The Fire and the Sky (Book 3 of the Starborn Series)

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Lety pulled the town car into the garage and everyone hurried to pile out.

"Fargus told me you guys were finally on your way back," Dom said, dripping a wide puddle onto the grease-stained concrete floor.

"So you went outside to wait for us?" Lety pulled a face. "Honestly, you're worse than a dog. And I should know."

"I couldn't sit still! I had to go for a walk to burn off some energy. Did you guys know there's a nice park a few blocks from here?"

"Dominic, focus," May instructed, stepping in front of him. "What happened? What news do you have?"

Dom's patented smile, all charm and warmth, spilled across his face. "Sean called!"

May exhaled and it came out sounding like a laugh. After a night of dead ends, she wanted to believe this was a good thing. "Please tell me he found something."

"Damn right he did!"

"Spit it out, boy," Grant said. His arms were crossed with impatience.

"Right, sorry." Dom looked May in the eyes. "He found your mom, Mabes."

The world spun and for a precarious moment May thought she might need to sit down. Welkin took her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.

"Where?" she breathed.

"Well, there's good news and bad news." Dom held up his hands and May took this as a sign to brace herself. "She's in prison."

Lety stepped forward and shoved her hands in her pockets. "I'm guessing that's the bad news. Do you know which one?"

"Yep. Gallery."

Both Lety and Grant hissed as if they'd been burned. May's heart sunk.

"Is it bad?"

"It ain't good," Lety confirmed.

"Gallery is a high security women's penitentiary. Sounds like Dawn's line of work finally caught up with her."

"It's not all bad news," Dom jumped in as May's face fell further. "Sean still has friends all over the place in the justice system. They put you on her visitors list! You can meet with her!"

This time May did have to sit down.
With no seat close by, she leaned against the town car and focused on the sensation of the cool raindrops soaking through the silk of her gown. She breathed deeply. For so long her birth parents had been nothing more than characters in a story; they felt so distant they may as well have been make believe. But now Dawn Gardener wasn't just real, she was someone May was going to have to face. She would have to look into her eyes — her own eyes, if Necar was to be believed — and speak with her for the first time. There was no other way around it.

"You okay, Mabes?" Dom asked.

May looked up, blinking with surprise to discover everyone watching her with expressions of varying degrees of concern.
"Yeah, I'm just— wow. This is huge."

Sensing her discomfort, Welkin stepped forward and cleared their throat. "So, what now?"

"First, we need to make an appointment for May to visit," Dom answered, nodding in her direction where she forced a faint smile. "Then we need to get to Rhettford. It's where the prison is."

A silence of consideration fell over the room, which was quickly chased off by a loud clap from Grant that made everyone jump.

"Alright then. I'll ask you to make that phone call from somewhere other than the Rookery but otherwise you have our support. Lety, how about you accompany the team down to Rhettford and keep an eye on things?