Waterfall (Dragon's Fate) (13 page)

Ferrous rushed forward and snatched Hudson’s clawing hands while Jordan continued to hold him away. Damn, his ear pounded. What in the world did Hudson think he was about?

Hudson’s face was snow-white, and dark pools surrounded his eyes. His two eye teeth extended, peeling back his orange-hued lips. “
Hissss.
”

“What happened to him?” Celeste’s songlike voice called from behind him.

Bloody hell, why couldn’t she wait in the hall? “Get out!”

He held Hudson back and turned his body to block her view of him.

“I need to speak to him.”

“He is not worth exchanging a word with now.” Jordan tightened his grip on Hudson’s lapels.

She stepped up around him. Hudson twisted hard to the right and yanked free of one of Ferrous’s hands. He clutched her robe and jerked. The fabric of her sleeve tore, slipping down to expose her breast.

“Leave, Celeste,” Ferrous and Jordan growled out.

Hudson thrashed and twisted his body at once, dislodging Jordan’s grip from his coat.
Celeste
. Jordan’s heart jumped into his throat.

Hudson pounced on her, dragging Ferrous with him. Jordan grabbed him by the waist and pulled both of them off her. “Leave! Now!”

Celeste scrambled to her feet and darted toward the door.

Hudson turned and bit Ferrous through his coat sleeve and into his left bicep.

With a roar, Ferrous punched Hudson in the ear. The blow echoed in the confined room.

Hudson fell to the side.

The door slammed shut.

Jordan grabbed Hudson by the lapels and yanked him to his feet.

Hissing, Hudson tried to bite at his hands.

The man acted worse than a water snake caught by the throat. Enough was enough. With his forehead, Jordan smacked Hudson straight on his temple. A small pain pierced his brow where he hit him, but he tightened his grip on him, then released him to stand.

Hudson staggered back. Blood ran down his chin, and he wore a look of shock on his face. “What have I done?” He glanced from Ferrous and back to Jordan. Hudson’s skin faded back to pink, and the pools around his eyes lightened.

“I am sure you know more about that than us.” Jordan backed away from him and stood next to Ferrous.

Ferrous held the bite mark on his bicep. “What dark magic have you been in contact with, Your Grace?” Ferrous’s brow creased. “I certainly hope my blood does not kill you.”

Hudson glanced around the room. “I am friends with many otherworldly creatures more powerful than you.”

Ferrous nodded. “Indeed.”

“You will be safe here in this room.” Jordan didn’t take his gaze off the duke. “If the blood sickens you, Ferrous and I will figure out a way to deal with you.”

“Until I know what you’ve been exposed to, Your Grace, it will be hard for me to help you in a kind way.”

“I don’t need or want your help. I have all I require. Now release me from this room, or people you care about will die.”

Celeste’s heart hammered in her ears as she wandered back down the corridor. She wrapped her arms tightly about her trembling body. Hudson had attacked her. She walked up to the tapestry with the fluid silver stitching and blue gems.

She reached out her trembling hand. The tactile fabric brushed against her fingertips, and tears welled in her eyes. She shouldn’t be here on this Isle, and she certainly couldn’t just go back to her chamber and wait. Nothing since the moment Jordan had knelt before her had been safe. Please let her words work without Jordan by her side. If she could get in, the walls would protect her. Then she could think. What was the word he’d said?

“Grøn vandagame,”
Carmen’s voice echoed.
“It means Water Dragon.”

Water Dragon. “Is that what I am?”

“I cannot see how, but at the same time, I cannot see how not.”

She didn’t want this. She wanted love, a family and a peaceful place to call home. All of her life, she had yearned for a normal loving family. Her father provided for the family but never loved her or any of them. Instead, he’d beaten them and scared her.
 

Her marriage to Hudson promised a similar life.
 

The only member of her family who loved her was her grandmum. They would sit and talk for hours about everything and nothing. She wanted that with a man.
 

Jordan promised desire, need and magic. Adoration and long talks were not mentioned from either man.
 

She was drawn to Jordan in a way she never expected.
 

Infatuated.
 

Her stomach fluttered.
 

More than infatuated, really. She wanted all she dreamed about with him.

If only his attraction to her was about love, not magic and madness.
 

She would say the magic words anyhow. “Grøn vandagame.” The language slipped past her lips as if she’d spoken it all her life. Tears pushed at the rims of her eyelids. How could this be?

The fabric before her rippled, and a golden glow filled the space once more. She stepped inside, to the room with the pool. There had to be something here that would tell her more about Jordan and reassure her. She swallowed hard.

“What are you looking to find?”
Concern filled Carmen’s voice.

“I’m uncertain. I will know when I see it.”

“But what are you hoping for?”

“To take away all the uncertainty.”

“Uncertainty is a constant in life. As soon as it is gone, you are the jest.”

She already was a folly. Nothing she could find here would change that. She walked along the edge of the pool to the far end. In the corner was another smaller alcove she hadn’t noticed the last time. She walked to the arched entrance.

A painting of a beautiful woman hung on the back wall, and on the walls that surrounded her image hung small shelves filled with hundreds of items.

She picked up a leather loop with a small green stone dangling from the center. She ran her finger over the smooth but bumpy nugget. An uncut emerald, perhaps?

The woman with curly black hair in the painting wore the same about her creamy-skinned neck.

She placed the necklace back in its spot.

Next to the emerald lay a lock of red hair, and next to that a faded ribbon.

