Waterfall (Dragon's Fate) (9 page)

His sea-colored eyes thrashed in turmoil as if a storm roiled the sea. His brow tightened. “Not at the moment.” He turned and sprinted back out of view.

She stared down at her hands still bound in her lap and frowned. Did he expect her to sit here and wait? She glanced around. There had to be something she could use to release this binding. A stick or a sharp rock might do.

She stood, walked toward the edge of the path, and caught a glimpse of Hudson over the boulder.

Her heart tripled its pace, and she held in a burst of nervous laughter as she ducked behind the stone again. She peered out over the edge.

Hudson stood, arms down at his sides, his gaze aimed straight up the path. She followed his stare to Jordan, who stood a good head and more above Hudson. He too stared unwaveringly.

Jordan stood naked before one of England’s most powerful men. His hands unclenched, and his arms lay lax at his sides. My stars, it was as if he lounged in the middle of his library reading a book. What man stood outdoors without a stitch of clothing on and paid no mind?

Hudson’s pale white brow glimmered with the sheen of sweat. He straightened his shoulders and shifted his weight back onto his heels. “You have what you want. So do I. You want her? All you have to do is allow her to stay with me until the first comes.”

Jordan didn’t move. First what? He already had an heir and spare from his first wife.

“Of course not,” Hudson burst out without waiting for Jordan to reply. He waved his hands in the air as if shooing away a swarm of bees. “Why would you bow down to the likes of me?” Hudson’s once-sparking eyes narrowed.

Why would Hudson think such? Hudson was a duke. Had he lost all opinion of himself? Then again, she lost her good opinion of him. This was a disaster. She needed to do something. But what? She bit her lip.

Hudson turned and stared directly at her.

She tried to pull her head back behind the boulder, but her muscles would not obey. She couldn’t move.
 

Hudson vanished as she stared at him.

She blinked. What?

The leaves above her rustled. Her muscles strained and released. She looked up.

Hudson descended upon her as if from the tree itself.

She screeched, turned from him and ran. The cloth of her skirts tucked between her calves and wrapped about her feet. She stumbled. The earth rose hastily up toward her. She kicked her foot out and regained her momentum.

She would not look back. Her skirts tangled again. Her balance wavered; the fabric of her petticoat gripped a bit too tight to her thigh, and she wavered again. She jerked up her arms, but the ropes about her wrists bit into her skin. There was no way to catch her fall.

No. No. No. She could not fall.

Tingling warmth tightened her stomach and shot down her legs. In an instant, her footing caught hold. She burst down the path. Jordan would catch Hudson before Hudson caught her. Of course he would. There was a light ahead.

A clearing or something…

She was almost there…

She ran out into the clearing. A beach.

Fingers wrapped about her waist and pulled her up and back against a puffing chest.

She dangled, kicking her feet and twisting her body.

“Shush now. Do not struggle.” Hudson’s grip tightened. “The last thing I am going to do is hurt you.” His smooth, polished tone grated against her ear. He spun her about and stepped forward, then jerked and stumbled. Celeste grabbed on to him as he landed off center as if teetering on something, but there was nothing but smooth beach before them. He balanced and then toppled. They fell toward the pebbles.

Celeste’s bound arms flailed as Hudson’s grip on her waist released, tossing her to the beach. The pebbles and water’s edge rushed up at her. She screeched. Her knees hit first on the damp shore. A stinging pain shot up her thighs. Her still-bound hands hit in a hard thud that splashed water onto her face.

The water ran down, tickling everywhere it touched. She forced herself onto her back, and her skirts and back drank in the moist sea.

Hudson groaned and staggered up to a seated position four feet from her.

If only her hands were free, she could fight back and run faster.

“Isslange,”
Carmen’s voice demanded.

“Isslange?” What was that?

The water on her body glowed and shimmered. What was happening?

A tendril of water swirled up beside her in a long, thin cone. Her eyes widened, and she stilled. The end of the cone tapered and solidified into a shard of ice. An ice snake. In hasty jabs, the snake stabbed at the rope, which split and separated, freeing her hands.

She was free, and how that happened, though concerning, mattered not one bit. As she scrambled to her feet, water rushed down her legs and into her slippers, creating ripples on the shore’s edge. She glanced about. A breeze tickled the tree branches, and her vision warped in a circular wave of multicolored light. Her breath caught in her throat.

The beach she stood upon was not the same beach she’d run out onto. Wreckage littered the shore from one end to the other. What had happened here?

Hudson sat to her right, between a large, split-open cask and a piece of ship mast with tatters of sail still attached. Blood trickled down his forehead from a long, thin gash. He closed his eyes and leaned his head against his knee.

The sound of a male throat being cleared came from the trees’ edge. She jerked her gaze in that direction. Jordan stood there. Then was gone. The water heated next to her, and she turned toward the intense warmth. Jordan stood next to her, in the water. She jumped.

“How did you break Ferrous’s cloaking spell?” His voice was calm and questioning.

“Pardon?” This was all a bit vexing. How did he appear from the water? How did she break what?

“All is well. We shall figure it out together.” Humid waves lapped in the air between them. Her body trembled, wanting to feel his strength about her to protect her from the oddness and fear that pulsed through her conscious mind. She needed him.

“What happened here, Jordan?”

“This is the beach I found you on.”

No. She shook her head. No, the beach she’d woken on had been clear, and she’d darted into the woods… Clear as this beach had been only moments before. Her stomach dropped to the soles of her boots.

“You were barely alive.” His voice came softer. “I thought to give you peace, so I bit you.” He protectively wrapped his arms about her shoulders. The heat of his skin against her provided no comfort. “Every woman I have ever bitten has died. I-I had no inkling you would live… I never would have left you, if I had known.”

