CHAPTER 20

Dawn looked down at where Liam had fallen. He wasn’t moving. She couldn’t feel him or hear his thoughts. Her heart felt as if it might break as she considered that she might spend her life without him.

“Is he dead?” Penelope asked from beside her. She had just arrived at the edge of where Dawn’s world had ended and was peering over at Liam’s dragon form laying sprawled against the rocks.

Dawn steeled herself and jumped from the cliff, soaring downward until she reached where her love lay. It was all she could do to even touch him, for fear not of what she would feel, not the pain or sadness, but that she might feel nothing at all. It was then that something came to her. He hadn’t changed. He was still in dragon form.

Sometimes those that were in the throes of some sort of disease or her kind – mutts as some might call them – did not revert to human form. Liam was impure in no way. His line was as pure as the world was ancient. If he were dead, he would have become human again by now. However, he was obviously badly injured. The mortal coil that kept him tied to his world was very thin was her guess.

She took a deep breath and did the only thing she knew to do, regardless of what it might mean for her. What point was there of living in this world without him? Shifting back to her own human form, she lay on top of him, wrapping her arms around him tightly as if to keep him in this place with her for all time.

At first, she felt nothing. There was no breath, no pulse, no heartbeat that she could discern. Then, something happened. A single thought rose toward her. Not even a thought, really. Just a name. Her name.

“Dawn,” his mind called to hers. “Dawn.”

There was silence as she held him tighter, squeezing him as close to her as her tiny human form could manage to hold a dragon of his massive size. She closed her eyes and concentrated, calling out to him in her mind.

“Liam. Stay with me. Damn it. You stay with me.”

There was a whisper, something she couldn’t quite make out. She could hear people calling over the cliff toward her, and when she didn’t respond, she felt the breeze they created as they shifted one by one, floating near the cliff around her as she desperately tried to bring Liam back to her. Tears fell down her face, creating shimmers of light where the morning sun bounced off his bright silver scales.

“I can’t stay here without you, Liam. If you won’t come back, I will come with you. I will throw us both over this rock and into the ocean below. We’ll float away together, to someplace where no one exists but you and me.”

There was another whisper, an almost inaudible sound that she couldn’t quite determine whether she was hearing in her mind or with her ears. Liam didn’t move, but she refused to let go, even with Penelope dropping down onto a nearby rock to call to her. Dawn knew she was speaking, but she could not hear her, not even with her mind. Everything was focused on Liam as he lay dying beneath her.

“Please, Liam. It can’t end this way. We’ve still so much to do, so much to share. I love you, Liam. Don’t you understand that I’ve always loved you? Do you remember what I said the first time I met you? Can you remember that far back?”

This time, there was something. The whisper grew louder, not quite yet loud enough to discern, but now it was joined by something else. The rushing of blood, a slight pulse forming in the mighty dragon.

“I said I was going to marry you someday, Liam. Remember? The adults, they all laughed. You were just a baby and couldn’t talk, but you giggled. You knew, too, didn’t you? Didn’t we both always know?”

“Yes,” came the whisper.

Dawn’s heart raced as she clung to him tighter. She could feel her energy draining from her body, just as she had felt it draining the day she had touched Dirt so many years ago in school. She had felt tired and chalked it up to what she had seen in his heart and mind, but she had come to understand that the healing power she possessed came with a price to her own health. She had felt tired when she had healed Penelope as a child, but it had taken being older and feeling it again to understand it.

She couldn’t fix Liam. He was horribly broken, but if she could give him enough strength, heal him enough, perhaps his dragon healing would take over and finish the job of getting him better. Even if it meant giving him all of her strength, she was willing to do that. Nothing was more important than his life.

“Dawn. No,” he managed in his mind.

She could feel him trying to shift and held on to him that much harder, willing him to stop. It would be the worst thing he could do. Instead, she continued to talk to him with her mind.

“Liam, no. Don’t shift. You need the power of your dragon to heal you. You’re hurt badly. Very badly.”

“Get away, Dawn,” his mind finally managed.

There was no malice in the words. She knew he did not mean to be hurtful or to send her away. He understood what she was doing to herself by holding on to him. She could feel his frustration at not being able to stop her from pushing her strength into him.

“I will not get away. When have I ever listened to you?” she replied silently.

After a while, he moved. Not much, but just enough to show he could. His heart was beating. It was weak, but pumping just the same. She could hear the squishing noises of organs being healed, crackling of bones being repaired. It was a sickening sound, but also the most beautiful music to her ears.

Dawn continued to lay on top of him, to cling to him, ignoring the mass of dragons that had gathered around. Her father soared downward from the cliff, hovering just above her.

“Dawn, please. Let him go. You can’t do this,” he said.

“I am doing this. Don’t interfere. Don’t let anyone interfere.”

“Dawn, you can’t save everyone.”

“I don’t want to save everyone. I want to save Liam. He is alive. He will not die on this rock, not today and not any day!” she said, her voice sounding very far away to her own ears.

“Can you not feel what you are doing to yourself? You will die here instead of him, Dawn.”

“Then I will die here. What I will not do is let him die here when I can save him. Leave us. Tell everyone to leave us!” she demanded, laying her head back down against Liam’s back as it slowly rose and fell.

“Dawn, listen to your father,” Liam’s mind begged her.

“Shut up, Liam. You just shut up and save your strength,” she called back to him like a petulant child having a tantrum.

“You are the most impossible woman I’ve ever known in my life,” he returned wearily.

Dawn was encouraged that he was responding, but she knew he was far from out of danger. He had internal wounds that were too numerous to mention. There was blood in places where blood should not be. His defenses were struggling to fix all of the damage he had sustained from the fight and from the subsequent fall.

“And yet you’ve spent your whole life by my side,” she replied.

