Page 18 of Madison

Layla felt the moment that Madison woke up. It wasn’t a painful awareness, but like she’d been in the room with him when he opened his eyes. It had only been a few hours. She’d carried him with the help of Marlon Brando, him doing most of the work up to the bedroom. Putting him on the mattress didn’t bother her. What did bother her, and she was trying hard not to think about it was the dragon. The sucker was as big as she was.

“Mistress, Master Madison wishes for you to join him for a meal to break your fast.” She nodded, distracted by her thoughts to give what was being said much in the way of her attention. “He is having a full meal and I have ordered you one as well. You must keep up your strength.”

That was another thing that she’d figured out when she’d headed down the stairs earlier. There were considerably more faeries in their home, and they all seemed to be treating her with kid gloves. Or something along those lines. But she did know that they were either keeping their distance from her while being right on the spot when they thought that she might be needing something. Then, it was like a million of them were ready to do it. Even to pick up a scrap of paper that she’d dropped while looking for something else.

Giving up on trying to figure out what was an herb or not in the little garden, one that wasn’t there before, to help the cook out Layla made her way to the house. Since she didn’t cook, it was something that she’d never encountered before. Fresh herbs? Christ, she wasn’t going to start milking cows—she thought about the dragon on her back again, and it distracted her from what she’d been thinking. Really, she was ranting again.

Coming out here had been, she realized an hour ago, a way to get her out from under the cook’s feet. Layla didn’t mind so much because she was irritating to herself then and hadn’t put up much of a fuss to be asked to go outside for a little while.

She laughed when she saw Madison. He was just as weirded out as she had been when she got up. The sheer number of other creatures in the house was enough for that to bother someone like they were in that they were people who liked to have solitude. But she’d bet anything that he’d seen that he had a dragon the size of New York on his back as she had.

Well, it really wasn’t that big, but she knew that if it had to stretch out like it did sometimes, it would cover her entire backside from feet to the scalp. And it moved. But that wasn’t the part that scared her to bejesus. It was the fact that he spoke to her. All. The. Time.

Kissing Madison as soon as she came into the house, he hugged her to him as if, like her, he needed contact with her. He sat down when he was given a platter, no other word for the massive amount of food that was on his plate and started to eat. Her platter, equally full, was set in front of her as well, she also got an endless glass. She’d had one earlier this morning, and that, too, had knocked her reality check right off the charts.

“I feel like I’m in a nightmare. Or a regular dream. I don’t want to speculate on which right now.” She agreed with him and drank down the glass of orange juice to see if this one was like the one from earlier. Yes. It filled to the brim, too. “I found out if you touch the glass and tell it that you want…I don’t know apple juice, you’ll get that. Even if the glass is full. I’m trying not to lose my shit right now, so you tell me about something that is normal. Or I guess as normal as you can make it.”

“You’ve been around magic longer than I have. Why are you suddenly unsure about…I could only make things come to me, only when I concentrated really hard. Now you’d not believe—”

He grabbed her hand when she started to show him what she could do. “Don’t. I beg of you, don’t show me something that you can do. Later. All right? We’ll talk about that later.” Nodding, she told him she could do that. “Where is Kyle this morning? Out in the yard or something?”

“He’s in the other realm hanging out with the queen. A queen, Madison. A real live fucking queen.” He patted her hand, and she felt like he was patronizing her and didn’t know if she should be pissed or comforted by it. “We have about an hour before we have to be at the courthouse for the hearing with the lawyers.”

“I was told that as well. Are there more faeries than before?” He’d asked her in a whispered voice like he didn’t want to draw any attention to himself. “Layla, I have a very serious question for you.” She nodded. “Are we dead?”

She couldn’t help it. Layla burst out laughing. Shaking her head and then nodding, Madison told her that she wasn’t at all helpful. Grabbing him by his shirt, she lifted him right up off his chair and spoke to him.

“Look, Buster. I’m dealing with this shit the best I can. We have faeries around the house that weren’t there before. They are armed with bows and arrows, too. There is a fucking dragon on my back that moves. Yes, I said that he moves. And he moves when he wants to. Not enough for your mind? Well, let me tell you something else. He’s opinionated and speaks his—yes, I said that too, he speaks his mind at me because I’m ignoring him. So if you have to have yourself a little hissy fit because you’re all scared, I want you to know that this shit just got real, and I’m afraid that I’m losing my fucking mind here.” She glared at him before speaking again. “Are we dead? Seriously? You had to ask me that now? You keep asking questions like that one, and you will be.”

