Aroused In Fire (Curse 0f The Dragon Book 2)

by Jadyn Chase

  I nodded. “That sounds spot on, but what does that have to do with my family? If no one was practicing witchcraft, how could they put us to sleep?”

  “I’m not saying no one was practicing witchcraft. Take a look.” She bent over her book. Her eyes sparkled with excitement. “This entry lists a certain Lady Gwendolyn Marquez. People think she was using an alias to make herself seem more exotic or Oriental or whatever you want to call it. She lived in Dover and she became notorious for parlor magic. Some people accused her of taking the matter beyond a curious dalliance with tricks and sleight of hand. They even reported her to the Police. Some people she didn’t get along with suffered from instances of exceptionally bad luck, but nothing was ever proved. Do you know her?”

  I stared down at the book. A large color image depicted a tall, graceful lady. Everything about her indicated the bloom of youth—all but a few pinched lines around the eyes and mouth that suggested age.

  “Why, yes!” I breathed. “I do know her. She was an associate of my father’s, but she never…..she never fell out with him. I can’t think of any reason she would want to harm my family or…you know, get us out of the way.”

  “Maybe she had a reason you don’t know about,” Rosie suggested. “Maybe she just wanted power and your family represented that. The other possibility is…..naw, it couldn’t be.” She waved the idea away.

  “What is it, Rosie? If you can think of anything, please tell me. Anything will help.”

  “Well….” She bowed her head and blushed. “It’s just an idea. We’re assuming she was English and that she changed her name. What if she wasn’t? What if she really was from somewhere east of here, like say…..” She trailed off.

  “Like say where?” I hardly dared ask.

  “Like say she came from France. Say she was a secret supporter of Napoleon. Say she was trying to undermine the English to weaken the country for invasion by the French.”

  I gasped out loud. “Great Scott, Rosie! Do you really think so?”

  “I don’t think anything. I’m just saying she could have had any number of motives. Just take a look at this.” She pulled forward another book. “This is a listing of the changes and renovations made to Dover Castle throughout its history. The Castle was considered a pivotal defense for England against the French. The Crown undertook enormous renovations to convert the tunnels to military use.”

  “But the Napoleonic Wars ended decades before my family vanished. Napoleon himself was long dead by then.”

  “Maybe,” she conceded, “but the conflict between the British and the French continued. What better way to weaken England than to get rid of the family controlling Dover Castle? She could have done that with one stroke.”

  “Anybody could have done it,” I countered. “We don’t know for certain Lady Marquez was a French supporter or even French herself.”

  She held aloft one forefinger. “Just remember we’re looking for someone with a motive to get rid of your family and magical experience. She practiced her parlor tricks in public—or at least in front of an audience. She made no secret of it and there are even reports, at least anecdotal reports, that she used her abilities for nefarious reasons. Who better to consider the prime suspect?”

  I dared to look up at her shining face. She bent low over me and her hair swept near my cheeks. She looked so kissable in that moment. “Do you believe, then, Rosie, that I’m telling the truth about where I come from? Do you really believe I came from 1840?”

  Her cheeks colored and she looked away. “I’m just saying if. If you fell asleep in 1840 and woke up now, we would be looking for someone or something that could do the job. If the twins are right about you turning into this dragon-thing, then I don’t really see any other explanation than some magic spell or curse that would do it. Do you?”

  I rubbed my chin and gazed down at the picture of Lady Marquez. “No, I don’t. You’re right. I hesitate to believe it myself, to be completely honest with you.”

  A bell jangled over the door. I turned around to see Jake and Jackie barging into the shop. “There you are! How did we know you’d wind up here?”

  They accosted me clapping me on the back and both talking at once. Another customer entered and Rosie went back to the counter. That left me alone with the twins.

  Jake jabbed me with his elbow. “So how was it? Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. You didn’t forget how to use it in two hundred years, did you?”

  “I’ve always said she was a right one, that.” Jackie jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “You’re a stud, Alex, I’m telling you.”

