Page 29 of To Match A Dragon's Fire

But the work would be good. It’d keep us all busy and our minds off things. The weekend would fly by quick until I could get the sheriff’s office out here with a notice to vacate for the trespasser.

The rusted hinges squeaked on the shed.

Old air whooshed out as I moved the door open. A rotted plank fell to the floor with a crash, causing a cloud of dust.

The scent of mold and excrement filled the air as something scurried across the ground.

“It touched my foot!” Willow screamed.

“Save the wine,” Riley cried, fumbling for the bottle Willow almost knocked out of her hands.

Willow was still scrambling backward. “Burn it all to the ground. Kill it with fire.”

“It’s just a mouse.” My smile felt too big and a little deranged as I turned to face my friends. They were clutching their hearts from the burst of excitement. “It’s a good thing you brought seeds.”

Whatever organic material was left in the shed had not fared well beneath the sands of time. I could already see how rusted the wheelbarrow was. The tools would need some work.

It looked like an animal or two had burrowed their way inside the shed, leaving an exposed hole in the roof that widened with the wind and the rain.

“We should just ask him for help,” Harper’s little voice made the three of us scream. She’d snuck up behind her mom during the commotion. Kids were terrifying. They moved so quick.

Willow was the first to recover, having been exposed to this particular brand of heart attack before. “Ask who for help, honey?”

Harper shook her head at us as if we were crazy, pointing beyond the shed to the other side of the trespasser’s building where a giant domed greenhouse sat, filled with flourishing plants and strung up with glow lights. A pond glimmered beside it with the fenced barnyard of grazing goats and pigs.

How had I missed all this?

He’d taken my home and made it his.

I wanted to cry.

“Mr. Handsome,” Harper explained. “He’s got a garden. Maybe he can teach us how to grow things.”

10

Kieran

Peeping Tom

I paced by the window, trying to gain control of my beast who was raging and thrashing within.

Go out there.

No.

This was madness.

She wasn’t going to listen to reason or facts. It’s not like I would’ve built this compound and moved my entire hoard here to live out the rest of my days if I didn’t legally own this land.

She needs help.

It’s not our problem.I dragged a hand over my face.

All day, my beast had been riding me hard as I watched her clean out the old cabin and start trying to turn the dried and hardened soil outside.

Not that I was watching all day.

She made so much noise it was hard to ignore the cursing and random bursts of laughter from the woman.

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