Chapter 17

17

J ane slowly regained consciousness. Her gaze took in the gray waves smashing against the stones below. Her chest was smeared with blood. But she wasn't hurt. It wasn't her blood. She whipped her head about frantically and realized in horror that she wasn't alone.

The figure of her nightmares, the creature that haunted and hunted her, stood a few feet away, holding a white dove in her hand, blood upon her palms. The putrid smell of death and decay invaded Jane's nostrils, making her eyes burn. Bits of flesh peeled away from the stark-white cheekbones of the monster's face. Its lidless eyes were ruby red and glowing. Jane bit her tongue, tasting blood as she sucked back a scream.

"You're Cordelia, aren't you? How are you even here? We removed your bones." Fighting to breathe each word, she sagged back against the massive rock she clung to on the cliff's edge.

"Clever girl, too clever. Bones were only part of what kept me here. The curse I cast upon Weymouth and his family is still unbroken. I will exist so long as it does." The terrifying creature laughed, and its horrible visage vanished, leaving only a lovely, golden-haired woman in a red cloak. It was as though the monster of her nightmares had never been.

"Why did you kill Isabelle and Richard? Why couldn't you just let them be?" They had been so happy, so in love, and this evil woman with her spells had destroyed them and every descendant afterward.

"Why did I kill them?" Cordelia only smiled, her eyes diamond sharp and just as cold. "I was the one he should have married. I was the proper choice. Not some ill-bred spawn of an innkeeper. She was no better than a servant compared to me. I couldn't let her live, not if I was to have Richard for my own." She walked around the rock, carving a line into the stone with a sharpened fingernail. "The fool was too stubborn to see I was better, that I deserved the title of Countess of Weymouth. I'd trained for it all my life, was supposed to marry him. My father had given him permission to court me, but he threw it away on some harlot who spread her legs for him."

As Cordelia talked, tiny red sparks danced around her, like angry hornets.

"So you succeeded, you killed them. Did you kill the maid, too?"

The ghost turned wicked eyes on her, devilry lighting them up. "Oh yes. Little Nessy, she was too friendly with the young heir to Stormclyffe. I saw the way he looked at her, hungry eyes, hands aching to touch her. A servant! I took care of her. Made her hang herself." Cordelia shut her eyes, a sinister smile curving her lips. "Such a lovely sound, when a neck breaks. Pop! Like snapping a twig. The only drawback is that death is instant. I would have loved for her to suffer."

Nausea rioted through Jane's stomach at the thought of the poor housemaid. Randolph had been right, and Nessy was one more victim.

"Now the last heir has come home."

"The last heir?" Jane was determined to keep that woman talking. Surely it could give her time to come up with a plan to escape. Or for Bastian to realize she was missing and find her.

"Yes." Cordelia's smile was full of rotted teeth. "All I need is to claim one male heir for my curse to be complete. The others escaped me. None of them would surrender to my will, not even when I stole everything they loved from them. I killed countless children, lovers, wives, pets. Anything that held value to a Stormclyffe heir, I stole it away. But none of the men would give themselves over to me. Bastian is the last one. And he will be mine."

"Did you kill his father?" Jane asked. Part of her had wondered and needed to know.

The witch smiled. "Oh yes. He thought he was so clever coming back here to mend the castle. But that's not what needed mending. I appeared before him on the road, intending to stop him. He swerved away from me and rolled that metal beast into a ditch. His life was gone before I could steal his soul away."

Tears stung Jane's eyes. Poor Bastian. It was a good thing he would never know the truth of his father's death. Better that he think it an accident than part of the true curse on this place.

"Why do you need Bastian? Why not leave him be?"

"I must have him, you fool. He is the last chance for what I want: to lay claim to Stormclyffe as mine. If I own him, I own this castle. He's more handsome than I'd hoped. Even more so than Richard." Cordelia's matter-of-fact announcement made Jane break out in a cold sweat. Cordelia was going to kill her. She was a threat to the ghost's claim on Bastian.

"What? No demand that he's yours? That you have the right to live? How pathetic. I'm going to kill you, just like Isabelle. But I'll push you far out, let you hit the water, break every bone in your body. You won't die right away, oh no, you'll drown while in intense agony. You will suck in the cold, salty water and perish. Then Bastian will be all mine."

