“Kate? What were you doing in here?”
“Why are you bleeding is the better question?” She quickly tore off part of her shirt and pressed it against my nose.
I winced, but she didn’t lessen the pressure. I hadn’t realized my nose was bleeding so much.
“You punched me a few times,” I told her, sound muffled from the fabric.
“I did?”
“What do you remember?” I took the piece of cloth from her, and she backed away, wringing her hands before she bent to pick her torch back up. “You were talking when I found you in here.”
“What did I say?”
I shrugged. “No idea, but it didn’t sound like you.”
“Celandine,” she whispered.
“Who?”
Kate tilted her head and whispered the name again. “I saw her… or was her… we were here.”
She waved the torch around the space, and I glanced around, taking in the tall ceilings and the hearths lining the walls.
It was a feast hall, one that could easily hold two hundred people. The Darrahs would’ve held court here. But this Celandine, I didn’t know the name and nothing Kate was saying made sense.
I wondered if she hit her head. It was possible if she was wandering around on her own, slipped and fell, but her eyes suddenly flared bright with power and the markings glowed through her clothes.
“Kate, whatever you’re thinking just stop,” I ordered, rushing to take hold of her shoulders as her eyes slid closed. “No, stay with me! Stop listening to the damned voices and stay with me!”
Her arms twitched violently, and she growled, smoke slipping from her nose as she swung her head around, fighting an invisible enemy.
I yanked the torch out of her hand and pleaded with her to listen to my voice, but whatever had hold of her was stronger. She either couldn’t hear me, or whatever trapped her wasn’t finished with her, not yet.
When blood started to seep from her ears, and her face screwed up in pain, I did the only thing I could think of aside from knocking her over the head.
I crushed my mouth to hers, kissing her fiercely. She immediately stilled in my arms and then her lips moved against mine, and we clung to each other tightly.
The kiss was more intense than the first time, and I never wanted it to stop. I lifted her off her feet and set her on the table behind us, reminding myself not to completely lose control, but she was intoxicating.
When we came up for air, I smoothed her loose hair from her face, cupping her cheeks. “Kate?”
She licked her lips, but her eyes were back to their normal, soft green and the markings on her body ceased their glowing. She was breathing hard, and her cheeks were bright red. “That was… that was nice.”
I smiled in relief and hung my head. “You have to stop scaring the shit out of me.”
“I’m not meaning to.”
I lifted my head and kissed her forehead, holding her close as she rested her head against my chest. “What’s going on here? What are you hearing?”
“Not hearing,” she whispered so quiet, I almost couldn’t hear her. “Seeing.”
I forced her to sit up and stared deep into her eyes. “Say that again?”
“I’m not sure I should. You’re just going to give me another damned lecture.”
She was damned right I wanted to, but there was something else on her face aside from her annoyance at me. Fear… and knowing. Whatever she saw was important, and my hope of keeping her from over exerting herself was gone.
“I won’t, swear it,” I stated, but she cocked an eyebrow at me. “What?”
“You suck at lying.”
“You’re the one bleeding out of your ears again.”
She lifted her hand to her ear and lifted her lip in annoyance at the blood on her fingertips. “Too much at one time maybe? I don’t know, but I have to keep listening to them, Craig. I think they’re trying to show me what happened here.”
“We know what happened. Forrest told us.”
“No,” she said, shaking her head as she hopped off the table and picked up her torch. “Before the Darrahs lost power, long before. Back when the shield was stolen.”
That was not what I expected her to say.
My jaw dropped, and it took a few minutes before I could think clearly to ask what she saw exactly.
But instead of rushing to tell me, she shifted on her feet nervously, and turned her back to me.
“Kate? Is this about what just happened, with us?” I asked.
It was stupid of me to kiss her like that, what with us fighting to find the shield and dealing with the plague, but I’d be lying if I said it was merely to pull her back to the present. I was drawn to her in ways I couldn’t explain.
“Are demons and dragons related?”
“Beg pardon?” I muttered, unable to think of anything else to say.
“Are they related? Meaning did demons come from dragons?”
I rubbed the back of my neck, not sure what prompted this line of questioning. “I’ve never heard of such a thing, ever. I’m not really sure what you’re even asking me.”
“I’m not either, not really.”
“Just tell me what you saw. And who’s Celandine?”
Her grip tightened visibly on the torch, and her shoulders stiffened.
I worried she was slipping away again, but when she faced me, her eyes were clear, though her skin was deathly pale.
She gulped so loud I heard it and chills raced down my spine. What had she seen?
“Forrest should hear it, too,” she told me quietly.
Forrest.
Of course.
For a few wonderful minutes, I’d managed to forget about my rival in the other room, sleeping soundly away. Dragging his ass in here was the last thing I wanted to do, but she was right. If she found out something important, it’d be a waste of breath for her to tell it twice.
I nodded and said I’d go get him.
She rushed up behind me and grabbed my hand before I reached the door.