“Where else would I want to be?” came an almost inaudible reply.

He was fading again. Something was wrong. Something wasn’t healing properly. What was happening? She could feel him weakening again, his powerful body suddenly seizing beneath her, almost tossing her off his side. The other dragons had moved back at her father’s request, but many remained at a distance safe enough to prevent her wrath toward them.

“Damn it, Liam! I told you that you can’t leave here! What are you doing. Fight! Fight to stay here with me.”

There was no reply. His heartbeat slowed. Dawn felt tired, more tired than she had ever felt in her life, but she held on, begging him to come back to her over and over with her mind until she could hardly think. She collapsed against his back, exhausted. Then, something miraculous seemed to happen.

“I’m still here, but I can’t breathe very well. I think my lung has collapsed.”

Dawn fought her own weakened state, using all the strength she had to call to Penelope. Penelope immediately took flight, returning only a moment later with Kergot and Liam’s father. They hovered nearby as Dawn spoke softly to Liam.

“I need you to change now, Liam. It’s going to hurt horribly, but I need to get you to the top of the cliff. Once we are there, you can shift back so your healing powers lock in again. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” came a very weak reply.

Dawn climbed slowly off of him and watched as he shifted into human form. He looked horrible, all bruised and torn with limbs at odd angles against the rocks. There was no time to waste. She nodded toward his father, who swooped down and picked him up in his talons, careful not to cause further injury. Dawn not only heard the whimper that escaped Liam’s lips, but felt it inside.

“Hurry, Mr. Donnelly. Please hurry.”

Aaron shot up toward the edge of the cliff as Kergot swooped down and allowed Dawn to climb on his back. She was too exhausted to shift and fly and needed whatever strength she had left for Liam. He carried her to the top and landed beside her father, who was carefully laying Liam down on the ground below. Climbing down from his back, she ran back to Liam and put her hand on his face.

“Stay with me, Liam. I need you to shift back now.”

Liam didn’t respond. He lay there, still in human form.

“Jesus! Where is the doctor?” she cried out, looking at the others that had gathered around.

“He is on his way,” Kergot told her.

Dawn lay down beside Liam, curling her body against his to achieve the maximum contact she could manage. She could feel her energy draining rapidly from her body as she lay there beside him, willing him to come back to her once again.

“Stand back. Everyone stand back!” she heard a voice yelling, but it seemed far away now.

Everything seemed far away. All that mattered was that she was with Liam. They were floating away, slowly making their way toward the clouds. She could no longer feel his pain or hear the horrible sounds of his body trying to heal. Instead, they were making their way to some place new, some place they had never been before. It was the most beautiful place she had ever seen.

“Liam, can you see it?” she asked him.

“Yes, it’s incredible.”

“Are we dead, Liam?” she asked.

“I don’t know. I don’t feel anything now except you.”

“Yes. I only feel you, too. Everyone is gone but us.”

“I told you to let me go, Dawn.”

“How could I possibly ever let you go, Liam? You are the love of my life. I was destined to be with you from the moment you were born. There is no place for me but by your side.”

“Isn’t it me that has always been by your side, in your shadow?”

“In my shadow? Hardly, Liam. You were my support system. All these years, you’ve stood by me and held me up when I felt so much pain around me. There are so many bad people in the world, Liam. There are so many people in the world who are sad and broken, but not you. Never you. All I ever felt from you was love and beauty. You saw a beauty in the world that I never could.”

“I don’t believe that. I think you could see it, too; you just couldn’t accept it.”

“No, Liam. All I could see was all of the hurtful things in life. It’s just like your books. You saw the world through your reading, and I saw the world through you.”

“I guess the only thing that is important is that we could both see it.”

“Yes, and together. What do you think we will see now?”

“I don’t know, Dawn, but thank you for coming with me on this last journey. I love you more than words can ever express, but just this one time you have to listen to me. We aren’t going to miss all the things I want to share with you. I promise. N0w, you have to go.”

There was a jolt as Dawn was suddenly jerked backward and opened her eyes. She found herself looking up at the sunlight above and blinked, realizing she was alive. Struggling to raise up, she felt hands on her back as her father lifted her, cradling her in his arms. Liam lay beside her, ragged breath escaping his enormous dragon chest.

“He shifted!”

“Yes, just as you came to,” her father told her.

“Let’s get him up. Take him to the large animal vet and get him on the table. There’s something blocking his windpipe, and his lung is collapsed,” the doctor was saying.

Dawn struggled to get back down from her father’s arms, but he wouldn’t let her go.

“No, Dawn. You are too weak.”

“Bring her, too,” the doctor commented, as two of the guards shifted and began moving Liam on the large carrier fashioned for such an occasion.

Owen followed with Dawn in his arms as the doctor shifted and flew behind the dragons that had Liam.

“We need to fly,” Dawn told her father.

“We are going to take my SUV, Dawn. Let the doctor have just a few minutes to work on him before you go back in there. You need your strength, too.”

Dawn felt woozy, his words not quite sinking in as she once again collapsed in his arms. When she woke up, she was in a white room with a tube in her arm. She struggled to get free.

“Good grief, Dawn. Be still,” Liam said from the bed beside her.

“Liam!” she said in a raspy voice.

“Yes, I’m still here.”

“I thought you were dead.”

“I thought we were both dead.”

“I think we might have been for a moment,” she replied.

“Yeah, I think you are right,” he told her quietly.

“Does this make us zombies?” she said.

“Wouldn’t that be something? Zombie dragons. Nothing good can come of that!” he replied with a laugh that caused him to wince a little.

“I love you, Liam Donnelly.”

“I love you, too, Dawn McCord.”

“I’m going to marry you one day.”

“Yeah, you are,” he told her.