“No. Who was it?” he asked, craning his neck around in an effort to see.
“Don’t look at him! It’s Tommy.”
“Really? I didn’t realize he was out of jail. I would have thought my father would have told me. What is he doing here? Wasn’t he supposed to be exiled upon release?”
“Yes. We need to talk to your father.”
“We’ll stop by before we leave.”
Liam drove to his parents’ house, though it was only a short distance from where they were. He went in to find his mother cleaning, but his father wasn’t home.
“Is he in his chambers?” Liam asked.
“No. He is at some sort of conference down in Dublin. Can’t it wait? He will be home tomorrow.”
“Sure it can wait. I’ll try to call him tonight or tomorrow when he is done.”
“Okay, son. I love you.”
“Love you, too, Mom.”
She hugged Dawn before they left, telling her the same. Dawn replied in kind and followed Liam out.
“It can’t be good for him to be wandering around town,” Dawn commented. “Do you think we should tell my Dad or maybe Thomas Higgins?”
“Nah. Maybe he is just waiting for nightfall to leave. I assume that if he just got out, he either had to arrange for transport or wait until darkness hits to fly out.”
“Fair enough. I guess we can leave it alone until tomorrow. See how it goes. Maybe he is just on his way out then.”
Liam seemed to put it all out of his mind, but Dawn certainly didn’t. She had seen his thoughts. There was no indication of his intentions, but he was full of venom, and it seemed to mostly be directed toward her.
“Where shall we go first?” Liam asked, seemingly oblivious.
“Let’s go to the paint store and sort out colors while the look of this place is still fresh in my mind.”
“Sounds like a plan. How about we skip over to Drogheda and take a look around some of the thrift stores there? I’d love to have some vintage stuff for the office rather than all new stuff.”
“Sounds good. They have some really great places there, and we can stroll down by the marina and the waterfront.”
“Maybe hole up at The Goat’s Toe for a bite to eat?”
Dawn laughed. It was just like him to be focused on food more than anything else.
“Yes, lunch at The Goat’s Toe and perhaps a stroll around that bookstore down the street.”
“Perfect,” he replied, reaching for her hand and holding it as they drove.
Dawn smiled as they made their way into Dublin. She remembered their first time here together in this city, the night he had proposed and how they had made love for the first time. It had all been so perfect, and it still felt like it was.
Looking over at Liam, she smiled happily. She had been lucky in life. He had always been a part of her, from the time she had first seen him. She could remember him even as a baby. Could everyone remember that far back, or was it just her?
The day was wonderful – one of the best days she could remember having in a long time. Their lives had become so busy, and even a bit strained. Although their relationship didn’t seem to be harmed by it, she did feel like they were sometimes becoming an old married couple long before it was due. Perhaps that was a good thing in some ways, but she never wanted him to get bored with her.
“Let’s drop off the things for the office on our way in. I don’t want to clutter up the house with office stuff anymore than we already have,” she told him.
“That sounds like a good idea. I think we got some really nice pieces to go in there.”
“I do, too. It’s going to be really great when it is all finished and we can get moved in.”
“It will be. We will make sure of it.”
They pulled up to the front of the office and began unpacking bags and boxes. Liam picked up a set of small saddle back stools he had found to place near the fireplace for people who might want to wait there rather than in the more formal chairs they had on order.
Dawn brought in some other bags and sat them down on the stools for now, looking around at the day’s progress.
“What the hell?” she heard Liam say as he wandered into the other room.
“What is it?” she asked him.
“I think they installed the wrong toilet,” he told her. “Do we have a flashlight? The electricity isn’t switched on yet, and I can’t really see very well.”
“I think there is one in the car. I’ll go get it,” she replied.
“I’ll get it. Look and see what you think. Isn’t that green and not white?”
Dawn wandered into the bathroom to look as he made his way outside. He was right. Even in the room, dimly lit by the moon and nearby street lights, the toilet appeared to be some shade of mint green rather than white.
Looking at the sink that was still laying uninstalled nearby she could see it was a different shade, it seemed. Why wouldn’t they have asked before installation if they saw they didn’t match?
Outside, she heard shouts. She was instantly on alert as they grew louder. One of them was Liam. Running outside, she could see him standing in the middle of the street yelling at Tommy. Her hearted raced as she realized Tommy’s intentions toward him, toward both of them.
“I hear you are marrying that worthless bitch that made sure I spent the last five years in jail? They put me in a dark hole when I was only eighteen and left me there with nothing but time on my hands.”
“What happened to you was no one’s fault but your own, Tommy. You killed Harlan. You might not have pointed a gun at him and pulled the trigger or cut him to the bone, but you killed him all the same.”
“You’d have no way of knowing that if not for that bitch of a girlfriend of yours. I hear she has some sort of ability to read minds. I hear she can see what people have seen or done just by being near them.”
“Leave her out of this. You’re out now. You can get on with your life. Don’t make things worse,” Liam replied, calming down and trying to reason with him.
