Rose Petal Graves (The Lost Clan #1) Read Online Free

graves, and call on the dead. I’d done it—several times—and nothing had happened.
    I closed the book and brought it back to the cardboard box, dropping it on the pile of Styrofoam peanuts. Some drifted out like clumpy snowflakes, sticking to my comforter and gray jeans. As I brushed them off, something whacked my window, making me jump. “Just a tree branch,” I murmured to myself.
    The snow was coming down hard, sheets of white slanting out of the dull sky. The branch struck my window again. This time, I was prepared so I didn’t react. I just watched the wild spectacle, mesmerized by the power of nature.
    The power of nature.
    I glanced at the book again. Perhaps there was power in a tree. I shook my head to dislodge the irrational idea. If a tree could really repel disease, wouldn’t it be planted next to every hospital? Wouldn’t houses be built only from that material? The future doctor in me couldn’t believe there existed a miracle barrier against disease. As soon as the blizzard blew over, I would head to the post office and send the damn book back.
    I heard Dad and Cruz talking downstairs, so I shoved the box underneath my bed and went to join them. “You’ve met Cruz,” I said, gathering my hair in a ponytail.
    Dad turned toward me. “I was just telling him that he couldn’t drive in this weather.” He squinted. “What happened to your face?”
    “I painted the kitchen door. I hope you don’t mind.”
    “Wouldn’t have changed much if I had, would it?” he said gently, but there was a reproach there. He’d always thought that I was too headstrong. Mom said it was a wonderful trait for a girl to possess. Dad didn’t agree. That wasn’t to say he would have wanted me to be submissive, but perhaps more soft-spoken.
    “I wouldn’t want to impose,” Cruz said.
    “Impose?”
    “I told him he should stay in the guest room.”
    Super. “What did you find?” I asked Cruz, to avoid dwelling on the fact that a complete stranger would reside under our roof tonight.
    Dad furrowed his blond eyebrows, which accentuated the new lines that had appeared on his forehead and around his eyes.
    “She suffered a stroke from a blockage in her carotid artery.”
    “Show me.”
    Cruz narrowed his eyes. “I already sewed her up.”
    Dad’s hand settled on my arm. “Cat, please, let this go. It’s already so hard. Leave your mother in peace now.”
    “She didn’t die because of a clogged artery,” I said. “She was healthy, Dad. So healthy.”
    My father squeezed my arm. “People have strokes all the time.”
    “But she was forty-four—”
    “I know, Cat. I know.” My father’s voice was gentle but firm. He pulled me into a hug. I banged my fists against his chest, which made him hug me tighter.
    “It’s not fair,” I sobbed. “Not fair.”
    “You sure you want to be a doctor, honey? Because you’re going to see a lot of things that aren’t fair.” He caressed my hair, running his fingers through it like he used to when I had nightmares. And like when I was a little girl, the gentle stroking soothed me. “How about I dig up something for us to eat while you show Cruz to the guestroom?” he suggested.
    I wanted to suggest that we inverse rolls, but Dad was already on his way to the kitchen. Wrapping my arms around my chest because it was damn cold in the house, I crossed the living room. “It’s over here.” I almost tripped over the upturned corner of the rug. “I need to nail it to the wood,” I muttered, mostly to fill the deafening silence.
    “You seem cold. Do you want me to build a fire?”
    “I can do it.”
    “I’m certain you are capable of it, Catori, but I’m also certain you have other things to do. Like take a shower.” His gaze struck my paint-splattered forearms.
    “Fine.”
    Cruz smiled.
    My grandparents’ old bedroom contained a queen-sized bed pushed against a wall, a nightstand, and a small dresser. It was modest, but cozy. For years, I’d asked my