She turned to the right and on the third shelf down sat…

Her bracelet.

She picked it up. She had not seen this since she woke on the beach. He’d taken it when he bit her. A cold chill raced her spine, and her stomach dropped. She swallowed hard.

She glanced around at hundreds of such items.

These…

Each item he had taken from women he’d killed.

Her throat constricted.

The women who wore these items all died.

She lived.

Her heart pounded in her throat. Without the lore he told and the magic he created, he would be a murderer by society’s eyes. Truth was, he was a murderer. Why would he keep such things? Unless…

He had loved all these women.

The painting. To have a portrait like such here in this place… He was smitten with her. Her heart pinched, and her gut tumbled a bit lower.

He didn’t know Celeste enough to be smitten with her. He was only drawn to her through a magical primal urge.

Not one rational thought had passed through her brain since Jordan entered the ballroom and knelt before her.

And now Hudson… Oh, what had happened to him?

When she saw him in the silver room, he was pasty white with sunken eyes. A description better suited for a monster from a gothic novel, not the Duke of Hudson.

My stars, had her association with Jordan done that to him?

So much of what happened today was wrong.

Life was thrust at her, and she rode the wave once more. No longer would she simply float along. This time, she would make the decision. She would paddle her own boat.

She turned around, and water splashed from a puddle on the floor up onto her foot. A strange fluttering wiggled through her. She clenched forward to try to dissuade the feeling and closed her eyes. A vision flashed in blue and gold light.

Moonlight streamed through the windows of a dance hall, casting a glow on the scuffs from a night’s dancing on the polished wood floor.

A shadow slid along the wall at the edge of the room.

The short stature and rounded shoulders were unmistakably those of Grandmum.

Another shadow slid along the polished floor from behind her. Closer…

Closer…

Celeste’s heart raced.
Oh no. Please, no.

Gloved hands grabbed Grandmum’s shoulders.

In the moonlight, a pale face with sunken eyes emerged from the shadows.

Celeste sucked in a breath. The same face as Hudson’s had been in the silver room.

His mouth opened, and long, bony fangs curled his lip back.

In a swift motion before Grandmum could protest, he bit her neck.

Grandmum cried out.

His hand jerked up to her mouth and smothered her scream. They dropped to the floor, where Hudson continued to feed on her. Grandmum lay in a column of moonlight as blood ran in a stream onto the pale marble floor.

The image vanished.

Celeste jerked and gulped, trying to breathe. But her lungs would not work.

She stared ahead, seeing only mist and darkness. Tears streamed down her face unstopped, and the image of red wine as it streaked down her dress only a night past flashed to her mind. She had stained everything with blood. The blood that pulsed in her veins was that of a water dragon. Her knees weakened, and she fell to the floor.

Hudson knew that.

Had he married her only for that reason?

Had he truly killed her grandmum?

She needed to go back to the mainland. Back to Grandmum and family.

Something in this house made her mad. This was her decision. She wanted Jordan, but she needed Grandmum too. She stood up and rushed past the pool and out into the hall. She needed her clothing and… My stars, how would she get off the Isle?

“Your Grace, may I be of service?” The young woman with huge eyes and black hair stood in the hall in front of the tapestry that symbolized air. Jordan had called her Astrid.

Celeste stared at her. “I need my dress. Can you bring it to the room I was given, Astrid?”

“Your dress is quite in distress, Your Grace.”

“It is of little consequence. I need clothing to wear off the Isle, and eyebrows and tongues would wag if I showed up in this.”

“I will bring you a dress.” She bobbed a curtsey and passed Celeste, heading down to the other end of the hall.

Celeste continued to the room in which she had warmed herself by the fire. She stepped into the room and walked to the fire once again.

The flames flickered the same warm red and yellow. Tears welled in her eyes.
Please don’t let that vision be true.

“Carmen! Do you know? Can you teach me to see the truth?”

“I sincerely wish I could see for you. Locked here, I have only you to see through. I can teach you more about your sights in time. Where is Jordan? He can help you.”

“Where are you locked?” She shook her head; it didn’t matter at this moment. “Never mind. I need to get to my grandmum.”

Was Jordan the key? She needed to find him and tell him of her vision. They needed to return to London at once to ensure Grandmum’s safety.

Astrid knocked on the open door frame. “Your Grace. I believe this shall fit you.” She held in her arms a dark red satin dress.

“It will have to.” Celeste walked to the bed and slipped out of the robe.

Astrid laid the dress on the bed and hastily worked to unbutton the tiny buttons that ran up the side and back. She held the dress out, and Celeste stepped into thick satin skirts. Without corset, petticoats or stockings, she was dressed almost as scandalously as in the robe she had discarded moments before.

Astrid buttoned the back up. It was a simple dress, but lovely. “Where did you find this?”

“The brothers bought the dress for me, but I never found an occasion to wear it.” She smiled, and her eyes danced with fondness.

“I shall take good care of it.”

“Please, don’t worry yourself.” Astrid turned from the bed toward the window. “Do you wish me to send this letter off, Your Grace?”

“Please, call me Celeste. The title does not suit me.” If being called Your Grace meant you went daft in the attic, she would ensure others called her by her Christian name too. “The letter is useless, as I am headed to London.”

“Very well. Oh! Your handwriting in the middle looks similar to Madoc’s. Oh dear.” Astrid held out the parchment to her. “Pardon, I should not have…”