  I couldn’t help but blush at these suggestions. “Really, lads, you shouldn’t speak about Rosie in those terms.”

  “Of course!” Jake wiped the leering grin off his face. “We wouldn’t expect it from a gentleman like you. That didn’t stop you from tasting the forbidden fruit, though, did it?”

  They both guffawed with raucous laughter. I cast a glance over my shoulder to make sure Rosie didn’t overhear. “It wasn’t like that at all, I can assure you.”

  “What was it like, then?” Jackie urged. “Did you sit around studying history books, then?”

  “Of course not! I just meant…..” I stammered to a standstill. I couldn’t exactly tell them what did happen. Neither did I want them believing me a priggish old maid, though I wouldn’t mind them thinking of Rosie as one. That would almost be better than them knowing the truth.

  Before I could get myself entangled in another mess, Rosie returned. The twins changed the subject instantly. “We’re on our way up to the Castle to take a look around. You two should come along.”

  “Did you find anything when you were up there last time?” I asked. “Did you find the pump chamber?”

  Jackie shook his head. “We couldn’t locate it, not even with the diagrams you gave us. We need you to show us exactly where it is. Maybe we’ll find some clues there.”

  “All right.” I started for the door. “Let’s go.”

  Rosie hesitated. Jake paused to look back at her. “You’ve got to come, too, Rosie. You’re part of this thing now.”

  She looked around her. “What about the shop?”

  “It’ll look after itself until you get back,” Jackie told her. “Just lock the doors and come on. We need you.”

  She lowered her eyelids. “It will definitely NOT look after itself until I get back. I’m trying to run a business here.”

  I laid my hand on Jackie’s arm. “Just leave her here. Her livelihood is more important than some wild goose chase into Dover Castle. I’m sure we can manage.”

  “Oh, codswallop!” he erupted. “Bugger your bloody livelihood! How many times in your life do you think you’re going to get to investigate a mystery like this, Rosie? Never. That’s how many times. I know you, Rosie, and if you miss out on this, you’ll regret it for the rest of your days. Now quit dithering and come on! We don’t have all morning.”

  He stormed out with Jake on his heels. Rosie turned her huge eyes to me, but I couldn’t help her. She rotated between staring at me and the empty door where Jake and Jackie just left.

  All at once, she burst into a grin. “I guess I better go, then.”

  She dove behind the counter. In half a second, she returned to my side holding her keys. We hurried out and she locked the door. She shot me a wild grin when she turned the Open sign to Closed. “I guess I’m really doing this.”

  Without thinking twice, I grabbed her hand and we raced to Jake’s car. We shoehorned ourselves into the back seat and he sped off to Dover Castle.

  9

  Rosie

  Dover Castle looked different standing outside it with Alex at my side. The place represented something so much more significant than all its history put together.

  The twins rushed forward. “Come on! We can get on the first tour.”

  Somehow, I wound up paying for all four of us to enter the Castle. The three men—if you can call them that—stood back and let me take the point. N
ever mind. Like Jackie said, this was a once-in-a-lifetime thing. If by some miracle Alex did turn out to be from 1840, I didn’t want to miss any of this.

  A young woman tour guide met us at the information center. “You’re the only early birds here, so if you’re ready, we can get started.”

  “We’re ready,” Jake told her.

  She led us through the whole tour. The twins and I didn’t pay much attention. We’d all heard it before. Alex, on the other hand, drank in every word with riveted fascination. He studied the turnstiles and the wires and all the mockups in the minutest detail.

  I stifled the urge to hurry the tour along. We had to play a part in order to get the information we wanted. When we came to a certain communications room, Alex drifted to my side.

  “This is it, Rosie,” he whispered. “This is the entrance to the second level.”

  “This?” I looked all around. “It can’t be. This is just an ordinary room like all the others.”

  “It’s right over there.” He nodded toward a corner. A large communications relay sat there. I didn’t see anything else but blank walls. “I remember it very distinctly.”

