by Jadyn Chase
The enclosure door faced the courtyard. Behind it, the wall where Michelle sat backed up close to the outer stockade wall. One of the guard towers stood right behind it. When I looked, the guard scanned the enclosure. He swept his gun barrel across the ground where I looked up at him. He could see almost directly down on our heads, but a small pocket of space remained where he couldn’t see.
Michelle and Ethan sat in this little pocket. When I drew near them, I lost sight of the guard. That could mean only one thing. If I couldn’t see him, he couldn’t see me.
I kept making one circuit after another around the enclosure, but my head wouldn’t stop reeling from all the ideas rushing in on me at once. I was getting out of here. I damn sure wasn’t going to stand around and wait for these idiots to execute me for sport. If I was going to die, I would do it on the run or in a fight to the death. No backwoods hillbilly was going to torch me standing still. No way.
I alternated between pacing around our prison and sitting still, but my brain never stopped running over the details again and again. Pretty soon, those men would come back for another victim. They probably wouldn’t go for Ethan. He didn’t present enough of a challenge. That left Michelle and me.
If last time offered any clues to their motivation, they would almost certainly choose Michelle to meet the dragon’s fire next. That big red-haired guy wanted to punish me for what he viewed as my contempt for his power.
He misread my reaction. It happened at the campground, and it happened here, but I just couldn’t manage to show any emotion over these atrocities. They occurred somewhere removed from me, even as they horrified me out of all proportion.
He wanted me to quake and cower. He wanted me to cry and beg and blubber like Michelle did. That would make him feel big and important and in control.
I couldn’t take any comfort knowing he would probably leave me alive until the very last. He would want to torture me by making me watch Michelle and Ethan die before my eyes. He would do everything in his power to break me before he killed me.
He surprised me by not coming back before the sun went down. Shadows lengthened from the guard towers. The men up there climbed down and others took their places. Indistinct voices drifted across the compound, but no one bothered us.
Adrenaline ate away at my guts. It pierced my solar plexus and dwarfed the hunger gnawing at my insides. More than twenty-four hours without food or water went by since we first got to Jacks River Field Campground, but I didn’t care. I didn’t want food or water now, not when I might have to run at any moment.
Through the long, weary afternoon hours, I put my plan into motion. I sat next to Michelle and talked to her about her family and her life and her friends back in Chattanooga.
Her eyes darted around the enclosure, but she didn’t see anything. She struggled to keep the conversation going. She lost track of what she was saying, and I didn’t try to make her concentrate. While she talked, I took out the fingernail clippers. One fiber at a time, I snipped away at the hemp twine holding the posts together.
I spaced these sessions out. I worked on them for ten minutes at a time and then masked what I was doing by walking around some more. During the whole process, I prodded Michelle to keep talking.
The guards couldn’t see us from above, but they could hear us. If they thought we were just comforting each other and passing the time, they wouldn’t suspect. I hoped they wouldn’t, anyway.
After more than ten hours locked in this prison, I managed to cut the cords holding three posts together. I couldn’t remove the rope without someone noticing it. I left it hanging there loose.
The sun went down and the air turned cold. Michelle wrapped her arms around her shoulders and rocked. When I came near her the last time, she sniffed and whimpered under her breath.
I eased my mouth close to her ear and whispered in a breathless rush. “Listen to me, Michelle. We have to get out of here. They’ll kill all three of us if we don’t.”
She whipped around to stare at me. “Get out of here! How are we going to do that? We can’t even get out of this cell.”
“I know,” I hissed, “but we have to try. We can’t sit around here waiting for them to decide when and how they’re going to kill us. I can get us out of this enclosure, but the rest is going to come down to plain audacity and…. well, balls. We just have to sack it up and go for it.”
She raised her miserable eyes to my face and a tear streaked down her cheek. “I don’t want to die.”
“I don’t want to die, either,” I murmured. “That’s why we have to do this. The next time they come back, you have to be ready to run for it. Can you do that? Just follow my lead. I’ll do the best I can to get us out of here.”
She compressed her quivering lips and nodded down at her hands. I turned to Ethan. “What about you, Ethan? What do you say? Are you ready to get out of here?”
I didn’t really expect him to say anything, and he didn’t. He sat in the same trance with his eyes fixed on the ground.
I sighed. So much for that. Big, brave, important Ethan Burkes turned out to be a spineless coward after all. What would they say back at the dental school if they could see him now? He didn’t cut such a fine figure that all the girls would swoon over.
I sat back on my heels. Maybe when the men came back, Ethan would snap out of it enough to break free. I could only hope. As much as my attitude toward him soured in the last few days, I didn’t want to see him die, either.
Darkness fell. A few floodlights thumped on throughout the compound, but not enough to cast the enclosure in light. So much the better. The darker it was, the more these suckers played into my hands. When the time came, they wouldn’t know what hit them.
I counted down the seconds until they came back. The longer I waited, the more agitated I became until I couldn’t sit down any longer. I rubbed my hands together to dispel some of the tension, but my stomach twisted in knots.
