Waterfall(41)

“Hmm. I suppose. Was I correct?” She glanced back at Jordan.

“Yes. What else did he say?”

“Absolve the enchanted blood, break the bond and repair the man.”

“Indeed. You have the speak at least.” His lips pressed to her cheek. He pulled away, and the warmth of his kiss settled there and stayed. Just like he would stay. Always. Needing only her. She knew that just as certainly as she’d understood the Nordic words.

A red glow came from by the bed. Madoc had shed his coat, and a large red circle glowed from his chest through his shirt. The single red crescent on his cheek glimmered brighter.

The sheets slowly unwound from Hudson, and he lay peacefully.

“He should be absolved of the presence now.” Ferrous walked to Jordan and Celeste and held out his hand to them. “We shall see if the otherworldly transition stopped as well. I fear it will continue.” Celeste wrapped her fingers about his, and Jordan encircled both their hands. Ferrous pulled them forward.

Jordan stood beside her as they stared down on Hudson.

Hudson’s skin remained snowy white and the lines around his eyes faded to brown, but the scars of their presence remained. This was her husband, a man her father had wished her to marry. A man she hardly knew. She wanted to feel something for him, but she couldn’t. She had no deep feeling for him beyond sadness. He struggled with the loss of a true love. Tears welled in her eyes and fell onto her cheeks. A love lost she could feel something for. Love was precious and had been taken from him far too soon.

“We will move him to the burgundy room, which has a door.” Madoc winked at her. “I will check in on him tomorrow, and one of us will be with him until then.” Madoc pushed Hudson’s fair hair from his face and stared down at him. He wrapped his fingers about the duke’s limp hand on the bed. They were still friends. It was evident in Madoc’s stare.

Madoc and Ferrous lifted Hudson and carried him from the room.

Jordan turned Celeste to face him and grasped both her hands in his. He smiled. She inhaled deep, and the scent of the sea hastened her breath. She truly enjoyed being with him, though she was still a bit unsure of all this elemental learning that she somehow just knew. How could that be?

“How did you learn to understand the language of the elements?” His eyes churned with the same desire they had when they swam in the water room.

How had he known she was thinking such? “I have a lot to learn, but Carmen, the woman in my mind, said she will continue to help me.” One thing she was sure of was that she could tell Jordan anything.

“As will I. But who is Carmen, Celeste?”

“I’m not sure. She told me she feels responsible for you, and that she had never envisioned what you all turned out to be.”

“The ebony woman in my visions.”

“Possibly. I never asked her what she looked like. Carmen?” she queried now.

“I am an exotic. Dark skin. Thick black curly hair.” Her voice was soft. “You did well today, Celeste.”

“Thank you.” A smile curved her lips.

Jordan regarded her. “Well?”

“Oh, pardon. She said she would be considered an exotic. Dark skinned with ebony hair.”

“She could be the woman in my visions. I saw a beautiful ebony woman with a box of stones. She performed a ritual in a great castle. Those stones could have been eggs.”

They walked from the room and down the hall toward the emerald room. “I wish to check on Grandmum. I thought I lost her…”

“Spend the evening with her, Celeste. I am not going anywhere. Not ever. To be honest, I want the next time we are together to be when you no longer fret about belonging to me while being married to Hudson.”

Celeste stopped walking and turned toward him. He was still worried she did not want him. She touched his face. His eyes were strained and tired, but the light in his eyes was not gone. He thought of her feelings and words. Her heart pinched, and she smiled all the way to her toes. She loved him. She wanted him and would not turn her back on the realization that no matter how strange this was, she had stumbled into her dream. “I do belong to you.”

He leaned in and kissed her forehead. “You do. I know that once this marriage to Hudson is annulled, your mind and energy will clear, and you will feel all that is us.”

“I already feel that, Jordan. When we worked together to open the door and free your brothers, I felt the power of what we are. I also felt your protection and your love.” She pushed up onto her tippy-toes and placed her forehead to his. “Though I have only just met you, I am positive we are meant to be together.”

He pulled her body tight to his. “Oh, we have amazing things to teach each other, to discover and to enjoy. As soon as Hudson awakes, we will get the marriage annulled.”