  The twins caught us peering around, but since we were the only people on the tour, we couldn’t exactly split off and go hunting.

  All four of us remained silent and played along until the tour guide returned to the information center. We smiled and thanked her and pretended to float away.

  Once outside, Jake and Jackie mobbed us. “What was it? Was that room the entrance?”

  Alex nodded. “We have to find a way to get back there.”

  “There’s another tour leaving in five minutes,” I told them. “We can pretend to go along with them and peel off.”

  The suspense sapped my strength waiting for the tour to get back to the room, but it paid off. When the other visitors left, Alex slipped behind the communications relay. The twins and I waited, but he didn’t come out.

  Jackie smacked his lips and stepped into the corner. He stopped dead and stared. When I joined him, I found myself looking through a gap in the wall. How could so many people work and study Dover Castle all these years without noticing this?

  The twins and I ducked through the opening into another tunnel. Alex had already walked several dozen yards in front of us and we hurried to catch up. We hung back a few paces and let him lead.

  Unlike the rest of the Castle, this tunnel one hadn’t been renovated. He stopped in front of a nondescript little room. A single window high overhead let in the only light. It wasn’t much more than a tiny square cut out of the Cliff.

  Alex stood dangerously still on the threshold. When we joined him, we all gaped. Four plain wooden caskets sat on trestles. Two more lay broken and spilled across the floor.

  Jake sucked in his breath. “Is this where you were?”

  Alex nodded in silence. A shiver sparked over my scalp. Someone shut the Shelton family up in coffins and vaulted them up in this chamber. Whoever did that couldn’t have been their enemy. An enemy would have taken advantage of their unnatural slumber to finish the job by killing them all.

  Whoever buried them down here did it to keep them alive, to protect them while they slept. Maybe someone else around here was trying to find a way to wake them up. Then again, whoever put them here must be long dead.

  Jackie dared to cross the doorsill and move between those dreadful coffins. He inspected them. “It looks like one of them’s awake, at least—another one, I mean. You’re not the only one that’s up and about.”

  I blinked at the scene. “You’re right. This one is empty and it looks like someone had a hard time getting out of it. It’s fallen on the floor and broken to pieces.”

  “How can we find out which one it is?” Alex asked. “It could be any of them. It could be Mother for all we know.”

  Jackie turned around and fixed his bright eyes on Alex. “There’s one way to find out. Whoever it is, is bound to be a dragon like you. They’re bound to be killing sheep and burning down buildings and what all. They shouldn’t be too hard to find.”

  “But how?” Alex exclaimed. “How can we find them even if they are killing and burning and what all?”

  “Simple, my friend.” He slipped his arm around Alex’s shoulders. “We’ll use the magic of the internet.”

  We left the tunnels in a much more somber mood than we entered them. Could another dragon creature be flying around the English countryside at this very moment?

  The longer this business went on, the more I found myself drifting deeper and deeper into believing Alex’s astounding tale. He certainly knew about a part of the Dover Castle tunnels that no one else knew about. He led us there and showed us where his parents and brothers and he had been entombed all these centuries.

  If that part was true, could the dragon part be true, too? My mind still resisted it. How could it be true? That would call the whole structure of reality into question.

  Back in the lobby, the twins headed for the exit. As we passed the information center, I happened to overhear the same tour guide talking to a young man with a notebook. The guy scribbled in it while she talked.

  “I know what the security guards said, but I don’t want to go on record saying some idiot turned into a dragon. That’s just ridiculous.”

  “Is it true, though?” the guy asked. “Is that what happened?”

  “I’m not saying what happened. All I know is the guards tased him in the chest and then…..”

  “And then?” the guy prompted.

  The woman shrugged. “And then nothing. He didn’t get apprehended. That’s all I’m willing to say.”

  The twins and Alex and I exchanged glances. So, Jackie was right about that, too. Whoever came out of that other coffin changed into a dragon and flew off. Now he or she was out there somewhere.