“Get on with my life? How? I’ve been exiled from the only place I’ve ever lived. My father died while I was in that place, and they wouldn’t even let me out to go to his funeral. I have no one and nowhere to go.”
“You have your life and you have no record here. Village law is separate from everywhere else. You can reinvent yourself. You’ve learned your lesson.”
“There was no lesson for me to learn. I was a kid picking on another kid, and your bitch got me sent away for it. So, if anyone is going to learn a lesson, it is going to be her. I’m going to tear you apart, but don’t worry. I won’t kill you. I want you to be able to watch helplessly while I have my way with her, and then the two of you can bleed out together. It’ll be romantic.”
Dawn saw the red flashes of anger that occluded any sense of reason Liam had tried to retain. The sounds of ripping and tearing filled the night as they both began to shift.
“No!” Dawn cried out as she ran toward them. “No, no, no!”
CHAPTER 18
“Stay away!” Liam’s mind called out to her.
“You can’t do this, Liam,” hers replied.
“Get back inside. I’m going to lure him away, and then I want you to get to the council house and find the dragon guard,” his replied.
Dawn watched as he lunged at Tommy, his long teeth aimed at his neck, intent on at least wounding him quickly. Tommy was prepared; he lunged threw his powerful dragon form against him, knocking him sideways.
Then, he came straight for Dawn. She took off down the sidewalk, running and shifting as she put as much distance between them as possible. She soared into the air, directing him toward the cliffs and away from Liam.
Liam called out to her with this mind to turn back, to go to the council chambers, but she refused. Tommy was after her, and he was strong, but she was smaller and faster. He would tire quicker, and then she could take him down.
Liam was begging her to stop, to g
o get help instead of trying to fight Tommy with him, but she ignored him. She wasn’t about to let him get hurt trying to save her from something she had done, something that had nothing to do with him.
Flying out over the water, she darted back and forth, letting Tommy follow her. She had the advantage of reading his thoughts, knowing what he was about to do before he did it and adjusting accordingly.
She could feel him getting tired, and then she saw the one thought she had not considered. Tommy turned back toward land, colliding heavily with Liam who had been in close pursuit.
Their bodies bounced off one another and flew backward. Each struggled for a moment to regain their altitude before lunging at one another again. They were just below the cliffs, dangerously close to the jagged rocks below.
Dawn watched in horror as they tore and clawed at one another in mid-air. She tried to intervene, but Liam stopped her.
“No, don’t. He’ll use you against me. Please, just listen to me for once and keep your distance. Go get the dragon guard out here,” his mind told her.
Dawn hesitated, but then decided to do as he asked. The thought of leaving him out here alone to fight was terrifying, but she had to do something. She made her way to the cliffs, but Tommy saw her and was right behind her, struggling to get to her even as Liam barreled into him from one side.
Tommy dropped low enough for him to miss, throwing him off balance long enough for him to catch up to her as she landed on the cliff. She screeched as he managed to snap down on her tail and sling her sideways.
Trying to regain her balance, she stumbled and turned to face him, prepared to fight. Instead, Liam jumped on his back, finally claiming his neck between his powerful jaws.
Tommy let out a loud scream of pain and fell to one side with Liam standing over him. Liam positioned himself for the kill. Dawn felt helpless still as she stood watching them, frozen with fear.
Tommy was quickly up and heaving his mighty body backward, sending Liam careening over the cliff and unable to get his balance enough to fly. He slammed against the rocks below with a loud crash.
Dawn heard his scales and bones crunch as they hit the rocks. She felt sickened by the sound, knowing that the fall alone could easily render him helpless, or worse.
She sailed off the edge of the cliff, diving downward toward where he lay, very much aware of Tommy circling back to come at him again. Liam wasn’t moving, but she could see that he was breathing. Another attack from Tommy just might be the end of him, though.
Dawn shot forward, crashing directly into Tommy’s chest. It hurt so badly that she felt like her head might explode, but she refused to let up, whirling around and clamping down on his neck. He flung her off, sending her upward and onto the cliffs above.
She lay there, crumbled and frightened. If today was her day to die, she was okay with that. She had never been fearful of her own fate. Liam had to live, though. He had to live even if it was without her.
She could feel Tommy’s presence as she struggled to regain her footing, standing in front of him on wobbly legs. Her head felt like it might split open as she tried to focus.
Concentrating her breath, she shot out a long stream of fire that sent him lumbering sideways to escape the flames, but he was quickly facing her again, preparing for his own blast. It was then that she caught sight of the glass laying nearby.
The bottle was intact with a bit of blue cloth stuck to it. It had been in her jeans pocket. It must have lodged in her scales when she shifted and dropped out here at some point. It might be her only hope.
Even as Tommy prepared for a fiery blast of his own, she shifted, running for the bottle as he hesitated, confused as to why she would shift back to human form mid-fight. Snatching it up, she quickly uncorked it, running directly toward him as he opened his mouth to roast her once and for all.
