Chapter Nineteen

Callum

“W hat the hell do you want, Jude?” I snarled before the door was even fully open. “My door didn’t do anything to you, so just stop.”

The man on the other side backpedaled a step at my outburst as I stole his momentum and took out my anger at being interrupted.

“Callum.”

“Jude.” I echoed his tone, taking in my mate’s father as I did.

There was a lot more silver in his beard now, and he wore his hair cropped close to the skull to hide the fact that salt outnumbered the pepper there. There were added wrinkles around the corners of his eyes as well. Age was catching up with him, though he still stood tall and proud, unbowed by time or the death of his daughter.

“We need to talk.”

Still pissed about losing control and nearly letting something happen with Madison that I’d sworn I would never do after Noa, I snapped back at him. “Then talk and stop trying to act all cryptic about it. I’m right here in front of you.”

“It’s about Cleye.”

I rolled my eyes. “I don’t care, Jude.”

“So, you admit it then?”

The defensive undertone in Jude’s voice made me do a mental double-take. “Admit what ?” I asked cautiously.

“That you did it, that you’re the reason he came home a mess.”

I shook my head. “Listen, if Cleye can’t keep his composure simply because he saw me in public, that is not my fault. But I didn’t do a damn thing to him.”

“He’s accusing you of just about everything under the sun, Callum. He wouldn’t stop going on about Noa. I haven’t seen him like this since the day she died.”

“Murdered,” I corrected stiffly.

“Excuse me?”

“Look at me,” I said, poking my chest with one finger. “I’m still alive. I shouldn’t be. I would be dead unless she were murdered, Jude. You know that.”

When he didn’t deny it, I had to clench my teeth together until I felt they would explode to prevent myself from launching a verbal attack.

He’d known, too! The bastard had known someone had killed his daughter, and not once had he brought it up. Not once.

“So, is that what set my son off today?” was his only reply. “You telling him his sister was murdered?”

There was somet—

“No,” a third voice said. “I was.”

I winced as Madison spoke up. I didn’t turn, but judging by the steps she took, she’d moved into a position where Jude could see her.

“Who the fuck is that?” Jude snapped, not willing to address Madison herself.

“She’s one of the humans who was brought here for peace,” I said before going on to explain how the sovereign had found out about our prior encounter during the war and assigned her to me.

Jude worked his jaw, looking like he wanted to spit in disgust. “So, you two are paired up. The sovereign thinks you’ll mate?”

I didn’t reply.

“That’s impossible. You still wear her scale,” he snarled, “and you will until the day you die. How could you dare insult her memory like that?”

“I’m not insulting her memory,” I snapped, standing up straight, looking ever so slightly downward at the other dragon as he bluntly called my honor into question. Only the fact that I’d loved his daughter with all my heart stopped me from hitting him. “In fact, I’m going to be the one who actually figures it all out. Who brings her killer to justice.”

“You’ve had two years to do that,” Jude said, bristling at the insinuation he hadn’t done anything. Why he was so mad when he hadn’t done a thing was beyond me.

“Two years during which nobody told me the connection. I thought I was a freak. Nobody told me about the manner of death affecting the bond. For two years, I suffered with the weight of her death. Two years where you didn’t do a damn thing yourself, so don’t you dare come to my quarters and act like you’re superior, Jude . Am I clear?”

The older dragon looked ready to fight, and I didn’t try to talk him down. In my mood, an outlet for my anger was welcomed.

We stood that way for nearly a minute, both furious with the other, neither wanting to back away.

“What’s your plan?” Jude asked at last, relenting.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “But now that I know the truth, I have to try. I’ll go talk to the guards. Read their reports, see if everything they say corroborates with that. Check into any other evidence. Follow up with everyone she had contact with, basically. All I know is that I can’t go on living my life now that I’m aware she was murdered in cold blood. I have to figure this out. I will figure it out.”

“Then what?”

“Then it’s none of your damn business,” I growled. “Maybe try to rebuild my life after spending the past two years ostracized for something out of my control.”

Jude’s gaze flickered past me to Madison, his anger swiftly rekindled.

“At least you’re alive to do so,” he snapped, pointing a finger at my chest. “My daughter didn’t have that chance. Remember that.”

Then he was gone.

I stayed in the doorway, trying not to let his last words sink in too deep. That was what he’d wanted, after all. I had to be better than that.

My fingers touched the scale his daughter had placed on my chest. A memory of her I could never be without.

I will remember, don’t worry.

Behind me, Madison shuffled uncomfortably, waiting for me to shut the door.

My fingers pressed harder to the scale as if it would somehow give me answers. To all my problems.

I was trying to solve the murder of a woman I loved while fighting every part of me not to grow closer to another woman, lest I betray the first.

What the hell am I supposed to do?