by M. D. Massey
Colin tried to hold back a grin and failed. “Fair enough. I call shotgun!”
“Not if I get there first!” She grabbed his arm and twisted while sweeping his feet out from under him, leaving him in a pile in the dirt.
“No fair! I’m still gimped up. And no beating up the local hero!” Jesse’s laughter trailed off as she bolted toward the truck.
Colin stood up and dusted off his jeans. “Well, it was fun having her sympathy while it lasted,” he muttered, under his breath. He spared a final glance at the grave of the Avartagh, then followed after her, smiling and thinking that he could do worse for a best friend than Jesse Callahan.
Epilogue
Nearly 4,000 miles away, an enormous dragon sat and brooded silently in a cave beneath a deep Irish lake. She was old, older than most of the creatures that inhabited the lands, and far older than any human, druid or otherwise. The old wyrm shifted her weight, and as she did, huge chains rattled against the floor of the cavern. The chains were attached to her body with great collars and cuffs at her neck and ankles, and again at the other end into massive eyelets that were sunk deep into the stone walls.
The dullahan walked through the huge iron doors that blocked the entrance to the cave, for there were few doors on earth that could block his passage. He strode unafraid to within striking distance of her tail and claws, and certainly within lethal distance of her fiery breath, then knelt before her. When he spoke, his voice didn’t come from the decapitated head he carried under his arm. Instead, it seemed to emanate from the large gaping hole in his shoulders where his neck should have been, and it sounded like broken glass crunching under a horse’s hooves. “The dwarf has fallen.”
She turned her huge head to fix her yellow slitted eyes on him, and as she did puffs of smoke blew from her nostrils. Her lips never moved, but the dullahan heard her voice speak to him just the same. Despite his evil nature, it chilled his bones to hear it.
Did he find the book?
“No. He failed to locate it. The cat sith say the boy does not have it.”
Then the old man has it. Go. Retrieve it. We must have it to break the seals.
“It will be done.” He bowed his head again, then stood and departed from the cavern. The dullahan vowed he would not fail his mother. Soon, she’d be free to roam the earth again, and his kind would rule as gods once more.
***
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