"Like hell, you bitch! He won't agree to be yours." Where the rage came from, Jane didn't know. But for a brief second, the ghost's control over her weakened.

"Silence! He will agree to give himself to me if he thinks it will save your life." Cordelia snarled and cast the dove's body over the edge of the cliff, speaking in language Jane recognized as Latin. What little power Jane had recovered was torn from her again.

Her arms and legs belonged to Cordelia and her desires. The harsh pounding of the waves below was a siren's song to Jane, demanding she spread her arms wide and leap.

She clamped her fingers tighter around the boulder she leaned against. Her eyes closed instinctively, still resistant to the foreign power holding her in its grasp.

In the safe darkness of her closed eyelids, twin flames burst before her, growing larger. A vision of horror filling her mind, enveloping her. The flames morphed into bloodred eyes with slitted pupils.

"You will die…" The hiss slithered into her head and heart, its venom burning her from the inside out. "You will pay for coming here. He is mine…forever mine!"

Jane screamed as invisible talons slashed her chest and face. She let go of the rock to clutch her cheeks. The world pitched around her, and the pebbles beneath her shoes slid. The wind tore the shout of terror from her lips.

She dug her nails into the rocks and grass at the cliff's edge but couldn't catch a hold of anything. Her vision tunneled as the overcast skies winked out.

"Today you die!" The earsplitting laugh was as sharp as a thousand nails dragged over metal. It was a sound of pain or death. A sound of pure evil.

"No!" She gasped, her hands slipped free down a few more inches on the edge.

This is what it feels like to die .

The racing heart, the blood roaring in her ears. No last moments of regret, no thought of loved ones or better days. There was only panic, terror, and then acceptance. Like climbing the stairs in the dark and reaching the top, expecting one more step. Only to have that moment of confusion and fear as you expected to fall before your foot struck the wood.

Bastian. His face filled her mind, the crooked grin he flashed her so often that made her knees buckle. The way he feathered kisses at her temples when he wanted an excuse to be close to her and knowing she adored it… She would never know such love again, and he would be alone. Her last sight would be the shrinking view of a cliff's edge far above her.

An explosion of light, followed by a shrill scream as piercing as a train whistle, cut through Jane as the lady in white appeared above her. Cold fury in her gaze, Isabelle looked at Cordelia and then leaped straight at Jane.

Jane sucked in a breath. Something soft, like mist, settled over her skin, sinking in with a tingling warmth.

"Let go, Jane. Let go," Isabelle's words were soothing, as though coaxing a babe back to sleep.

"She'll kill me, I can't!" Jane gasped, her voice breaking.

"Yes, you can. Trust me, Jane. Have faith. We must mend what once was broken. This is the only way. I've waited for you, centuries of waiting. Blood of my blood, flesh of my flesh, to have the strength to return and save us."

"Us?"

"Richard and me. Both trapped, kept apart. Broken."

"I'm sorry, Bastian, I'm so sorry."

The wind was the only witness to Jane's whispered apology as she let go.

Bastian reached the outcropping of rocks a few feet from Jane just in time to see her fall. The world slowed in that instant. The splatter of light rain plunked against the stones. A biting chill of wind burned his face, but all he saw was Jane.

Light bloomed at the cliff's edge. A silvery figure in a flowing white gown appeared, and without looking at him, dropped off the edge after Jane.

"We can save them. Trust in me." A deep voice jolted through him. He didn't have to look away to know that Richard's spectral form stood beside him.

"I trust you."

In that second, Bastian felt something merge with him. A ramming of power deep into his soul, his heart, as Richard took over. He could feel the other's presence in him, controlling every movement, every thought, but sharing it with him.

"Isabelle!" It was Bastian's voice but Richard's words.

Must save her. She must not die, not this time.

Bastian moved the last few feet to the edge where he'd seen Jane, guided by Richard's willpower as he dove onto his stomach, hand flailing out as he caught Jane's wrist.

Something hard latched around Jane's left wrist. The joint nearly snapped as she jerked to a halt. She gasped for breath and opened her eyes, hesitant to find her fate only delayed.

Above her, Bastian strained to hold her and not fall over himself. A pearly light shined in the black dots of his pupils. An otherworldly presence.

