Page 1 of King of the Dawn

Chapter One

Aoibheann

The air shifted as I dropped to my knees on the frozen grass. The last of my energy floated from my veins along with the final scream of the man burning for his sins. The end of my nightmare was finally approaching, and I would soon be free of it all.

Thanks to Jericho.

Once my tyrant, he was now my king. Ready to bring the world to its knees in my honor. He pulled me into his arms holding me as the flames began to fade. I didn’t care about the crowd surrounding us – his daughter and sister, my own nephews and nieces, my stepson. They looked in awe like the statues of saints around a cathedral, sentries to the holiness that transpired.

Nothing else mattered in that moment.

My hands wrapped around Jericho and I buried my face into his neck while I sobbed in relief. I gasped like a woman breaking through the water after drowning for years, finally able to breathe air.

There were still men out there who needed to pay, but living felt easier knowing that Jericho was here.

He’d done this to show me how much I meant to him.

Nearly two decades of torture and vengeance was here, delivered as a wedding gift.

It wasn’t something I had put on the registry, but it was wanted all the same.

“Leave us,” Jericho commanded, as the orange light withered to embers and the darkness of the night returned.

I shivered despite the warmth. My bare feet finally felt the sting of cold.

The crowd dispersed without a word. Only the sound of the pressing grass marked their departure.

It was just me and my groom. We were alone, beside the pyre as flames whirled with the wind. His lips pressed against my shoulder, leaving a wet trail as they traveled up and toward my chin.

I felt his warm breath against my frigid skin.

He smelled divine – like vodka and leather. Crisp and clean, despite our surroundings of damp earth, burning wood and flesh. My focus and my senses narrowed straight to him.

“You’re shaking like a leaf.” He pressed his lips against mine, then smirked as he added, “Witch.”

There was a flutter of white from the heavens, dancing down around us like petals from a spring tree in the wind. Crystal white snow. A purifying white, like the ashes and bones of my enemy. When had this happened? I wasn’t sure.

“It’s snowing.” I dropped my forehead to his, and he pressed another wet kiss there.

“Let’s get inside.”

I shook my head, not wanting to move. Not until the final ember snuffed out. I’d stay here until the body was gone and nothing was left. The man, like his name, was gone. Eoghan had been here, and he had pledged to me. Was that real? I wasn’t sure. But I knew the world of Green Fields Enterprises. If Eoghan declared the man rightfully dead, then he would be. Or he would disappear from existence completely.

I might have known nothing of the business, but I knew my late villainous husband was above the laws of man. So, too, his son would be.

This man’s name would only be spoken in the deepest pits of hell.

“Sweet Evie,” Jericho said, to coax me to stand. He trailed his hands down my arms, squeezing my elbows. “You’ll get sick out here. You’re barefoot.”

“We stay. Until the embers die.”

But I was a child, wanting just one more bit of sweet cake, even if it meant a tummy ache afterwards. I wanted more of this sensation – the feel of justice, and rightness. The sense of power that came from having a man at my back who would do everything for me. A man who would move heaven and earth, and rip souls from their bodies, if that is what I required.

My husband. My king. My knight. My everything.

“We can watch from the arboretum, where it's warm,” he said, taking me in his arms and lifting me bridal-style.

I didn’t fight him when he stood and carried me inside, to his gothic mansion that was more a home to me than even the fishing shores of my beloved Ireland. There were words at the tip of my tongue. Something about hearts and soulmates, forever and ever… Things I could not do justice to. Not right now.

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