  We started walking faster and hopped into the car. We motored back to the shop and I unlocked it. When I checked my phone, I realized I hadn’t been gone more than two hours. Hopefully, the big-spending tourists hadn’t come by in my absence. Jackie was right again. Following this through didn’t break the bank.

  Jake sat down at my worktable and cracked open his laptop. He started pointing and clicking. Alex peered over his shoulder. “What are you doing?”

  “You remember when you first happened into our cave and Jackie here told you he’d just read a story about you Sheltons? This is it.”

  I rotated around him so I could see. He brought up a news article and read it to us. “Police In Search of Dover Castle Tunnel Flasher. Police are still searching for the man who surprised a Dover Castle tour group last week. Witnesses say the intruder came out of nowhere in the famous Castle tunnels and attacked the visitors unawares. The tour guide described the intruder as tall with curly brown hair and a pointed goatee. He spoke a high-society form of English with a clear Kentish accent. He was wearing what appeared to be a period costume from Victorian times. Security personnel tried to subdue the suspect with a taser, but without effect. Witnesses claim he transformed into an unidentified creature before flying away. The investigation continues.”

  “That’s Thomas!” Alex cried. “That’s my brother Thomas to a T. It must be him. I would recognize that description anywhere. He’s the only one with curly hair.”

  “Here’s another one.” Jake flicked to another tab. “‘Sources claim to have sighted a winged monster flying over Dover this morning heading in a southerly direction. Police are still trying to ascertain the nature of the incident, but accounts evaporate when the creature apparently got somewhere between Connaught Park and Knight’s Road. Witnesses claim an unidentified man with curly brown hair….’”

  “It’s the same man,” I pointed out. “It must be him. That’s great! That means he’s around here somewhere.”

  “Not necessarily,” Jake interrupted. “These sightings all took place over eight months ago. There hasn’t been another sighting since. He could be anywhere. He could have been killed or flown anywhere in the
world.”

  Alex doubled over and clamped his hand around Jake’s shoulder from behind. He bowed his head and closed his eyes. “For the love of God, Jake! Don’t destroy my last hope. There must be another report. There has to be.”

  “I’m sorry, man. I’ve searched everywhere. Trust me when I tell you we have ways of finding these sightings whenever anyone reports them. If this dragon creature transformed anywhere in sight of a human being anywhere in the world, we would know about it.”

  Alex propped his hands on his knees. “I think I’m going to be sick.”

  I put my arms around him and steered him to a chair. “Don’t give up hope just yet. We’ll find him.”

  Jake shook his head. His fingers flew over the keys. “I don’t think so. We’ll just have to wait for another…..Hello! Here’s another report just come in this instant. Trampers report a winged monster swooping low over Whinless Down and snatching a full-grown cow right in front of them before flying off. Police are investigating but so far haven’t unearthed any credible description of the creature.” He inspected the corner of his screen. “That was an hour ago.”

  Alex jolted upright. “We’ve got to go out there! We’ve got to locate him. He could be in trouble. He could be injured or frightened. We have to find him and bring him in.” He whirled around and grabbed Jackie. “We’ve got to get out there right away, lads!”

  Jackie raised his hands. “Hold up, there, mate. We’ve got to get back to the farm before Dad bursts a gasket. We can go hunting….”

  “We’ve got to go now!” Alex roared. “We can’t let him fly off again or we’ll never find him.”

  Jackie started to say something else, but I stepped in. “I’ll take you out there.”

  Alex whipped around. “You will?”

  “I have a car.” I shrugged. “I’d regret it if I didn’t, right?”

  He and Jackie stared at me for a moment. Then Alex let his hands drop and his shoulders slumped. “Thank you, Rosie. I shall never forget this.”

  “Neither will I.” I grabbed my keys for the second time. “If this turns out to be a prank, I’ll have your nuts on a platter—all three of you.”