left me this number for…emergencies.”
“Oh?”
Oh? That was it? I bit the insides of my cheeks and breathed through my nose. I couldn’t afford to lose my shit with him. I needed answers. “I want to know what happened to Romi.”
“He’s dead.” His tone was flat.
He didn’t ask me how I knew Romi, which told me he’d either known that Romi was looking after me, or he had an excellent poker voice.
“I know that he’s dead, buthowdid he die?”
“It was an unfortunate accident, and that is all I can tell you. This is not your world, child. Stay out of it and forget Romi. Get on with your life.” He hung up.
He fucking hung up.
“Cam. Are you okay?” Ralph asked.
I looked down at my trembling hands. The one holding the phone had gone gray and hard like stone. Shit. Breathe. I blinked back the red misty fog that threatened to eat away at my vision.
“He hung up.” My voice was a low vibration that bordered on a growl.
“I’m sorry.”
Sorry? Sorry, sorry, sorry. I hated that word. “I’m not having it. I’m not going to walk away like Romi never existed. You didn’t hear him when he told me Romi was dead. He sounded practiced. Like a fucking automaton. No emotion. No inflection. He’s hiding something.”
“Like what?”
“Like maybe Romi didn’t just die. Maybe…maybe he was killed.”
“Then why not just say it? Why call it an accident?”
“I don’t know, but I’m going to find out.” I tucked my phone into my pocket and headed for the door.
