Page 57 of Shadows of the Soul

“Time to face the Principal,” Rebecca said, taking my shoulders in her hands and guiding me out the door. My ridiculous heels clicked on the wood. I concentrated on staying upright until we got to the top of the stairs. A sharp intake of breath had my head snapping up. Hudson’s golden brown eyes met mine. Damn, the man wore a tux like he was born into it. Each muscle rippled underneath, all that tailoring like it was begging for release. I licked my lips. His jaw had gone slack, and he was hovering with one foot on the stairs as he memorized every dip and curve of my body.

I found my confidence in his shock and glided down the staircase, pausing on the second to last step so we were eye to eye.

“You’re late,” I said.

“You’re stunning,” he replied. He wrapped one hand around my back and the other wound into my hair as he twisted, then dipped me low before stealing my breath with a dizzying kiss.

“Don’t destroy my masterpiece,” Rebecca muttered, hurrying down the stairs. “At least not until the end of the night.”

Hudson pulled away with a grin, then set me upright. Rebecca looked me over and nodded. Apparently, I was still good enough to pass her high standards. I made it down the final two steps and out the door without incident. Hudson’s hand skimmed the bare skin at the bottom of my back. The dress straddled the line between sultry and indecent.

“We will make this quick,” Hudson said. “I have something to consider and possibly sign, then we can be back at the stables while the night is still young.”

I grimaced as we made our way down the steps and toward the waiting Escalade. The treaty. He pulled the passenger door open for me and held my hand as I slid inside, gathering the train of my dress into the car before closing it. He shot around the front and jumped inside. Then we were off to the vampires’ castle.

I bit my lip. I’d gone back and forth all day debating what to tell him. I couldn’t enter a relationship with him and continue to shroud my identity; at least not my elemental heritage. My parentage was another story. But if he found out about my close relationship with The Order and it wasn’t me who’d told him, he’d see it as a betrayal. Who could blame him?

“I need to tell you something,” I stated.

He glanced at me, shrouded in the darkness, his eyes flicked to vertical slits before returning to human. “Okay.”

I shuffled in my seat and scratched my nose. “I don’t want you to freak out.”

“Okay.” He was eerily calm, and all the more terrifying for it.

“The Roberts bloodline. It has spanned centuries. Two hundred years ago, my great great great grandmother, Helen Roberts, got into a disagreement with a fire elemental. He’d deceived her into believing him available, and an affair ensued. My great great grandmother was conceived before Mary discovered he had, in fact, not one but two wives.”

I pressed my lips together as Hudson suddenly pulled off the main road and took us down a dirt track. He pulled the car to a stop and cut the engine before swiveling to face me.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Giving you my full attention. This seems important to you, and I don’t want to be driving while you share something like this.”

He pulled one of my hands into his. His strength and warmth seeped into my flesh.

“Helen demanded that he leave his wives and be with her, as they had yet to conceive and having a child out of wedlock in those days was social suicide. She would be a pariah.” He squeezed my hand, and I sucked in a breath. “Helen was powerful, more so than the other wives, and he feared her wrath. The other wives banded together as he prepared to leave them, and they cast a spell on Mary while she was pregnant. All Roberts women from that point forward, should they fall in love, would be at the whim of the male who they’d given their heart to. The man could, if he so wished, drain them dry of power.”

He nodded. “While I wasn’t aware of the origins, I knew the implications of your affections.”

I smiled, but it didn’t reach my eyes. “Throughout the years, many men have tried to win our love—we offer a wealth of power.”

“I’ve already told you, I have no need of your power, and it would go against everything a mate stands for. I would never leave you powerless.”

I let out a slow breath. “That’s not the end of the story.”

“Clearly, because Roberts women keep being born. And thank god, because here you are.”

“Helen gave birth to Louise. She fell for a man called Eric. Eric wasn’t a nice man. He had her pregnant and powerless within a month. Eunice was born magically impotent, because the curse had an extra spin—if the man took their power while pregnant, the baby lost theirs too.”

“It’s a curse that keeps on taking.”

“Indeed. So Eunice, powerless as she was, became an expert spell caster. She tried for years in vain to reverse the curse. Eventually she settled on something which would alter the power structure.” I swallowed. “Eunice found the most powerful elemental, a descendant of one of the original women who’d set the curse into motion. She became pregnant, and the altered spell drained him of all of his power and poured it into the baby—my grandmother. Upon her birth, he perished, as she had bled him of his life force.”

Hudson inched back. “Why are you telling me this?”

“Because,” I whispered into the dark. “That altered curse affects the firstborn of every generation of Roberts women. My grandmother made sure of it.”

“Are you the firstborn?”

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