Page 2 of The Stone Curse
I hate me too.
No, that wasn’t what I meant. Derek, I’m sorry.
I sorry, Cam. I so sorry.
As much as I wanted to hide, as much as I needed to block out the world, Derek was right: it was time to wake up.
“You’re healing well,”Levi said. “You’ll be good as new by the morning.”
I stared back at him from my bed in the infirmary, my thoughts numb.
His throat bobbed. “You should have told me you’d found your fated mate.”
He knew. Everyone knew now. “Your father is on the council.”
His brows knitted. “And you thought I’d sell you out? So you fake dated the Mason boy to throw me off the scent?” He shook his head in exasperation. “I knew it, that day outside Stone Comfort when you protected Serath, just before Derek showed up and?—”
“Go away, Levi.” I didn’t want to remember. I didn’t want to seehimin my head while speaking to Levi. His face, his beautiful face, now gone. I was done with the conversation. Done with anything that made me think or feel. I was awake, and that was enough.
“No, Cam. I need to know. To understand how you couldeverhave thought I’d rat you out.”
“Can you honestly say that you wouldn’t have told your father? In the name of protecting me from myself?”
He opened his mouth to reply then snapped it shut again.
“Yeah, I thought as much.” I turned my head away, wanting to fall into dreams. Into a place where everything was like before. A place where Serath was alive. “Go away, Levi. I want to be alone.”
“No.”
The first flicker of anger since I’d woken flared inside me. “Go. Away.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
Something ugly and twisted surged to life inside me. “Why? Because you think you have a chance with me now that Serath is gone? You think I’ll fall into your arms all weepy and desperate for comfort?” I sat up, eyes burning with indignant wrath and the vicious need to hurt someone, anyone. Him. “I willneverlove you. I willnevereverloveanyoneagain. I might be breathing, but I’m dead. You understand me? Cameron is fucking dead. Now get the fuck out!”
Levi met my rage with calm assurance. “I’ll go. But I need you to know that I’m here for you. I care about you, Cameron, and I’ll always be your friend.”
I turned my head away and closed my eyes, battling the heat of frustrated rage, and after a few moments, I heard the door open and close.
He was gone, and I was finally alone. I sniffed and wiped at my wet eyes. Fucking stupid tears. Stupid world.
I hurt. I hurt all the fucking time.
The door opened again. Fucksake! “What is your problem?”
Sharniza stepped into the room trailed by Curi, Touron, Ginia, and Palia. “My problem is that my best friend is in pain,” she said, “and I can’t do a damn thing to fix it.”
My vision blurred as the people I loved the most in the world entered the room and surrounded my bed. Derek materialized beside me, his huge, solid mass dwarfing us all.
“I don’t know if I can do this.” My words were a whispered confession. “I don’t think I’m strong enough.”
“Then we’ll be strong enough for you,” Curi said. “You’re not alone.”
“We fight,” Derek said. “We fight, and we get Romi.”
I squeezed my eyes shut, dislodging tears. “It hurts. It hurts like it will never stop.”
Derek put his arm around me. “Then we share the hurt. We bear it together.”