Celeste’s tongue thickened, and the scene before her swayed. “This—this—is the ship I traveled on?” The words slipped out of her as if it were her breath itself. “My aunt?” She tried to pull from Jordan’s arms. “Where is she?” Oh God. She closed her eyes. No. Tears welled and tumbled down her cheeks.

Jordan tightened his hold. “There are no survivors on this beach or in the water. Yours was the only heartbeat we heard.”

Her aunt was dead. Her throat tightened. “You heard my heartbeat?” she rasped out.

“Yes. Your faint-beating heart that now beats strong.” He turned her to face him. “I had come to Hudson’s today to talk to him and bring you here. To explain my part in this folly and to also make him and you understand you are meant to be mine.” His large thumb gently gathered the salty tears on her cheekbone. Yet, she felt nothing.
 

“No!” Hudson shouted out from where he sat. He pushed to his knees and slowly stood, wavered, then fell again.

“We need to get him to a doctor. Or…” Jordan turned and glanced at the small dinghy that was tied to a large rock on the shore. “Here.” He pulled on Celeste’s hand and led her to the boat. “Get in and sit. I will get Hudson.”

Celeste stared at the boat. In her mind, the dinghy shrunk smaller and smaller. She had never liked the sea or lakes. She certainly had never learned to swim. Her skin flushed with heat. “Where are we going, Jordan?”

“My brothers and I own an island a bit off the coast. We will take Hudson there so we can figure out what’s going on.” He turned from her and headed toward Hudson.

“A bit off the coast?”

“Yes.”

A lump lodged in her throat, and she swallowed. A bright flash of red light slammed into her mind, and her ears rang.

The boat tilted slowly to the right, slowly at first and then with haste. She couldn’t hear; the ringing was too loud. She scrambled toward the wooden door of her bunk. Another jolt shuddered the vessel. She slid sideways as water and bright light poured into her berth. Pain ripped through her. She bent forward and clutched the pink satin and pearls of her new dress. Her pink gloves spread with a dark stain in the dim light. She trembled uncontrollably, and her head grew light. A wooden shard of the ship’s hull had pierced her torso through.

“Celeste?” Jordan’s voice sounded from afar.

A loud snap cracked in her ear, and the vision vanished. She turned slowly toward Jordan, and her knees weakened. She sat on the edge of the boat.

Jordan stopped in his tracks, balancing Hudson on his shoulder. “All is not well?”

“I died. I-I don’t want to go back out there.” Everything was numb. How had she even formed those words?

She couldn’t tell him she was afraid of the water, of the boat, of swimming. And especially of water that became solid and cut her ropes.

Jordan reached her side. “Is it the boat wreckage?”

Why did he have to question her? “Yes and no. It is all of this. I-I do not like the sea.” She waved her hand in the air across the beach. “I never have.” She inhaled deep. “The sea did this…” She stared at the wreckage strewn across the pebbled beach. “I am afraid.” In truth, she was terrified.

Jordan placed Hudson none too gently into the boat on the back wooden bench. “You have nothing to fear in water. Not now. Not ever again. The water is yours to feel, to know, to become a part of.” He cupped her cheek in his hand. “I know this is hard to comprehend. You are my mate. We are the water; water is us. The water cannot, will not, hurt you.”

She wanted to believe the conviction in those stormy blue eyes. But she couldn’t.

Jordan stared down at his mate. Fear shone in her eyes and shivered through his soul. Damn it. He hated to put her through another trial when all he wanted was to sit with her and show her. Teach her what he knew and admit to her what he did not.

And there was a lot he did not.

He glanced at Hudson sitting on the bench. Hudson had gone daft, and that damn gray bird! What was that all about?

Jordan needed to take Celeste to the only place they would be safe. The Isle would conceal them, and he could also hold Hudson there with ease until he could get word to Ferrous to join them. He would have to send another boat for Ferrous. Ferrous could not simply swim to the Isle as easily as he could.

Celeste turned her head and stared out at the sea. “I cannot swim.”

The corner of his mouth quirked up, and he let out a chuckle. Now that was ironic. A water-dragon mate who didn’t know how to swim and who didn’t like the sea. Oh, how her world was about to change. “Come.” He held out his hand. “You have nothing to fear, as you are with me.” And he had no doubt they could figure this out together.

She gently reached out her hand, and her fingers fluttered nervously into his. “It would be nice to believe that, Jordan. It is not that simple.”

Jordan stared at her. She was not a simpleton. She had logic in her actions. Something had to have happened to her beyond the shipwreck to make her fear the water. He needed to find out what that was so he could help her learn that she had nothing to fear from him or from their abilities.

He closed his hand tightly, enclosing her hand firmly in his. A jolt of pleasure stole his breath. “Indeed it is.” He truly was blessed to be the first one to find his mate, no matter the obstacles to obtaining her for good.

“Step in. You can sit in front of me and keep your eyes shut the entire way. Nothing will happen to harm you.” If they did capsize, her instincts would kick in, and he would ensure she made it to shore.

She gathered up her skirts and stepped into the boat, sitting as far away from Hudson as she could.

Chapter Six

Jordan clutched the edge of the boat and pushed off the beach. His bare feet hit the water, and his stomach muscles tightened. He reached for any sign of trouble in the water deeper out at sea. The water lapped calmly through his veins. Good. The Isle was a three-quarter-of-an-hour row from Blood Cove across a deep section of water. On occasion, seals and other water life swam close to the boat. With Celeste skittish and Hudson erratic, the last thing he needed was a frisky seal trying to bump the boat.

He jumped into the boat, rocking the vessel from side to side, and sat on the center bench. Hudson still lay where Jordan had placed him at the back. Celeste hunched on the front seat, facing Jordan, her arms wrapped tightly about her torso and her eyes closed. He pulled on the oars, and the boat slipped farther into the sea.