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“You know I can’t, hon.” He rubbed her back.
She rolled her eyes. “Lie.”
“It’s all gonna be okay.”
Shutting her eyes, she let out a breath. “Thanks.” One more swallow from the bottle and she handed it back. “Let’s go.”
Today had been terrible.
And tomorrow would be worse.
Great.
NINETEEN
“Where’re we going?” Gwen followed Doc as he walked through the woods. They had camped in a clearing. He had asked about sleeping in the caves instead, but it…just didn’t feel right.
She had cried herself to sleep badly enough as it was without the reminder of Grinn’s death being all around her. And with Mordred’s situation weighing on her, she was in a terrible mood the next morning as she followed Doc along a deer trail.
“I found us a ride.” Doc had his hands shoved in his robe pockets. Eod was running ahead of them, sniffing every shrub and occasionally barreling off into the underbrush after a squirrel or a chipmunk.
“A ride to where, exactly?” It wasn’t like it really mattered, but she was curious. “Where is the trial being held?”
“Oh, Camelot of course.”
She sighed. Yeah, of course. Why not? Why not put Mordred on trial in his uncle’s old home? Why not completely add insult to injury, and let the haunting memory of King Arthur judge him as well? Rubbing her hand over her face, she really didn’t want to deal with any of this. She wanted to crawl under a rock and sleep for two straight weeks. But nope. She had to go watch the trial of the man she loved which would likely result in him being sentenced to death, and the start of a new war against the elementals.
When the forest gave way to a field, she blinked. Whatever she had assumed Doc had meant about having “found them a ride,” she had not been expecting that.
“Tiny?” She let out a quiet laugh. The enormous iron dragon was lying down in the grass, the opalescent glow from his eyes out. He was sleeping. Hearing them approach, the dragon let out a loud metal-on-metal grumble and lifted his head, his eyes flaring to life.
The dragon peered down at her as they walked up to him. He let out a grunt that was more of a thud and lowered his head closer to them.
She reached out and placed her hand on his nose, petting the metal panel. It felt weird, petting an iron dragon, but it was clear that he was saying hello to them. Eod was barking up at the dragon, wagging his tail happily in his own greeting.
“Hey, buddy.” She smiled sadly. “Your dad’s gone and gotten arrested. He’s standing trial at Camelot. Can you bring us there, please?”
“You’re asking it?” Doc arched an eyebrow at her.
“It’s a he, and I’m asking him, yes.” Gwen rolled her eyes in response. “They have souls, you know. Besides, it doesn’t hurt to be polite. Especially when they can eat you.” She smiled at Tiny. “Right, big guy?”
The dragon let out another grumble-thunk and lifted his head. She’d take that for a yes. Climbing onto the dragon’s back, she remembered how terrified she was of him the first time she saw him. To be fair, it had been a terrible day—and Mordred hadn’t helped.
And now here she was, flying off to save the man that she had been so scared of. Funny how things had changed. Doc sat down behind her, muttering something about how much it was going to chafe. Tiny laid down his head and opened his jaw. Eod jumped inside, lying down—clearly something he had been trained to do. Mordred had planned for everything.
That had been his job, though. Plan for things. Right until Gwen showed up and ruined it all. Sighing again, she shut her eyes. “Let’s go, Tiny. Camelot.”
The dragon let out a metallic harumph and took to the sky. Normally, she’d find it endearing how seeming lazy the large, bizarre creation was. But today, she wasn’t in much of a mood to feel anything except grief and anger.
The view of Avalon from above, dotted with the shadows of clouds, didn’t even cheer her up.
“Buck up, kid,” Doc shouted over the wind as he patted her on the back. Apparently, it was bad enough that he noticed. “It’ll all work out.”
“Really?” She shot him a look.
“I thought you wanted me to lie.” He smiled cheekily.
“I want to push you off this dragon so badly right now.” She glared at him over her shoulder.