Inside her, Isabelle's spirit leaped for joy, and Jane's heart responded, pounding wildly against her ribs. They were two spirits united in her body. She'd let Isabelle into her, just as it seemed Bastian had let Richard into him. The ghosts were coming together because she and Bastian were holding onto each other. After two centuries of being apart, the lovers were touching through their descendants' hands.

So long, it's been so long my love . Isabelle's thoughts were heartbreaking and impossibly strong.

"Isabelle, reach for my other hand! Quick!" The veins in Bastian's neck stood out against his skin as he reached for her. Jane swung her free arm upward, and Bastian caught it, grunting in relief as he dragged her up and over the cliff. The second she cleared the edge, he fell backward, and she landed on top of him, their bodies locked in a fierce embrace.

Jane knew what she had to do, as if something inside her whispered how to fix everything.

"You're afraid, Bastian. You're afraid, and you're pushing me away, but I know you care for me."

The wind whipped around them, lashing at them along with the sound of Cordelia's shrieks. But a halo of brilliant light spread around them, keeping her at bay. She felt Isabelle leave her body, her presence instead enveloping Jane in a warm embrace.

He shook his head wildly. "You have to leave here. Tonight. Now!"

She took his face in her hands. "I love you, you arrogant jerk. You can't change that; you can't scare me off." Her voice was calm. Soft. But he heard her.

He turned away, squeezing his eyes shut as a grimace of pain crossed his features. "Jane, no."

She cupped his jaw, turned him toward her once more. She had to let go of her fear. To take a leap of faith and trust herself. "Bastian, I love you. And I know you're afraid. But don't be." She traced her fingers across his forehead. Along his jaw. "Please, believe me. I. Love. You." She emphasized those three words, refusing to let the howling winds drown them out.

She felt the tension rock his frame as myriad emotions warred on his beautiful face. "I can't. You have to go." The fear, so stark in his eyes stilled her heart. They were both so alike, so afraid to get hurt, but they had to be brave. It was the only way.

"Say it, say what you feel. The truth. That's all we need between us. That's all we ever needed."

A hint of surrender shimmered in his eyes, and the tension in his body vanished.

"Do you always have to be so damned stubborn?" he growled and then leaned his forehead against hers. "I love you." The press of his lips was soft but filled with fire.

The halo around them coalesced into two points of brilliant light, which grew brighter and brighter, until they shot forward, directly into the heart of the beast that was Cordelia.

"No!" Cordelia screeched.

Above him, the witch's ghastly form burst into an inferno, a scream of rage tearing from her gaping mouth. A second later she disintegrated in a black sulfurous explosion, quickly blown away by wind from the sea.

"What happened?" Bastian gasped.

Jane panted and struggled to speak. "The curse…it wasn't about the castle. What once was broken must be mended. It was Isabelle and Richard. They'd been kept apart all these years." She wiped away the sea spray that mixed with tears on her cheeks. "We're their descendants. Our love brought them back together."

"Bloody hell, woman. Why didn't we figure out it was just that easy?" he muttered somewhat sarcastically, his head dropping back to the ground. One of his arms settled on her back, his hand patting her once, before he left his palm to rest there.

Too exhausted to laugh, she put her cheek to his chest, her whole body limp with relief. She wasn't sure how long they lay like that, but she couldn't readily break the feeling of security in his arms. Isabelle's spirit still pulsed inside her, and the ghost took control again, forcing her to sit up.

"Richard?" The name was rough on her lips, unexpected and raw.

He sat up, the blue light in his eyes still bright as he reached for her, enfolding her in his arms.

In that moment, four souls merged, connected and bathed in the light of each other. Jane couldn't breathe, the feeling was exquisite, pure pleasure, joy, surging through her, with her, around her.

"I've been so lost," Isabelle murmured. "I couldn't come home to you."

"Cordelia stole my dreams when she took you away." Bastian's arms banded tighter around Jane as Richard spoke through Bastian's voice. "We're lost no longer. My love…my heart."

Bastian dipped his head, his lips breathing life into Jane as the ghosts within them demanded one last kiss, one last second of mortality together. The love between Isabelle and Richard, that pure, undying devotion, was not foreign to Jane. Something like it had been growing inside her ever since she'd come face-to-face with Bastian. She loved him, loved him with a power and strength she had been so terrified to believe in at first.