Madison laughed. It wasn’t a very jovial laugh but one that she thought was reserved for the insane. Smacking him across the face, just to keep his attention on her, he pulled her hand to his mouth and kissed it. She asked him if he was better now.

“I do believe I’m getting there. Thank you.” She told him that he was welcome before she could figure out what he was thanking her for. Just as well, she thought, Mr. Dragon was speaking to her again. “I can hear him. He’s…I don’t know how this is working, but I can hear him, too. He says that we’re to get going if we want to be on time to the courthouse. Is that right?”

Nodding and standing up, she was surprised to see that they’d both eaten their breakfast. All of it. Drinking down more juice, something that she’d been craving since she’d come down here earlier this morning. She forgot to mention to Madison that she could change her clothing with just a thought when he turned his back on her when she did just that.

“Not much more, Love. I’m easing into this better, but not as fast as you are.” She said that she’d been down here alone dealing with it. “In this house? I doubt we’ll ever be alone again. Let’s get going. Oh, my dragon’s name is Jennifer. Yes, Jennifer. She doesn’t have…we should get going.”

They were nearly to the courthouse when she was told what her dragon’s name was. His name was Roth. Why? How the hell did she know. After getting spiffied up—she really was dead, she thought if she was using words like spiffy—out to the car. Madison was already there and dressed just as spiffily—was that even a word? He looked good to her, too.

The parking lot was packed at the courthouse. That wasn’t really saying a great deal. She thought that at any time, there were only about ten spaces. But the streets that were along the road in front were packed up tightly, too. Pulling into the parking lot a street over, the two of them made their way there to hopefully find them a seat.

There were people standing around the place. She loved this old building. It had a great deal of charm that you could only get from a small-town courthouse. Even though parking was at a minimum outside, there were plenty of places for people to stand around mingling with their attorneys or just friends that they’d seen not an hour ago. The flowers in the pots were beginning to fade with the coming fall, but the flags, all sorts of them from different branches of the service, as well as boy scout flags, girl scouts, as well as the local union of things that were around town as well.

As soon as they entered the largest room in the building, they were seated next to his family. They had all come in support of her, and she couldn’t have been happier about it. Layla only hoped that she had enough money left over to finally put a headstone on her parent’s grave and that of her grandparents. Money had been tight for a long time, and she wanted that more than anything.

Even though Madison said that he’d pay for those things and she had the money from the sale of the house, Edgar had told her not to spend anything yet just to make things look good for the court. While she didn’t have any idea what that might mean, she agreed to hold off until after the court hearing.

~*~

The side for the attorney side of the courtroom was overflowing with men and women dressed in dark suits with leather briefcases that had initials on them. Madison didn’t know who they were trying to impress, but it was an overshow on their part. Edgar and his brother Dyson, who only just got home from his vacation, were seated at the other table. While Edgar was tanned, Dyson looked like he’d spent his time outdoors on a surfboard. His hair was blonder, and his tan radiated good health. It didn’t take his brothers very long with their heads together to realize that this was a slam dunk case. He hoped so. Layla was upset that they’d taken all her family away from her.

The autopsies had come back with each member of her family having a large dose of fentanyl in their bodies. Her brother had the most, being the first person that they killed. His family surmised that they messed up the dosage that killed him. That was, he had heard from Edgar what was going to cost them the most. He’d been a minor as well as a recovering addict when they murdered him. He was just speaking to his dad about something that didn’t have to do with the hearing today when things were called to order.

After everyone was seated, the judge called up an attorney from each table. While he could hear that there was an intense conversation going on, he couldn’t quite make out the words. Something about paperwork being filed late and there were too many people someplace.

When they were told to be seated, the judge looked around the room. Whatever he had to say, it wasn’t sitting well with the other side. After clearing his throat twice, the judge, Maklin Jameson, asked for and received a glass of water. Then, he addressed the courtroom.

“It’s been brought to my attention that there is a murder or two that goes along with this hearing. Is that correct?” Edgar stood up and said that several murders were now attached to this hearing. “That’s right. Brother to the young woman…where are you, young lady?” Layla stood up and repeated her name, including his sir name. “Yes, that’s right. Your brother, a minor, your parents, both sets of grandparents, some domestic help—I don’t care for that title but there you have it. Also, there is some question about a couple of police officers who were injured when someone showed up at your home to murder you as well. Or I should say that’s what I heard— allegedly heard. Is that correct, Mrs. Walsh? That you were nearly murdered and had to spend a few days in the hospital over this?”

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