Dawn tossed it in his open mouth and then dove off the side of the cliff, shifting as she flew outward toward the sea. She was in pain, but she had to keep him away from Liam. Oh, God, Liam. She prayed he was still alive. He couldn’t die. He just couldn’t.
She wasn’t even sure this would work. There was no guarantee the contents of the bottle would affect them as they had Penelope, and that was if they were even the original contents. For all she knew, it was nothing but water or scented oil.
Tommy was close on her tail now. He grabbed her tail with his teeth again, hurling her sideways and whirling her back around to face him. He was poised to rain fire down on her again, this time with much better odds of hitting her when she saw it.
He could feel himself changing against his wishes. It was working. He didn’t understand what was happening, but she did. It was working! His body began to distort as he struggled to turn back, but he was too late. The transformation was already well under way.
His body began losing altitude as his ability to shift was lost and he returned to human form. He began to fall. Dawn tried to catch him. He wasn’t fit for death. He belonged back behind bars where he could rot away, thinking of what he had done. Obviously, five years had not been long enough.
She was too late. Even as she went into a dive toward him, the wind caught his falling form, cutting off his screams as his body became impaled on the sharp edge of a broken tree jutting from the side of the cliffs.
Dawn turned away from the awful sight. There was nothing to be done for him now. Instead, she hurried to get back to Liam, praying he was still breathing. She could see that people had gathered on the cliffs overhead, and she dropped down there first to look for the spot where Liam had fallen as members of the dragon guard arrived.
CHAPTER 19
The weeks passed before Dawn’s trial. She had been afforded the courtesy of remaining at her parents’ house while waiting for her day in front of the council for judgment.
As a member of the dragon guard, her father was responsible for her. He promised to make sure she did not attempt to flee before her fate could be determined by the men that would decide if her actions on the cliff had resulted in Tommy’s death.
As she stood before them, waiting for the hearing to commence, she couldn’t help but consider the irony of her situation. Hadn’t Tommy been accused of much the same? Not actually killing someone, but causing their death? There were some huge differences, but ultimately, it was the same, wasn’t it?
“Okay, Dawn. Take us back to what happened that day. It is important that you be honest about everything so we can do what we can to help you,” she was counseled by Thomas Higgins, a member of the council and a friend of her father’s.
“Dragon Leader, I would like to object to Councilman Higgins taking part in these proceedings, given his relationship to the accused,” one of the council elders said.
Aaron Donnelly gave him a look that would have sent lesser men scurrying away. He looked tired, haunted. It was no surprise considering what he had been through since the day of the attack. Dawn couldn’t make eye contact with him and looked down at the floor instead. She knew this was all her fault. She had brought this pain upon them all by not minding her own business.
“Would you also like for me to recuse myself? If we were to remove every person on this council that considers themselves a close friend of the McCord family, there would be few left.”
“No, of course not. I trust your judgment, despite your personal involvement in the matter.”
“And I trust each and every member of this council to do their jobs without favoritism or prejudice. Are we done with this discussion?”
“Of course, Dragon Leader,” the man replied, casting his eyes downward.
Dawn detected nothing more than embarrassment in his thoughts. He was too busy chastising himself for objecting at all to harbor any ill will toward her, and that was good. Overall, no one on the council seemed hellbent on causing her any undue harm. They would be fair, and that is all she could ask for.
“Dawn, please begin. Just tell us your side of things, and then we will ask some questions. Once ever
yone is satisfied that they know all they need to know, we will pass judgement and sentencing.”
Dawn began to tell them about the events of the day when she and Liam had encountered Tommy in the city center. It was hard going for her, as she had to try to keep herself as calm as possible as she relived the horrors of the events as they had unfolded.
She wished Liam was here beside her to protect her from this and hold her hand as she got through it. Instead, she was alone, fighting for her freedom. Even though her parents, uncle, and aunt were present to support her, it wasn’t the same as having him here. She swallowed hard and continued as she got to the worst of the story, relaying how Tommy had attacked Liam and she had tried to lead him away.
She knew where she had made the biggest mistake in their eyes. She had used the witch’s potion against another dragon, and that was a crime, even in the act of self-defense. It was something that she should not have admitted, but her honesty had overridden any sense of self-preservation at the time. She had not been concerned for herself, only for Liam.
As calmly as possible, she continued to tell them what had taken place. When she was done, they began to ask her the questions she knew would come. It involved not only her own secrets, but also the secrets of others, and that was something she had already talked with Kergot and Penelope about. It was one thing to put herself at risk by telling the truth, but she knew she would lie for them if necessary. This was not their fault.
“Tell us how you came about this poison?” Thomas asked, almost apologetically.
“Liam found it at the quarry years ago, and we kept it.”
“Why?”
“We didn’t know what it was. It was just a nice-looking bottle.”
“But you eventually found out?”
“Yes.”
“And how did that come about?”
The questions went on like that for what felt like hours. Everything she had done leading up to the attack, everything she had done during, and everything she had done afterward was subject to scrutiny. When they were finally done, she was allowed to take a seat while they questioned others.
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