I opened my mouth to ask her what was wrong when she kissed me, not long enough, but enough to tell me what was happening between us was not one-sided.
“I don’t understand this, any of it,” she whispered, gripping my hand hard enough to break bone if she wasn’t careful. “You and Forrest and me. All three of us are connected to this somehow. I just… I don’t know how to… navigate this, at all.”
I cupped her cheek again and smiled, even as a white-hot spike of jealousy stabbed me in the chest. “Believe it or not, it’s new to me, too.”
“Doubt it.”
“No, it’s true. No demons wanted to be with the half-breed,” I explained. “Though I did have my fair share of human dates. Those were interesting.”
I wanted to see her smile and was rewarded with one as she rolled her eyes and gave me a shove towards the door.
“I’ll be back and try not to go back into that trance state of yours? Though, I won’t exactly mind pulling you out of it again.” I winked.
She handed me her torch to find my way back to the dragon in the other room.
Kate’s words stayed with me and pulled me away from wallowing over my growing attraction for her.
Why would she ask if demons and dragons were related? The races didn’t come from one being, they all had their origin stories, and demons certainly were nothing like the dragons.
The urge to know what she’d seen spurred me on faster, and I ran the rest of the way to fetch Forrest and figure out how much worse this situation was becoming.
14
Forrest
I grunted when someone kicked my leg. “Wake up,” Craig growled.
“What for?”
“Just get your ass up. Kate found something.”
I sat up immediately, rubbing a hand over my face to shake the strange dream I was having of Kate, myself, and even Craig.
We were ourselves, but we weren’t, at the same time. It was strange, and
as I found my feet, hurrying to keep up with Craig, I couldn’t shake the feeling that my dream was more than just a dream.
“Where is she?” I asked, confused as we left the war room and entered another corridor.
“She went exploring while we slept,” he muttered and by the sharp tone of his voice, whatever she found must’ve put her life in danger, again.
“Is it that bad?”
He stopped short of another set of double doors. “Don’t know. She hasn’t told me what she saw yet.”
He stepped through the doorway, and I joined him, trying to take in our new surroundings quickly until my eyes landed on Kate. She sat atop what looked like a head table of some sort, perched on a dais at the head of the room.
Craig nodded. “Right, he’s here. Now tell us what you saw.”
“Did you ask him yet?”
“Ask me what?”
She looked to Craig. “Really? I figured that’d be the first thing out of your mouth.”
“Oh no, I’ll let you continue the crazy, and sit back and hear what he has to say once we hear everything.” He leaned back against another table, crossed his arms, and waited patiently.
I glanced from one to the other, but neither said a word and the silence stretched on.
“Can someone please explain what’s happening here?”
“Kate wants to know if dragons and demons are related?” Craig finally said.
I rubbed my face again, thinking I heard him wrong. “What?”
“Dragons and demons, are they or have they ever been related?” Kate said this time, glaring at Craig. “I don’t understand why this is such a hard question.”
“It’s not hard,” I replied slowly. “But it’s definitely unusual. No, not to my knowledge. Why?”
“That is the other question, isn’t it?”
“Alright,” Kate growled, and her eyes flared greenish-blue at Craig. “While you two sleeping beauties were snoring, I came in here to see what the room looked like.”
“So, you did know what was beyond those doors?” Craig challenged, and her cringe was all the answer we both needed. “Go on.”
“I wanted to see what the hall looked like now. The war room was in decent condition, and there are more rooms that branch off from here,” she said, pointing to the right and left. “I’m not sure if they’re accessible or not, but I know where they lead.”
“And you came in here and what? Decided to come up with a list of strange questions?”
I had no idea where this was headed, but from the way her eyes darkened, and took on a faraway look, I knew she had discovered more than just a room filled with old tables and chairs.
“I closed my eyes,” she started quietly, “and when I opened them… when I opened them this room was filled with people. Dragons. Darrahs to be exact. And I wasn’t exactly myself.”
Craig’s arms fell to his sides, but I was the one who asked. “Who were you? Was this some kind of vision?”
“Vision or my personal trip to the past.”
“They saw you?” Craig asked alarmed.
“They did, but like I said, I wasn’t me. They called me Celandine, the Vindicar.”
A throbbing started at my temples as I attempted to process what she was saying.
“The Darrah, Malcolm, he announced who I was, and then he led me from the hall. We were talking about the shield and the shadow, about how it was back and spreading,” she said in a rush. “I, or Celandine, told him there was a traitor, one who was ready to destroy the shield and was seen at the breach with a shadow figure? I don’t know, not a lot of it made sense. The son’s name was Allis? And the shield, someone stole it from the cage and released the shadow again. I had the Executioner blade with me, too. I filled it with power somehow.”
Craig perked up at those words. “That’s not possible.”
“I had it, Craig, it was that sword. I could feel the power in it.”
“That sword was only forged a few centuries ago,” he uttered sounding lost and worried. “How do we know what you saw was even real?”
