The Battle of Iron Gulch by R. G. Thomas

Author:R. G. Thomas [Thomas, R. G.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: young adult
ISBN: 978-1-63533-245-2
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Published: 2017-01-12T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter TWELVE

THADDEUS FELL asleep almost instantly, but woke up several times, shifting position as he tried to get more comfortable. He finally drifted into a light doze, and before he knew it, he was awakened what felt like only moments later by the sounds of Leopold and his father getting up and using the bathroom. His father was getting dressed to go to work at the store, so Thaddeus remained on the cot to stay out of the way.

“Come down to breakfast, Thaddeus,” his father said as he stepped around the cot to get to the closet.

Thaddeus groaned and pulled the covers over his head.

His father laughed. “Or not. The cot isn’t as comfortable as you thought?”

“Not really,” Thaddeus grumbled. “I’ll be down in a bit.”

From beneath the covers, he listened to his father and Leopold finish getting cleaned up and dressed and, finally, leave the room. He struggled out from under the covers and swung his feet over and onto the floor, gasping at the touch of cool aluminum on the backs of his legs. After a couple of tries he was able to push up from the cot to his feet. He used the bathroom, then stood looking at the two beds. Leopold had slept in Thaddeus’s bed, and Thaddeus didn’t relish the thought of sleeping on the same sheets.

He got into his father’s bed and pulled up the covers. The pillow smelled like his dad and reminded Thaddeus of the times when he’d been little and climbed into bed with his father because he’d had a bad dream or a thunderstorm had woken him. A calm settled through him, smoothing over the rough edges from his fitful night and easing him into a deep sleep.

The dream came immediately. He was back in the small space with the stone walls lit by flickering firelight. A woman was shouting and pain radiated through him. This time he was able to look around and see an opening at the end of a long, narrow tunnel. He knew he would be able to fit through it because that was the way he’d come in. Darkness gathered at the end of the tunnel, and Thaddeus realized he was inside a cave.

“Stop looking that way,” the woman shouted, and pain burned through him. “You’ll leave this place when I command you to leave, and not a moment before.”

He roared in anguish as the pain continued. Fire erupted from his mouth, scorching the walls and floor of the cave.

“That’s it! Burn everything, burn it all to the ground for me.”

Thaddeus snapped his jaws shut to end the stream of flame. He swung his head around and glared at the woman standing near him. Then he saw her face.

Isadora.

Suddenly he was aware of what was happening. He was inside his mother’s head. She had taken refuge in a cave on the mountain as his father had guessed, and Isadora had gotten to her first. And now the witch was torturing her, bending her to her will to use as a weapon.

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