Out of nowhere, I heard a creak. I spun around to see the door swinging open. This was it. It was now or never.
The next instant, the red-haired guy appeared in the doorway. His wicked eyes rested on me for a fraction of a second before I exploded into action. I tore across the enclosure and snatched Michelle’s hand. “Come on! Now!”
I bolted for the posts I had cut free. I slammed into them with all my weight. All three toppled back and hit the dirt. The hemp cord floated away in wisps.
Michelle leaped forward—and stopped. She glanced back and forth between the breach yawning to the outside world and the man blocking the doorway. She froze.
I raced back to her and grabbed her. “Come on, Michelle! Come with me now!” I didn’t wait for her to react. I dove for Ethan and lifted his arm. “Come on, Ethan! We can get out of here.”
He jerked his hand free and turned his face toward the wall. For a fleeting instant, I measured the two of them. They weren’t going anywhere, not with me or anybody else. Their own fear kept them prisoners.
At that moment, the red-haired man changed into the ferocious black dragon that haunted my nightmares. He didn’t even bother to enter the enclosure. He slithered out of his skin and crouched by the door.
I didn’t wait to see. I darted through the opening and scrambled for the guard tower. The floodlights didn’t illuminate this part of the compound, so the guard didn’t see me coming.
I hoisted myself up the scaffold to the guard’s platform. A thunderclap hit me. I looked down over my shoulder in time to see that black dragon unleash hellfire on the enclosure. I caught one glimpse of Ethan and Michelle still rooted to the same spots. They never moved before the flames hit them.
Terror and insane energy seized me, and I rocketed up the scaffold. I scrambled onto the platform just as the guard turned around to see what was going on. The fire puffed up behind me.
Searing pain ripped my whole body apart but I never looked back again. I lunged for the guard. He whipped around to shoulder his weapon, but no force under the sun could
stop me now.
I fell on him bursting with all the frantic power of my escape. I jerked the rifle out of his hands. The force spun him around, and I sent him pitching over the side into the flames.
The whole compound erupted in confusion. Men dashed toward me and changed into dragons on the wing. They streaked toward the guard tower. I didn’t have a moment to lose. Without thinking, I jumped.
I hit the ground hard and dashed into the dark. I had no idea where I was going. My mind and body screamed with pain and fear, but I had to keep running no matter what.
The firelight flickering out of the compound lit up the sky. It showed me dragons hurtling into the night to track me down. I dove for the woods and crashed through branches.
The noise of shouts and crackling wood drifted farther and farther behind me, but I still didn’t stop. Leaves and twigs ripped at my cheeks and eyes. I closed my eyes tight and put my arm in front of my face. I couldn’t see in the dark, anyway, and I felt my strength ebbing. My legs sank into the ground with every step until I could hardly move them.
How long I ran, I couldn’t tell. I only knew I had to push myself to the limit of my endurance to get away from that place. I staggered one way and then another until, without warning, I slammed into something solid in the dark.
I tried to dodge away, but powerful arms strapped around me. “Hey!” a deep voice bellowed. “What the….?”
I collapsed onto my knees in exhaustion. My eyes stared up into the dark. I caught one look at a rough, chiseled face surrounded by a trimmed beard. Brown hair pulled back from the forehead, and glittering blue eyes pierced me to my soul before I passed out.
4
Ezra
I set the breakfast tray on the bedside table, and the teacup clinked against the saucer. The noise startled the girl in the bed out of a sound sleep. She bolted upright and stared around her with wide eyes.
“It’s all right,” I murmured. “You’re safe here. Take it easy.”
I settled into the chair near the window and observed her. The blush of sleep colored her cheeks and her disheveled dark hair scattered across her neck, but she looked as stunning now as when I first saw her at the campground.
She searched the room and came back around to gaping at me. “Who…. I recognize you. You were in the forest when….”
I waved my hand. “I’m Ezra Kelly. This is my house. You’re safe here. I found you in the forest when you escaped from the Lynches—or should I say you found me. I brought you here. You’ve been unconscious for three days, and it’s just as well for you. You suffered terrible burns to your back and legs.”
She held herself stiff and tense for a moment. Then she sank into the bed with a sigh. “I remember now.”
I inspected her closer. She really was magnificent. She would have to be to get out of that place alive. “Do you want to tell me what happened?”
She stole a peek at me under her hair. “What did you say their name was…Lynch?”
“Yep. They’re one of the Clans in these mountains. Not the nicest people, either, I have to say. A lot of Kellys have suffered from the Lynches. I saw the attack on the campground. I saw them take you and your friends.” I cocked my head to one side. “Did any of them make it out?”
“No.” She hung her head. “They’re all dead.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. How did you do it?”
She shrugged and looked away. Her eye fell on the tray. “Is that for me?”
“As a matter of fact, it’s for me.” I burst out laughing when she gasped in surprise. “I’ve been watching in here since I found you. I usually eat my meals up here waiting for you to wake up.”
Her lips twitched. “You’ve been…watching me?”