“I was this woman,” Kate insisted hotly. “I felt everything she did. As she and Malcolm were speaking, an attack happened here in this very room. That’s when you found me.” She nodded to Craig and her cheeks reddened. “When I decked you, I thought I was fighting off the plagued dragons.”
I squinted at his face and noticed the subtle bruise forming on his jaw and around his eyes.
“You’re saying, this Vindicar… you are her, or were her, in some past life?” I needed clarification.
I’d heard rumors of some having dreams and visions of past lives, but nothing ever came of it. They were merely dreams that passed once the dawn came, but for her to see everything so vividly, to be caught up in the action, it was unheard of.
“Something like that. I’m from a line of Vindicars, right?”
“We don’t really know,” Craig explained softly. He studied the ground, seeming unwilling to meet either one of our gazes. “If that sword was forged that long ago and used by the Vindicar, makes sense you wield it so easily.”
“Do you recognize any of these names?” she asked me. “Malcolm Darrah, or Allis, his son?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know much of the Darrah line past the last few generations. What happened in your vision?”
“I don’t know. It ended when Craig found me.”
“You were bleeding again,” he growled.
The forms in his face shift before he got himself under control.
“Why did you ask about demons and dragons?” My head gave another painful throb, and I winced.
My entire world was quickly being turned upside down. I started on this mission to track down Raghnall’s bastard son knowing my place and my purpose, but now… now I had no idea what was right anymore. I had no idea what I was doing, or where this path would lead.
Kate picked at her nails, nibbling her bottom lip. There were bags under her eyes, and I wondered how much these visions and voices were taking their toll on her. “Malcolm, in the vision I had, his face shifted when the attack started… like Craig’s does.”
“What?” Craig snapped, but I could tell it wasn’t meant for Kate. “Malcolm Darrah was a dragon.”
“I’m just telling you what I saw.” She fidgeted and looked away.
“What else did you see that you’re not telling us?” I pushed.
She didn’t seem ready to talk about it more, but blurted out, “Celandine and Malcolm were in love, but they couldn’t be together because of what she was. And there was another she mentioned, a demon I think, from what I could put together from her thoughts, but I don’t remember the name… started with a B.”
That wasn’t exactly what I expected to hear, but I could tell it made her uncomfortable, though the exact reason why was lost on me. “I understand you saw all of this, but there might be a chance it’s not really what happened.”
“What?” Kate looked at me as if I was the one slowly losing it. “How could it not be?”
“We don’t have proof of anything that happened that far in the past. There are no records any of this darkness ever existed, in plague form or shadow. No written testimonies of the Darrahs fighting for centuries. No one remembers these tales,” I pointed out. “There is nothing to go off of, and we come here, and you start hearing voices and seeing visions? How are we so sure it’s your ancestors showing you this and not the curse that was placed on this land? What if it’s the plague itself showing you these things?”
“You’re calling me a liar?”
“No,” I corrected Kate. “I never said that, but I don’t understand how we can know for certain what you saw is true. Craig said it himself, the Executioner blade didn’t exist until a few centuries ago.”
“And until a few days ago, you had no idea what the Vindicar was,” she shot back furiously.
I held up my hands as she hopped off the table looking for a fight. “I don’t want us walking into a trap.”
“Or you’re trying to save your ass because you know more than you’re letting on.”
“Seriously? I’m not holding back,” I assured her, but she clearly didn’t believe me.
“Don’t you recognize this room?” She held up her arms and spun around. “The shape doesn’t appear familiar to you at all?”
I lifted my gaze, taking in the walls and the ceiling. “No, should it?”
She opened her mouth to reply, but Craig said it first. “The Burnt World—this fortress, it’s mirroring the one in the Burnt World.”
“The world created by the Darrahs to seal away the shadow when the shield was broken,” Kate finished. “They created a mirror image of their lands. Everything was destroyed here, but they managed to keep most of their lands safe until your family came along and ruined them.”
I took her glare in stride. “We don’t know everything for certain—”
“Then it’s time you see what I see.” She stormed towards me, grabbed my hand, and reached for Craig’s too.
As she held them, I felt her palm grow burning hot, scalding against my skin. Her eyes shut tight, and the markings on her body glowed a fierce blue with magic.
It coursed through her and burst free, surrounding the three of us.
“What are you doing?” I panicked, trying to tug my hand free, but her grip only tightened.
“Showing you the truth you refuse to see,” she growled, and I felt my feet leave the floor as the world around me went dark.
15
Forrest
My head ached more than before, and my vision swam as I tried to get my bearings back.
Kate was no longer holding my hand, but someone was speaking—a woman. She sounded like Kate, but different at the same time. Men yelled, and women screamed as I was finally able to focus.
I was standing in the midst of a battle in the empty hall we stood in moments before.
Dragons fought with other dragons, except these were possessed by the plague. I sensed the heaviness in the air and saw the blackness of their eyes as they pushed back the lines, while others tried to run out the doors behind me.
Shards (Dragon Reign Book 2) Page 9