She wanted to weep from the loss when Isabelle slid free of her body. All of that love, that strength was gone in an instant, but just as quickly her own love for Bastian replaced it. She raised her head and met Bastian's gaze. His eyes, no longer Richard's, seared her with heat and something softer. She smiled through watery eyes.

"I thought I'd lost you, Jane. When you went over…God, I don't know what I'd have done if I hadn't caught you." His words were so rough he seemed barely able to get them out.

There simply weren't words to express how she felt. The joy at being alive, the love for him burning hot as molten lava inside her.

It was madness. They were practically strangers. But she belonged to him, belonged with him.

"Are you all right?" His melodic voice with that sexy accent made her blood heat.

She nodded weakly. She cupped his face, relishing the way his stubble lightly scratched her palms. He was alive; she was alive. They were okay. "I'm fine. You?"

"I will be as soon as I can get you back into bed and inspect every inch of you myself."

Damn . The man was sex on a stick. Especially when he flashed that boyish grin and his eyes turned all melty and bedroomy. She sighed. She had it bad.

He chuckled, the sound soft and decadent, a veritable orgasm for her ears. It soothed her frayed nerves and pounding heart.

"Do you think it's over? No more ghosts?"

She kissed his cheek and hugged him, breathing in the scent of his skin mixed with the sea air. "Yeah, I do. The air feels different."

All around them the breeze moved, the blades of grass rippled and the waves rolled in against the cliffs. The heavy pressure of doom didn't layer the earth or burden the stones of the castle. Everything felt right.

"Let's get you back to the Hall." He helped her to rise.

She paused, looking back over the sea. Isabelle and Richard were back together, wherever they were, and Jane knew they were happy. How could they not be? All they'd ever wanted was to be together, in this life and the next. And they finally had that.

If only she knew what to expect of her own life. After everything they'd been through, did he love her enough to ask her to stay with him? There was no more curse to keep them apart. Did she trust him with her heart? She wanted to with every fiber of her being.

He cupped her chin and turned her face to his. He ran the pad of his thumb over her bottom lip, the most tender expression softening his eyes.

"What are you thinking about?" He bent his head, feathering kisses along her jaw.

Her knees buckled, and she gripped his arms. She should say something hopelessly romantic. But she wouldn't make it too easy for him to seduce her. The man needed to learn to work for it. She grinned.

"I'm wondering how on earth I'm supposed to write my dissertation. There's no way I can explain anything that we've learned or experienced. I guess I'll go with my backup topic on Richard III."

She relished the sound of his responding laugh.

"I can promise to take your mind off dissertation topics, at least for the next several hours." He captured her mouth with a heady kiss, his tongue tangled with hers as he deepened it.

When he released her mouth and threaded his fingers through her hair, she grinned impishly at him. "Only hours? How about days?" She waited anxiously to see how he'd respond.

"Days? If we're talking commitment, I'd like years." He stole another searing kiss. "Or maybe a lifetime."

Her heart thumbed at the base of her throat. "Is that your way of proposing?"

His lips curved in a slow seductive smile. "Perhaps I should write you a letter?"

"As long as I don't have to wait several months to figure out whether you actually meant it."

Her words had him dragging her into his arms, kissing her with all the fire and love she'd never thought she'd be lucky to have.

When they turned back toward Stormclyffe, Bastian slid his hand down her arm to take her own hand, lacing their fingers. As they approached Stormclyffe, she spoke.

"I suppose your gardener was wrong. He said that you coming here upset the balance between good and evil, but you fixed it."

He stilled, one foot raised above the first step leading up to the main castle door.

"Gardener?"

"Yeah," she gazed at him, worried by the confusion on his face, "a handsome man in his early thirties. He was really superstitious. He warned me away from the cliffs when I first saw Isabelle."

"Jane, I never hired one. I only had a temporary groundskeeper who helped with the deer, and he was a very old man."

"Then who…?" Jane glanced over at the rose covered archway. A shiver slunk up her back, raising the hairs on her neck as she focused on her memory of the man's features. He'd looked exactly like the man in the photo in Bastian's study. His father. Why hadn't she recognized him at once? She didn't know the answer.

Some things were best left alone.