“Well, you know….” All at once, I blushed and lowered my eyes. I didn’t want her looking at me like that. “I wanted you to see a familiar face when you woke up—to show you that you were among friends, you know. Since I’m the only person around here you would recognize, I’ve been staying close. You can have that if you want it, though. There’s plenty more downstairs, but I have to warn you. My Ma will be all over you as soon as she realizes you’re awake.”
She reclined against the pillows and kept her face averted. “I shouldn’t be here. I should go back to Chattanooga.”
“You’re not going anywhere for a while,” I told her. “Those burns on your back will take some time to heal. You better stay put until you can walk, at least.”
“I can’t stay here,” she insisted. “I’m a medical student. If I don’t go back, I could lose a whole semester.”
I held out my hand to her. “Listen to me. I’m sure when they hear what happened, they’ll let you make it up. Just settle down and take it easy. Here. Have something to eat. You must be famished.”
I eased across the room. I did my best not to make any sudden movements. My instincts told me to treat her like an injured animal. If she tried to run away now, she would only injure herself worse.
I set the tray on her lap and she positioned herself against the pillows. I went back to my chair, well out of reach. She took a bite of toast and observed me sidelong. “Thanks.”
“I’m just glad you made it out of there alive. It’s not everyone who can stand up to the Lynches.”
“What have they done,” she asked, “to your family, I mean? Do they do this sort of thing often?”
“Shucks!” I snorted. “The Lynches and the Kellys have been at war for generations. We’ve both lost people, I guess, but the Lynches are always trying to push the envelope. It doesn’t matter if we negotiate a peace deal with them. They can swear to kingdom come that they’ll stay in their own territory. It doesn’t mean squat when it comes from Clan Lynch. They’re always looking to start something new.”
She stared down at her plate. “They’re disgusting. They’re monsters.”
“I know.”
Her head shot up, and her eyes widened. She regarded me for a moment before she whispered, “You saw the attack?”
“Yep. I was going to Jacks River to meet someone. I saw the whole thing. I saw them throw you in their ATVs and drive away with you. I even saw Sam Lynch punch you and knock you out. I saw it all.”
Her eyelids snapped, and she swallowed hard. “If you saw all that, you must have seen…..”
I waited for her to say it. “I must have seen what?”
“The dragons,” she blurted out. “Dragons attacked the campground and then they changed into men. If you know anything about the Lynches, you must know that, too. I’m not crazy. I saw it half a dozen times. They can change into dragons.”
“I know that.”
She blinked again. “You do?”
“Sure. Everybody knows that.”
She shook her head and cast her eyes down at her plate. “This is all my fault. It’s my fault the others are dead. If I hadn’t stood up to him, if I hadn’t looked him in the face, none of this would have happened. He wouldn’t have punched me, and he wouldn’t have taken us back to that compound. The others would still be alive right now.”
“Hey!” I didn’t mean to shout it out so loud. Her head swung up and those bottomless eyes stared back at me. I worked to get my voice under control. “Listen to me. This was not your fault. The Lynches did this to provoke Clan Kelly into retaliating. They did it to show off that they could make an incursion into our territory and to prove we couldn’t stop them. That’s the only reason they did it. You and your friends got caught in the crossfire. That’s all. This had nothing to do with you. It never did.”
Her long eyelashes drifted up. “Really?”
“Really. If it hadn’t been you in that campground, it would have been someone else. Now eat your breakfast.”
A hint of a smile touched her lips, and she took a bite of bacon.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
“Nora. Nora Price.”
I eased back in my chair. “Well, Nora Price, you’re a very strong, very brave young lady. No o
ne around here can stop talking about you. Everyone is in awe of the way you escaped from that place. We were planning to raid the compound to get you out, and then out you came by yourself.”
“Huh!” she muttered. “A little worse for wear, I’d say.”
I stiffened in my chair. “Listen to me, Nora. You’re going to bear the scars of your fight against the Lynches for the rest of your life, and I can tell you right now they’re a badge of honor around here. There aren’t many Kellys who can show off scars like yours from facing off against the Lynches. You’re something like a rock star around here now.”
She broke into a brilliant smile before she bit it back. “Hardly.”
I nodded. “It’s true. I’m sure everybody is going to be at you morning, noon, and night to tell the story.”
“I couldn’t do that,” she whispered. “I couldn’t talk about how the others died.”
“Don’t worry about it. If you don’t want to talk, they’ll understand that, too. I just want you to know that what you did was truly exceptional. All of us admire you for what you did.”
She cast her gaze down at the white nightgown covering her body. “What happened to my clothes?”
“They got burned off you. When you ran into me in the forest, only the front half of your jeans and t-shirt were hanging off you. The fire disintegrated the rest. It almost disintegrated you, too.”
“It would have if I had been standing any closer to it,” she replied. “I was running away from Sam when he unloaded on me.”
I nodded. “Sounds about right.”
“I should get in touch with my family,” she remarked. “I should get in touch with the others’ families, too. I should tell them…. crap, I don’t know what I’ll tell them.”
“Don’t worry about a thing,” I told her. “We already contacted the authorities. They found your friends’ cars in the parking lot outside the trailhead. They relayed the information to Chattanooga.”
