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.